Photographer and environmental activist Gabriel Mejia on his mission to protect the Philippines’ largest wetland and amplify the voices of its Indigenous people
The quiet static of the Zoom call is replaced by the sound of crashing waves as Gabriel Mejia greets me. Turning on his camera, his fresh face dappled in sunlight and leafy background hint that he’s calling me from a coastal area of his home country.
“Yeah, I just moved to a surfing area in the northern Philippines,” Mejia smiles. His new home has opened up a whole new underwater world of coral reefs and daily dives—much to the benefit of his thousands of Instagram followers, who know his page best for its vivid imagery of wild animals and natural wonders.
“I started taking photos when I was 18, but I was a mountaineer first before I was a photographer,” he tells me. “At 13 I was already hiking. I hiked one of the tallest mountains in Malaysia with my Dad... That experience really inspired me to focus my career on the environment. Photography became my tool and passport to be able to immerse myself in the stories that revolve around the environment.”
Now 24, Mejia’s environmental photography career has since exploded, leading him to become a National Geographic explorer, earn a seat on the World Wildlife Fund’s Youth Council and co-found a global youth engagement network, Youth Engaged in Wetlands (YEW).
Wetlands are too often overlooked, Mejia says, explaining why he decided to start YEW. “We’ve already lost about 70 percent of our natural wetlands globally… People know about the ocean, the forests, the mountains but not wetlands—even though they’re one of the most important ecosystems in the world.”
YEW advocates for wetlands around the world, but one is particularly close to Mejia’s heart: the Agusan marshlands, the largest wetland in the Philippines. His first time visiting the area, Mejia was overwhelmed at how “Jurassic” it was. “You have these trees growing out from a lake that look dead—but they’re not. You have this amazing culture from the Manobo tribe who are living there, and they’re so welcoming and hospitable. They are the ones who are really guarding and protecting the place… ever since they were young they’ve been fighting against the atrocities that happen in the Agusan marshlands,” he says.
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