Aerial Activism in Old-Growth Rainforest: The Ancient Forest Alliance’s Drone Videography as Spatial Communication

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, have enjoyed significant usage for military, security, and engineering purposes in recent years. Equipped with videography equipment such as GoPro cameras, they are increasingly used in the environmental arena in activities such as locating wildlife, tracking natural disasters such as wildfires, and mapping remote geographies. The surveying of forests and other ecosystems by unmanned aerial vehicles is relatively low-cost and easy to learn, making it an increasingly practical and accessible tool for conservationists. Environmental activists are well-positioned to follow this lead, evidenced by the tracking of whaling ships, animal poaching, and other forms of ecological conflict. This study examines the 2015 campaign by British Columbia’s Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) to stop the heli-logging of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island’s Central Walbran Valley. AFA’s drone-captured video of pristine rainforest in the remote valley represents a new approach to monitoring, documenting, and publicizing the ecological contestations and otherwise inaccessible terrain in this area. Drawing from the media theory of spatialization developed by political economist and communication scholar Harold Innis, this chapter explores the new interplay between technology, media, and ideology that the rise of drone media activism in the environmental sphere represents.