Toolkit raises awareness of Pacific ocean health [1]
Thursday, August 2, 2018 - 17:51. Updated on Monday, September 3, 2018 - 12:05.
A toolkit aimed at empowering and encouraging Pacific Media to write more articles on the Pacific ocean’s health was launched at a two-day workshop, titled “Strengthening Media Capacity on Climate Change Reporting in the Pacific Islands Workshop”, by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) on 24 July in Suva, Fiji.
The toolkit, funded by the European Union, and implemented by the UN Environment with SPREP, is available online and contains four brief fact sheets on Pacific Ocean stories, Marine Debris, Marine Plastic Pollution, and Coral Reefs, which SPREP says will increase journalist’s knowledge on some of the issues affecting the ocean.
“Our Media Outreach Programme at SPREP undertakes a wide range of activities spanning regional and national training, support with internal media organization processes such as development of climate and disaster resilience plans, as well as the production of resources,” said SPREP’s Director of Environmental Monitoring and Governance, Ms Easter Galuvao.
Informed discussion
“This was just one of many different ways that we work to support our Pacific media and help them tell our Pacific stories in the hope of raising awareness of environmental issues, bringing about informed discussion and positive actions for environmental sustainability.”
Each factsheet in the toolkit provides a brief overview on each topic including their importance, challenges faced and negative impacts. They also include tips and story ideas for journalists.
SPREP sees Pacific Media being more familiar with ocean challenges through the toolkit and will add more factsheets once a month on topics such as ocean science, ocean acidification and the range of regional and international agreements committing countries to protect our ocean. In addition, SPREP says, the toolkit will also help journalists understand that all environment concerns are linked and cannot be isolated when addressing them.
“The media is crucial in terms of passing information and raising awareness about the causes of climate change or pollution and what can be done about it. These issues can be complex, that’s why it’s useful to have these types of tools with Pacific perspectives,” said Mr Christoph Wagner, Head of Coorperation of the Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific.
“We are very happy that SPREP has helped make this happen.”
PACNEWS Agency and the Pacific Islands News Association’s (PINA) Mr Pita Ligaula said they hope the toolkit will become a one-stop shop for journalists keen to cover ocean issues in Fiji and the Pacific.
“PINA is pleased to support this resource which will be a ‘living’ document available online for our Pacific media. It contains information of Pacific relevance, citing Pacific examples as well as some prompts for us all to develop more news about our ocean.”
Earlier this year, SPREP also launched a Pacific Ocean Media Award, calling for submissions from Pacific reports on ocean news.