Beyond the forest veil

摘要

Little by little a rainforest island was persuaded to share some of its innermost secrets, revealing a richness and beauty worth waiting for. A tropical rainforest is really good at hiding its treasures. I already knew this, as I had spent a year onBarro Colorado Island studying for a Masters degree. But when I returned to capture the essence of the forest on film, I was faced with a new set of challenges. Barro Colorado was once the top of a large hill in Central Panama. When the Chagres River was dammed during construction of the Panama Canal between 1911 and 1914, the hilltop was isolated, forming the largest island in the artificial water body now known as Lake Gatun. Covered with lush rainforest, the island has been studied and protected since the 1920s. Today, it is home to a modern research station run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, which attracts scientists from around the globe and makes the island a Mecca for topical ecology. Within the forest live tens of thousands ofdifferent organisms, variations of life, each with its own individual qualities and role in the system. It is this stunning diversity, interwoven in a vivid and complex web, that makes the forest function as a whole. Most of this life happens secretly and quietly, hidden behind a thick, green curtain of vegetation or concealed by its miniature scale. My aim, working with tropical ecologist Egbert Leigh, was to lift this curtain for brief moments, to reveal the layers of the forest, to unravel its complex ecology and to convey its beauty.