BCC at Deutsche Baumpflegetage 2024
It has been over six months since the BCC team returned from the expedition to Ecuador, and during that time we have been busy preparing for the Deutsche Baumpflegetage in Augsburg. Being Europe’s largest tree care conference, we were delighted at the opportunity to take part, setting up a BCC stall alongside Seiltechnik Hannover and appearing on-stage at the Kletterforum. It was a fantastic opportunity to engage with the tree climbing community, give thanks and share our achievements of the past years. With the help of Stefan and Tanja of Seiltechnik, we could sell off the very last of our bespoke gear and clothing, marking the end of our fundraising for 2024, and the closing of the online shop.
Throughout the first day of the conference there was a buzz of excitement; arborists, scientists, and tree enthusiasts had gathered from all over the world for this annual event. Conference attendees swamped the various stalls in the main hall, eager to check out what some of the world’s leading tree care and rope access companies had on show. On stages either side of the hall, three days’ worth of talks and demonstrations took place covering an array of topics in both tree climbing and science. The Big Canopy Campout team had a buzz of anticipation also, as our first time-slot in the Kletterforum was scheduled to round off that first day with a speech from Vicki.
Vicki addressed the Kletterforum on behalf of Big Canopy Campout, primarily talking about the fruitful collaboration of BCC and the SËRA Foundation over the past three years, and the ripple effects that the Siekopai have experience in tandem with our help. The talk orientated around the importance of indigenous knowledge, the role this plays in preserving the natural world, and how the the Siekopai are a present-day example of how a community, rich in culture, must fight and resist to preserve the natural wellbeing of their home. This is something which the expedition team became very aware of during our time with the Siekoya Remolino community last year, and Vicki’s speech provided an excellent introduction to the documentary, Climbing Through Cultures, which was to be shown in the Kletterforum the following day.
The energy of the conference continued to grow as the second day went into full swing, leading up to the final presentation in the Kletterforum for that day; the premier screening of BCC documentary, Climbing Through Cultures with Siekoya Remolino. The documentary was filmed during the 2023 expedition to Ecuador, and presenting it at the Deutsche Baumpflegetage was hugely significant in giving the tree-climbing community a proper insight into what the expedition was in aid of, as well as providing an opportunity to publicly thank all of the fantastic sponsors who made the expedition possible. During the documentary screening, and while Vicki gave her presentation, we were delighted to see so many familiar faces, while at the same time sharing the values and achievements of Big Canopy Campout with nature enthusiasts who were only just finding out about what we do and why.
Our two appearances in the Kletterforum were very exciting for us, an excellent opportunity to share our work and vision with an engaged and supportive audience. In tandem with this, however, we wanted to keep a consistent presence at our stand and over those three days Vicki, Rebecca, Mat and Jez did just that. The stand was a fantastic opportunity to speak with curious tree-enthusiasts about our projects and to catch-up with some familiar faces. It was a chance, also, to speak more in-depth about the Siekopai, to better express the precarious situation in which they find themselves, and to give a better insight into how something simple like selling biners and hoodies can help create real change for this incredible community. Speaking about the fundraising projects and the annual campout also provided us an opportunity to reiterate our decision to take a step back from fundraising and event-coordinating this year, and to close our online shop for the remainder of 2024. Seiltechnik Hannover were an incredible help throughout; providing us the space for our table, selling some of our climbing gear, and stepping in to help when we were needed in the Kletterforum. They are now one of the few suppliers left stocking our climbing gear, selling off the very last of the bespoke DMM products over the coming months in support of our cause.
The DMM Raffle winners of the beautiful hand crafted art installation made and donated to BCC by Vito Cordasco
The very talented Vito Cordasco crafted this beautiful wooden ‘key board’ and donated it to raise funds for BCC. Hand made from pomegranate wood, Vito installed 8 different coloured DMM micro-vaults along the branch creating the worlds most beautiful place to store keys, clothing or climbing equipment!
Heartfelt thanks to Vito and congratulations to the winners, the raffle raised BCC €700!
The online shop is now closed for the year, and the annual campout has been put on hold. This will be a different kind of year for BCC, a year to step back and regroup before moving forward in a sustainable and considered way. 2024 certainly won’t be a silent year for us, however, and while our goal will be to regroup and decide where to direct our fundraising efforts, we will also be continuing to tell the story of the Siekoya Remolino, and how our 2023 expedition fits in with the bigger picture of the Siekopai’s fight to preserve their land and culture. In the lead-up to making our Climbing Through Cultures documentary available to the public, we will be releasing short videos on our social media platforms. We have an abundance of footage which didn’t make it into the documentary, and we are keen to put it to good use with short edits aimed to give an insight into the community who we have been working so closely with over the past three years. Our team continues to maintain a close line of communication with the Siekoya; Rebecca is taking a keen interest in the progress being made with their herbal work and rainforest laboratory, and Vicki is keeping up-to-date on the continuous development of the Siekopai tree climbing team.
2024, instead of being a year of events and fundraising, will instead be a year of sharing. We can’t wait to share more and more with our incredible BCC community, without whom the expedition and fundraising for the rainforest laboratory would not have been possible in the first place.