Geographical Magazine April 2024 Vorige editie

If you want to affirm your belief in human nature, check out the shortlist of films entered in our Better World Video Awards. Fifty great short videos, which exemplify all that can give us hope, made the cut from the hundreds which entered. We threw open the decision on who should take the winning prizes to a readers’ vote and nearly 20,000 of you made your choice. Turn to Page 8 to find out who inspired you the most. After the fantastic initial success of the awards we plan to make this an annual event - if you have any ideas or suggestions on how we could enhance the awards send me an email. And please have a browse through the films - you will not be disappointed.
 Stuart Butler had been itching to return to Iraq and was fascinated to learn about the Iraqi Travellers Club which hosts intrepid visitors to their country. He jumped on a plane to discover what it means for this much-troubled country to be able to start encouraging tourists to visit. Read his report on Page 38.
Our cover story is fascinating interview with Chris Thorogood – a botanist dedicated to searching for the world’s biggest, and smelliest, flower (see Page 31). Working with scientists in the Philippines he hopes to have successfully propagated this strange parasitic plant, which is increasingly under threat as its jungle habitat makes way for palm oil plantations.