The Trees of Life

Photographer's Hometown
Italy

Status
Professional

Photo Subject and/or Photo Location
Unchiprang refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, Teknaf subdistrict, Bangladesh

Technical Specs
Fujifilm XT-2, 35 mm f2 lens.

A little about this image...
Unchiprang refugee camp, Teknaf subdistrict, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh - During August 2017, hundreds of thousands of people from the Rohingya ethnic group flocked to Bangladesh, fleeing persecution in their country of origin, Myanmar. Today one million refugees are housed in makeshift camps in the Bengal region of Cox’s Bazar. Bangladesh is a country that is one of the most vulnerable to climate change in the world and the region that host the refugees is particularly fragile. In the area the pressure on the local ecosystem is unsustainable and deforestation was one of the main issues. Especially in the emergency phase of the crisis 100% of the Rohingya depended on the forest and during the dry season they went everyday in the forest to collect material for different kind of use, including the construction of the shelters. Leaves and roots were used both as fuel and ingredients for food as well. A UN report released in September 2018 has estimated that the refugees collected nearly seven thousand tonnes of fuelwood every month. The picture is part of an ongoing and already international awarded and exhibited project that aim to document the environmental impact of a sudden mass migration in order to explore the indissoluble relation between human being and its environment following two very pressing narratives: people struggling to survive with few precious resources, and the impact of the refugee crisis on an already beleaguered ecosystem. The image here submitted shows a tree stands alone in the middle of the Unchiprang refugee camp, in Teknaf subdistrict, one of the smallest camp but also one of the most degradate in the whole area.