In 2019, 22-year-old Malaika Vaz went undercover as a fish trader. To expose the deadly black market from the Indian Ocean to the Indo-Myanmar border to China for manta rays – lifelines for the oceans, yet endangered.
Her resulting bravura documentary Peng Yu Sai triggered ripples, receiving a Green Oscar nomination. What’s more, the Indian government sat up, took note, and commissioned its first baseline survey of mantas along the country’s coast that year.
Vaz is an adventurer. Mountaineer, windsurfer, sailor, professional scuba diver. One of the youngest to reach the Arctic and Antarctic. But with her passion for nature’s spaces came a greater calling: “Adventure doesn’t really mean anything if there isn’t an intent to protect the natural spaces we are exploring”.
And so she co-founded the production company Untamed Planet and became a filmmaker. To go the extra mile – rough terrain, crime syndicates, tiger sharks – to tell tales of natural history and the environment. Big Cats and the frontline communities that advocate for them. Islands as unique ecosystem laboratories. Pangolins and pandemics. Migrants and refugees. Documentaries that have been featured on National Geographic, BBC, Discovery, Animal Planet, Al Jazeera. And are windows into wildlife trafficking and conservation, climate change and communities. Storytelling that mainstreams the human-wildlife conflict. To inspire audiences to protect the natural world.
But the National Geographic Explorer is clear – protecting nature is not about saving cute pandas. Or extreme austerity and self-sacrifice. The bottom line, for Vaz? “I think protecting the planet is the most selfish, self-interested thing humanity can do.” A healthier planet. Healthier communities. Even healthier economies – locally-made produce, community employment, robust supply chains.
As Vaz digs into environmental impacts of Big Industry – oil and gas, fast fashion, plastics – for her latest feature, she recognises that capitalism is the only system that will get us through green transitions. Innovation in the corporate sector can make a big difference. Products that are more durable, efficient, affordable.
But green transitions will need to be just as well – leave no community behind, human or animal. “We need to re-orient the way we look at other species that live on this planet and see that these animals deserve protection simply because they exist,” Vaz says. She points to trees as guides: symbiotic ecosystems where big trees, small trees, weeds, thrive in tandem.
The obstacles are mounting. 2023 was the hottest year on record. A garbage truck of plastic per minute is dumped into the oceans. Even tech is extracting its pound of environmental flesh – the act of training a single AI model emits over 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide – equivalent to emissions from 62 vehicles. Futurists claim that technology will be environment's saviour. Fake meat and plant-based plastic. Carbon capture and nuclear energy. De-extinction – the act of reanimating once-lost species – to re-wild nature.
Restoration or tech revolution? At SYNAPSE, Malaika Vaz will map the human footprint on the planet and showcase a planet on the brink. Make a business case for protecting nature and advance co-existence. Share stories of the wild and why nature is the best technology. Talk about what it’s like to inherit a world that is no longer pristine – and why she remains hopeful for a wilder, less wasteful world.
