Environment and Communication

This issue of The Soul Beat looks at how communication can contribute to sustainable development. It offers programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, and resource materials which highlight how communication can raise awareness about environmental challenges, as well as empower people to take action to preserve Africa's natural resources and wildlife.

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OVERVIEW

1. Africa Environment Outlook 2: Our Environment, Our Wealth (AEO-2)
by Jennifer C. Mohamed-Katerere and Mayar Sabet
Published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this 544-page report highlights the opportunities presented by the world's natural resource base to support development and the objectives of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The report, which is the second in a series of Africa Environment Outlook reports, underscores the need for sustainable livelihoods, and the importance of environmental initiatives in supporting them. Emphasis is put on what should and can be done with existing (or remaining) environmental assets, in the context of identified constraints, rather than focusing on what has already been lost.

PRESERVING NATURAL RESOURCES AND CLIMATE CHANGE

2. Reclaiming Rights and Resources: Women, Poverty, and Environment
by Shalini Gidoomal
This 34-page report, published by CARE, presents 7 case studies from across Africa that focus on three types of threatened environmental resources: land, forests, and water. In each case women share their stories of how the loss or degradation of such critical resources has adversely affected their lives and what they are doing to address these problems. In the foreword, Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai argues that women's livelihoods are directly linked to the state of the environment, and that when rural environments become unsustainable, it is women's lives that are most disrupted. She also argues that educating those who work most closely with the land - especially women - will greatly benefit the environment.

3. Project HEPA: Communicating Indigenous Voices of Southern Madagascar - Madagascar
In 2007 and 2008, Panos London, in collaboration with the Andrew Lees Trust (ALT) and Living Lens, worked with communities from the south of Madagascar to produce a series of films and life stories that show how indigenous people have learned to employ multiple strategies to survive in the face of environmental degradation and a changing climate. The project trained men and women from several communities to record oral testimony interviews and films from their friends, neighbours, and families. It aimed to provide communities with a platform to share their experiences and knowledge and to voice their concerns and priorities for the future.
Contact Siobhan Warrington siobhan.warrington@panos.org.uk AND info@panos.org.uk OR Yvonne Orengo yorengo@andrewleestrust.org
AND alt@moov.mg

4. Gender and Desertification: Expanding Roles for Woman to Restore Drylands
by Jeanette Durung, Sheila Mwanundu, Annina Lubbock, Maria Hartl, and Ilaria Firmian This 32-page report looks at the impact of desertification on women around the world and their role in dealing with the problem. It examines the way in which women in particular are affected by desertification and highlights the role they play in the management of natural resources and drylands, as well as the constraints they face. It presents the experiences of several International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supported programmes and projects in addressing women as natural resource users and managers in dryland areas, and highlights some of the approaches used to reach women more effectively. It also presents lessons learned from IFAD programmes and projects, and offers recommendations for expanding women’s roles in order to restore dryland areas.

5. Bakkar - Egypt
This is an Egyptian cartoon series which aims to incorporate environmental issues and values into its programming in order to increase environmental awareness among children in Egypt. The Academy for Educational Development (AED)'s Center for Environmental Strategies entered into a public-private alliance with Cairo Cartoon, a private animation studio, to promote sustainable development of the coastlines and protectorates of the Egyptian Red Sea through the cartoon series.
Contact Nicholas Wedeman nwedeman@aed.org

6. Extra Mile Initiative (EMI) - Madagascar
This 2-year initiative, implemented by CARE Madagascar, was designed to address spiraling tensions between environmental degradation, economic stagnation, and overpopulation - which led the government of that country to reverse its pronatalist stance and make family planning and health one of 8 pillars of its development action plan. The project's very name indicates the effort CARE undertook to reach - by motorcycle, canoe and, mostly, on foot - 6 remote communes that border conservation zones, where ecological resources are under pressure from a growing population. The goal was to reduce the inequities in family planning access, method choice, and information, while also recognising the links between population pressure and pressure on the environment in priority conservation areas.
Contact Jaime Stewart stewart@care.org

7. Desert Voices - Ethiopia, Sudan
Launched by Panos London, an international development non-governmental organisation, Desert Voices is a collection of stories and testimonies of how climate change affects individual lives in Ethiopia and Sudan. Compiled and published online, the radio and print testimonies of individuals, produced by journalists, aim to show the long term impact of desertification for the African region. The collection looks beyond the environmental impact of desertification and highlights its wide-ranging consequences, from migration in search of employment and increased conflict over resources, to changes in traditions and in women's roles.
Contact Desert Voices Oral Testimony Project otp@panos.org.uk

8. Green Belt Movement (GBM) Kenya - Kenya
This is a civil society organisation for women, based in Kenya, advocating for human rights and supporting good governance and peaceful democratic change through the protection of the environment. The organisation addresses the challenges of deforestation, soil erosion, and lack of water by advocating for tree planting and by training women to plant trees. According to GBM Kenya, this activity empowers women by making them environmental champions and by providing them with income-generating activities. The tree planting activities are also supported by civic education and networking. GBM Kenya was started in 1977 by Dr. Wangari Maathai, the first African woman and the first environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
Contact media@greenbeltmovement.org OR gbm@greenbeltmovement.org

9. The Key Steps in Establishing Participatory Forest Management: A Field Manual to Guide Practitioners in Ethiopia
This manual describes the key elements of Participatory Forest Management (PFM). The methods to promote the wide involvement of all sectors of the community were developed and adapted for the Ethiopian context during a 10-year period of learning. The manual aims to describe the various approaches which were used to ensure full participation by all stakeholders. It can be used as a training manual and field guide and is intended for both community forest managers and forestry professionals.

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

10. Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) - Democratic Republic of the Congo
This initiative works at the grassroots level engaging Congolese communities to protect bonobos and their rainforest habitat. The Initiative also works with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government to create new protected areas and enforce laws against hunting bonobos and other endangered species. Besides preserving the rainforest and protecting bonobos, BCI's conservation activities also include empowering local communities through skills building, and local education and awareness raising activities that build on traditional knowledge and popular culture.
Contact bci@bonobo.org

11. Jane Goodall Institute Earth Education Programme – Uganda
This programme aims to influence and reduce environmentally damaging practices in vulnerable areas of Uganda, with a focus on chimpanzee habitat areas. The programme was initiated through Jane Goodall Institute (JGI)-Uganda in the communities surrounding the Ngamba Island Sanctuary on Lake Victoria and Kibale National Park to improve environmental education in schools and among community leaders and politicians.
Contact Panta Kasoma panta@jgiuganda.org OR info@janegoodall.org

12. Umurage Urukwiye: Rwanda’s Brighter Future - Rwanda
This serial radio drama, initiated by the Population Media Centre in 2007, is designed to raise awareness and discussion about issues such as reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, wildlife habitat and natural resource preservation, land conservation, and the promotion of civil harmony. Umurage Urukwiye addresses these issues through 4 story lines, one of which revolves around a rural farmer who lives in a fictional village called Tarama. The village is right at the forest's edge below the gorilla habitat and the story highlights the conflict between environmental preservation and the need for agricultural land.
Contact Jean Kakule program@populationmedia.org OR info@populationmedia.org

13. Adapting Communication to a Dynamic Cultural Landscape: Recommendations for the Development and Implementation of a Bushmeat Crisis Task Force Public Awareness Campaign in Central Africa
This 39-page document from the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF) analyses 19 conservation organisations in Africa and Asia in order to look for promising educational and public awareness campaign (PAC) tools to help end the bushmeat crisis in Central Africa. Based on these case studies, the document makes recommendations for the development and implementation of a new public awareness campaign to address the bushmeat issue. The case studies include information on alliances, funding sources, challenges, and approaches to communication in educational and public awareness messages. As stated in the introduction: "Successful public awareness campaigns build strong relationships with local people; are flexible and willing to adapt to the cultural environment; provide clear, concise and relevant messages; and function as a part of a greater development campaign, allowing individuals to turn awareness into action."

RESOURCE MATERIALS

14. Media as Partners in Education for Sustainable Development
by Eleanor Bird, Richard Lutz, and Christine Warwick
This training kit, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Series on Journalism Education, attempts to provide media professionals with basic information about some priority issues for sustainable development. It also provides practical exercises to inspire investigative reporting, and draws links to existing experience that may enrich the information resources of media professionals.

15. AEO for Youth: Africa Environment Outlook for Youth - Our Region - Our Life
This is a report on Africa's environment through the eyes of Africa's youth, which resulted from the combined efforts of young people from all over Africa. Apart from drawing extensively from the first Africa Environment Outlook: Past, Present and Future Perspectives Report, this book also contains new contributions from Africa's young people. These contributions have been captured through articles, poems, proverbs, drawings, and paintings.

16. Environmental Education, Ethics & Action in Southern Africa
Written by environmental practitioners from across Southern Africa, this publication explores environmental challenges in a diversity of African contexts. These contexts include Malawian officials and community leaders, new to multi-level governance, taking up the challenge of environmental management in villages and districts; Ugandan small-scale farmers in partnership with non-governmental organisations trying to produce sustainably for the household and the international market; and government-civil society partnerships in South Africa, who are dealing with the transformation of the education system which introduced a focus on environment and human rights in the national school curriculum. Other contributions from South Africa, Angola, Lesotho, Zambia, and Zimbabwe aim to discuss more contexts of environmental practice which include industry reporting, environmental management, research, philosophy, the media, conservation, and the use of indigenous knowledge.

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For a related previous issue of The Soul Beat see:

The Soul Beat 68 - MDG #7 - Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

The Soul Beat 46 - Caring for the Environment

Click here to view archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.