Sneaking into a gold mine

Vic Banks
Free-Lance Writer

Wednesday, August 7, 2002
3:00 p.m.-Pacific Forum

Vic Banks, a free-lance writer, photographer, and lecturer based in Chicago, produced the traveling photo exhibition, "The Pantanal, Brazil's Forgotten Wilderness," showing at  the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, through September 8. Vic also wrote a book on the Pantanal that was published by the Sierra Club (out of print, but available through Victor at the museum Gift Shop, during the exhibition).

His talk will cover conservation issues for the Pantanal region in Brazil, which include:
            Changing ranch life and headwaters agriculture practices
            Overfishing
            Skin hunting
            Gold mining
            Dry season fires
            Pet collection (fish and birds)
            Comparing Pantanal to Mississippi River issues
            Hidrovia
            "Eek-o-tourism"
            Local and international conservation groups

The exhibition photos and book, plus a Jaguar poster and audio tape of Pantanal sounds, were produced by Vic about 1991-1992. In 1998 he produced and narrated a VHS videotape documentary on the Pantanal that was nominated for an Emmy award after it aired on television.