by Karishma Matthew
Government Information Service
Recognizing the critical role that media plays in public awareness, and cognizant of the limited resources available to the media in the region, the OECS Secretariat has produced a toolkit for the media on biodiversity conservation.
The kit is designed to assist the media with high quality coverage on the issues of protected areas, biodiversity conservation and environmental management.
Moreover, the OECS Media Toolkit takes into account the small sizes of media houses in the region and the resultant obstacles which may hinder their abilities for in-depth research, and for provision of technical training and support for issues such as biodiversity conservation.
 President of the Media
Workers Association of
Dominica, Thalia Remy
President of the Media Workers Association of Dominica and General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, Thalia Remy, believes that the OECS Toolkit is one of a number of such ventures in the Caribbean aimed at helping the media to understand and present issues that are crucial not only to our development but to our very survival as a people.
“Throughout the region under the umbrella of the ACM, media associations have been somewhat sceptical of attempts by NGO’s and some international agencies to encourage the media to adopt their agendas. What this toolkit aims to do is not that. It is practical and it provides the information and the assistance that will prove useful to working practitioners on a day to day basis.”
Communications Specialist at the OECS Secretariat, Tecla Fontenard, said that this media toolkit which is named ‘Keeping Biodiversity in the News,’ is part of the OPAAL Media Awareness Initiative which was launch in January 2011 and completed in April.
The initiative included three main elements; among them is a series of media sensitization workshop across the six independent states of the OECS.
 Communications Specialist
at the OECS Secretariat,
Tecla Fontenard
She is happy to report that as a result of these media sensitization seminars they were able to receive a tremendous amount of media coverage on the subject of protected areas, biodiversity conservation and environmental management in general.
“In fact, the period January to April, 2011, saw the largest percentage of news coverage ever seen, read or heard on protected areas and biodiversity conservation in the last six (6) years at least in the OECS. An estimated sixty (60) news stories were published across the region on radio, television, newspapers and the internet representing the highest concentration of stories ever produced on the OECS Environment Programme in any given period in the last ten (10) years.”
President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, Peter Richards, said that the association is indeed pleased to be associated with this project.
He said that this sense of satisfaction comes from the fact that their association is of the view that biodiversity conservation remains among the burdening issues on the development agenda of the Caribbean.
 President of the Association
of Caribbean Media Workers,
Peter Richards
“The leadership displayed by the OECS in this regard is not only exemplary from an institutional standpoint, but indicative of the urgency with which the policy and broader social intervention need to be addressed. As we have indicated at the workshops, the biodiversity challenge brings with it all the main ingredients of a good story. It touches the entire range of journalists’ concerns and spans a vast social, economic and political spectrum. It is as much as a political as it is an economic story and journalists following power, poverty, money and even intrigue can find angles for biodiversity stories there as well.”
Director of Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division at Ministry of Agriculture, Minchinton Burton, said that while the temptation to give greater coverage to those issues might not seem as attractive as other seemingly more appealing topics such as crime, violence, and politics, increased media involvement and partnership will be of critical importance if these important issues are to be adequately and effectively disseminated to the wider public.
 Director of Forestry, Wildlife
and Parks Division at
Ministry of Agriculture,
Minchinton Burton
“It is extremely important that we recognise and appreciate the fact that notwithstanding our God given natural blessings, these assets do represent fragile and irreplaceable ecosystems that can be easily destroyed if extra care is not taken to manage our natural assets in a sustainable manner. It fact, as we speak, we have a plethora of issues and activities impacting our natural environment; a number of which has dire consequences for the survival of species, habitats and entire ecosystems.”
The kit addresses gaps and challenges that the media face and packages sources of information that will facilitate timely, efficient and effective delivery of information on biodiversity conservation.
The content for the draft media kit was generated primarily by a communications consultant working in close collaboration with OECS Secretariat Personnel and Country Level OPAAL partners.
The compilation of the kit also drew on the expertise and experience of regional media organizations such as Caribbean Institute of Media Communication (CARIMAC), PANOS and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM). |
