At the British Environmental and Media Awards ceremony, presented by WWF-UK on 7th November 2007, the Andrew Lees Memorial Award was presented to Rebecca Hosking for her inspirational campaign to ban plastic bags from her hometown in Devon.
Nominated and judged by the environmental media, this award was given to Rebecca Hosking, an inspirational campaigner who was shocked by the effects of plastic waste on marine life, which she witnessed while making a documentary film in the Pacific. When she came home she persuaded all the shopkeepers in her home town of Modbury to ban plastic bags. The town's example caught imaginations across the country and worldwide and the movement is now growing rapidly.
The documentary film, "Message in the Waves" was created by the BBC Natural History unit in the Hawaiian Islands.
Rebecca Hosking (Camerawoman / Producer)
Rebecca graduated from Napier University, Edinburgh with a first class honours degree in photography, film and television. In 2000 she received a 2-year bursary at the BBC Natural History Unit to train in wildlife cinematography. She was selected from over 7000 applicants and was the first and only woman to be awarded the position.
Since 2002 she has worked as a freelance Director/Cameraman in locations across the world including North & Central America, China, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Pacific Islands region.
Rebecca says “I hope people realize that this film isn’t just about Hawai‘i, it is about everywhere. Iokepa’s message is simple – our planet is like an island. It has a limited amount of resources to support life. An expanding human population living with little regard for the future is stretching those resources to breaking point. To be an environmental thinker is to be a humanist. If we want our species to continue then we have to look after the environment, otherwise it’s all of us who will be paying the price. But when Iokepa says it, it sounds a lot better.”
The campaign to ban the plastic bag in Rebecca's home town of Modbury is explained at www.plasticbagfree.co.uk
Previous winners of the Andrew Lees Memorial Award:
2006 - Georgina Downs - UK Pesticides campaigner
2004 - Dusty Gedge, London based campaigner, for his success in persuading developers to install "green roofs" - hundreds of thousands of square metres of greenery - on rooftops hundreds of feet up in London's Canary Wharf, the City and other developments.
2003 - Di McDonald
2002 - Don Staniford, pre-eminent campaigner on the ecological, economic, consumer and safety issues associated with the fish farming industry, particularly in Scotland.
2001 - Nancy Tait who has fought a lonely battle with extraordinary persistence and grace to bring about a Europe-wide ban on asbestos.
1999 - Loraine Mann - Scotland Against Nuclear Dumping
© The Andrew Lees Trust 1995 - 2010