Photographer Captures Beautiful and Tragic Sides of Nature

Nov. 20, 2009— -- A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the photographs of world-renowned conservation photographer Daniel Beltra have left countless viewers speechless.

In the last 20 years, Beltra has dedicated his career to conservation and captured the beautiful, the comical, and the tragic side of nature through photography.

"I have a strong sense of responsibility and a duty also to try to show what's happening so people know," Beltra told ABC News' Bob Woodruff this past July in Sumatra. "The wider the audience, the better, so we can do something together to try to solve this problem."

ABC News joined Beltra exclusively as he visited and documented Bukit Tigapuluh, the last remaining lowland forest on Sumatra.

Beltra's work in Indonesia is just one of the latest ventures on a long list of conservation projects that has educated a large global audience and been received with much deserved accolades.

Just this year Beltra was recognized with Prince Charles' Rainforests Project Award, the top prize of the Sony World Photography Awards 2009.

Click Here to See Beltra's Stunning Photographs From Across the Globe

Beltra was hand-picked by the prince to document the world's most beautiful and most endangered rain forests.

"Photographic imagery can tell a compelling story about the truth of the situation, and the truth is, if we lose the fight against tropical deforestation, then we lose the fight against climate change," Prince Charles said in a video message.

Prince Charles' organization aims to combat deforestation with incentives to keep the natural resources intact.

"The idea is to create a fund to compensate the country that still holds the big chunks of tropical rain forest, so the forest is more valuable standing than logged," Beltra said.

Tropical deforestation has struck Indonesia hard. With just 30 percent of its natural forest remaining, it is third, behind China and the United States, in carbon emissions worldwide.

"When I came here for the first time, I was really shocked by the deforestation, and there was basically almost nothing left," Beltra said.