5 August, Port Vila, Vanuatu - Understanding of climate change issues amongst local communities is the goal behind a one day climate change refresher training for Vanuatu media in Port Vila today. Over 15 local media representatives took part in the training which follows on from a workshop held in March on biodiversity and climate change. It is hoped that from this, more news articles on climate change and the environment will be broadcast and published in the Vanuatu news media.
"The last workshop we had was extremely popular and from that there was the request for follow up training to ensure further development on this important issue for our region," said Nanette Woonton, the Media and Public Relations Officer of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
"This one day training builds upon the foundation
we laid in March and will help strengthen reporting for the regional meeting on the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) Project, hosted in Port Vila next week."
Over the course of a day, participants strengthened their understanding of the science of climate change, ways to translate the technical information to the local communities through the media and were given an update of the PACC Vanuatu project.
Participants attending the training have found the one day session valuable.
"As for me attending it for the second time, this brings more advanced information," said Dorinda Mabon of the Vanuatu Broadcasting Corporation who was a participant at the first training, "when I had the first introduction about climate change I was overwhelmed by all the information, but today, as it is a follow up training, I am understanding a lot more."
"This training encourages me more to write about climate change but in a simple way that our local community can understand more about this problem," said Loic Teilemb, a freelance journalist from Vanuatu.
"From this training I learnt more about adapting and mitigating to climate change and the environment, I am very pleased to have this as it is my goal to be an environment reporter," said Richard Michael, a senior journalism student from the Vanuatu Institute of Technology who also completed a fellowship with SPREP in May.
With local media better equipped with information to report on environment issues, the increase of awareness-raising through the media will be recognised through the Vanuatu Environment Media Award which closes for submissions in November. There has been strong interest in the award from Ni Vanuatu media which is supported by SPREP and the Vois Blong Yumi Initiative in Vanuatu.