Do journalists need to know anything about the environment? Of course it is necessary. After all, they are the "mouthpiece" through which you can convey information to people, change their attitude to something.
In our particular case, we tried to do something so that people would understand more about nature, about its functions, and by improving their knowledge would change their behavior, attitude towards everything around them. Unfortunately, at the moment, people know very little about the importance and essence of the functions that nature has and shares with us. And what is unfortunate, even journalists do not know much.
Knowing this, the National Association of Electronic Mass Media (NAEMM ) came up with a project proposal to the GEF SGP. The project was aimed at filling a gap in the knowledge of journalists on environmental issues. Of course, we didn't plan to do everything. This work is simply colossal and requires many years of efforts of all possible partners. We planned to do only a small part, but still do something. And here's what exactly:
First, training materials were to be produced on three main themes of the GEF's work:
• on biodiversity;
• on climate change;
• on land degradation.
Of all the tasks of the project, unfortunately, only this task was completed. The materials were prepared by young specialists, and we want to express our sincere gratitude to them. The team of specialists consisted of:
• Alexandra Povaric is a member of the Youth Ecological Network (YEN) and the author of all the drawings included in the manual. By the way, she kindly provides drawings for many GEF SGP announcements. Alexandra was responsible for writing the biodiversity part;
• Yuri Moon - member and great ideological inspirer of the Youth Ecological Network (YEN) and its current coordinator. Yura wrote a piece on climate change;
• Oleg IvanovichTsaruk - the most experienced member of the team. He wrote a piece on land degradation.
But learning materials are not just typing to read. Experienced specialists from the University of Westminster (Elena Volkova and Lobar Mukhamedova) have prepared methodological guidelines for those who will conduct trainings based on these training materials.
Now the tutorial consists of 2 parts:
1) materials for reading and familiarization with the subject; And
2) step-by-step instructions on how to conduct classes on these materials.
In fact, any interested person, any university or school teacher, can take these materials, read them and conduct classes. We have tried to make these materials as accessible and simple as possible; so that it is both interesting and understandable for the consciousness of any person.
The materials were tested once among NAEMM journalists at a training seminar on September 17-18, 2009. This was a trial seminar. Journalists and editors of NAEMM members were invited here. The seminar was aimed not so much at increasing the knowledge of journalists as at approbation of materials. Of course, journalists received a lot of new and useful information on natural topics. Moreover, all this was done not in the form of lectures, presentations, but in the form of normal work, where the participants of the seminar were the center of the work. This is the approach that we always promote during our training events - "Don't just give information, but help people get this information themselves and help them analyze and fill it in correctly."
Now anyone can freely download, use and distribute these educational materials. These materials are also available in Uzbek (see the Uzbek version of the site)
- Download zipped study guide on biodiversity, climate change, and land degradation (2.7 MB)
Already now there is an interest of our brotherly large GEF project on the conservation of tugai forests in the translation of materials into the Karakalpak language. We hope that they will be appreciated in Karakalpakstan as well.
The second task of the project was to conduct a series of trainings throughout the country for NAEMM journalists. It was planned that the trainings will take place:
• in the city of Urgench for journalists from the Khorezm region and Karakalpakstan;
• in Bukhara - for journalists of the southern region - Surkhandarya. Kashkadarya, Bukhara and Navoi regions;
• in Samarkand - for journalists of Samarkand. Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions; And
• in Tashkent city - for journalists of the Tashkent region and all regions of the Fergana Valley (Fergana, Namangan and Andijan regions).
To our great regret, NAEMM could not decide to conduct trainings and none of them took place. It's a pity. The level of training of journalists in the field of rational use of natural resources will also remain at a rather low level.
The third task of the project was to see how the journalists learned the acquired knowledge by announcing a real competition for the work of journalists from television and radio studios withcountries. We announced a competition, in the hope that the trainings will be held. But they did not get a result for the second task, and therefore the effectiveness of the competition was undermined in advance.
Nevertheless, we are glad that the attempt took place. Let her fail. The project at least still gave way to the world of educational materials and, we hope that they will benefit other people. And journalists will develop in other ways. We hope that their level will grow, even if not through the efforts of the GEF SGP.
You can read more about the details of the project from the project document:
