Banking Nature

FR, 2014, 88 min, German version, Directed by: Sandrine Feydel, Denis Delestrac

If nature had a price tag, would big corporations be less inclined to destroy it? Banking Nature is a provocative documentary that looks at the growing movement to monetize the natural world - and to turn endangered species and threatened areas into instruments of profit. It's a worldview that sees capital and markets not as a threat to the planet, but as its salvation. In this view, the best way to protect endangered species and habitats is to assign them dollar values and measure the “ecosystem services” they provide. These services can then be converted into securitized financial products.

The results can be grotesque. In Uganda, we meet men who measure trees to determine how much carbon they store - and a banker from the German firm that sells the resulting carbon credits. Meanwhile, in Brazil, steel giant Vale destroys rainforest, replaces it with tree plantations, and reaps the benefits of environmental credits.

Do we really want to trust the same corporations who caused the most recent global economic meltdown to safeguard nature?

Co-presented by Hunger.Macht.Profite & CROSSROADS - Festival for Documentary Film und Discourse