UN
UNEP conducts series of environmental journalism workshops
27 March 2010 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Afghanistan has just conducted a series of environmental journalism workshops in the country “to facilitate initiatives to raise the capacity of journalists to report on environmental issues and to play a role in Afghanistan’s development.”
The two-day Introduction to Environmental Journalism Workshops – under UNEP’s Capacity Building Programme for Afghanistan – were held in Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat and Kabul.
UNEP conducted the workshops for some 50 Afghan journalists from both government and private media as it noted that “two decades of war and a lack of civil governance, compounded with drought and population movements, have contributed to widespread environmental problems throughout Afghanistan.”
“The combined pressures of warfare, civil disorder, lack of governance and drought have taken a major toll on Afghanistan’s natural and human resources. As the country’s natural resource base has declined, its vulnerability to natural disasters and food shortages has increased,” added a UNEP statement on the project.
The workshops covered the following main topics: State of Afghanistan’s Environment; Islam and Environment; Environmental Laws and Legislations; Environmental Journalism; Story Ideas and Sources; Challenges of Environmental Reporting; and Producing Good Environmental Stories.
UNEP experts facilitated the trainings in Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat in February; while the Afghan Centre for International Journalism (CIJ) cooperated with UNEP in the conduct of the training in Kabul this month, with UNEP Programme Manager Belinda Bowling welcoming the participants to the workshop that was also graced by National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Director-General Mustapha Zaher, Senior Environmental Law Program Officer Abdul Qadeer Karyab, and CIJ Director Rahimullah Samadar.
Three years ago in 2006, UNEP conducted a series of Training of Trainers (ToT) on environmental journalism and photo-journalism in cooperation with the CIJ.
Graduates of the previous workshops are tapped by UNEP for its continuing environmental journalism trainings for Afghan journalists.
By Aurora V. Alambra, UNAMA
