Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report Project Number: TA 7173 June 2012 Nepal: Strengthening Capacity for Managing Climate Change and the Environment – Completion Report on Raising Awareness of Media to Report on Climate Change and Environmental Management Prepared by Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) Kathmandu, Nepal For Government of Nepal, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. Raising Public and Media Awareness on Climate Change and Environmental Management ADB TA 7173 Project Completion Report Submitted to Ministry of Environment Nepal Government & Asian Development Bank Submitted by Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) GPOB NO 5143 Thapathali Kathmandu, Nepal November 2011 Foreword Since its inception, NEFEJ has been actively involved in popularising environmental concerns among the general public through various programmes for more than two decade. However, with the urbanisation and changing global context, the new agendas have come up for discussion in the public sphere and we need to work a lot on addressing them. Changing climate patterns and their impact on the livelihood has become one of the major issues of discussion, alongside the international politics behind the adaptation strategies and required funding to meet the challenges. In our context, the climate change stories are complex even for those reporters who regularly cover them and have easy access to the knowledge banks. Reporting on scientific issues like climate change is quite complicated as most of the literatures are available either in English or in complicated Nepali language. Most of the Nepali reporters write their stories in Nepali, based on their limited knowledge of English and deliver the complicated messages to their desk editors or the editors. And, these editors, who also have limited knowledge on these issues, deliver same complicated message to the general people. As a result, audience gets confused while reading the reporting on these issues. NEFEJ consistently received queries regarding the possible guidelines on reporting the issues related to climate change and environmental management from colleagues from different media who are very keen to generate editorial content through their outlet. Considering this growing demand, NEFEJ requested the Ministry of Environment and the Asian Development Bank to assist them financially to prepare and publish a toolkit for journalists reporting on climate change. Thus, as a result, we have been able to develop the toolkit as a guidebook to our media colleagues. During our six months contact time, we developed the reporting toolkit, organised launching ceremony and conducted community engagement activities in two phases with an aim to educate and empower the journalists. Likewise, after the interaction with ADB TA mission on September 2011, we got another opportunity to impart our skills to the media colleagues in all five development regions of Nepal. These training were successfully carried out by the dedicated team of our organisation. These training programmes came to an end with the last training in Dhangadi on November 13-14. Other training sessions were held in Kathmandu (8-9 Nov), Pokhara and Biratnagar (10-11 Nov), and Nepalgunj (11-12 Nov). The participation of journalists was encouraging as their feedback was very positive as many of them told us that the training sessions were very helpful for them to understand the issues of climate change. We sincerely hope that the training has provided them ample opportunity and encouragement to report on climate change issues in the coming days. Many government officials and representatives from local administration and society were invited during the opening sessions of these training programmes in the respective places. The participants appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Environment and NEFEJ in bringing up this issue and preparing the all important tool kit for journalists. All these training programmes were widely covered in the local media as well as national media. Many of these participants even stressed the need for more training programmes at district level to sensitize this issue, as the journalists were very much interested to know more about the climate change issues and their impact in the daily lives of the local people. I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to Meena Khanal, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Environment who is also heading the entire activities of ADB TA 7173 for her important inputs in preparing and implementing this project. Similarly, we would also like to express our sincere gratitude to Ms. Melissa Howell Alipalo and Ngmindra Dahal of ADB and Charles Pradhan and Dilliraj Joshi for their kind support in materialising this project. We have received similar support from our media colleagues in hold the training sessions. I would like to express my gratitude to Regional Media Resource Centres of Nepal Press Institute as they coordinated the entire training sessions in Biratnagar and Nepalgunj. The other training sessions would not have been possible without the support of Punya Paudel, senior journalist of Pokhara and Umid Bagchand, television journalist from far western region Dhangadhi. It would be unfair if I do not acknowledge the effort of Mohan Manandhar, who had significantly supported us in our eastern-regional training held in Biratnagar. Finally, I would also like to acknowledge our colleagues of NEFEJ who have contributed from their position to complete the entire project successfully. Laxman Upreti President NEFEJ/Team Leader ADB TA7173 Table of Contents 1. Background – 1 2. Objective – 2 3. Activities – 2 4. Delivery – 3 5. Production of Toolkit 5. I Community Engagement Phase One – 12 5. II Community Activities Phase Two - 21 6. Lunching Ceremony of Toolkit Proceedings of the launching ceremony: - 24 7. Trainings a. Kathmandu November 8-9, - 29 b. Biratnagar November 10-11 - 36 c. Pokhara November 10 -11 - 41 d. Nepaljung November 11-12 - 47 e. Dhangadi November 13-14 - 52 6. Outcomes of the Project - 58 7. Annex: Annex: A - 59 Glimpses of the Activities: Raising Public and Media Awareness on Climate Change and Environmental Management. Annex: B - 63 Glimpses of the Activities: Glimpses of the Community Engagement Annex: C - 68 Glimpses of the Activities: Reports published on TV, Radio and Print after community engagement. Annex: D - 77 Glimpses of the Activities: Participants Lists Annex: E - 88 Glimpses of the Activities: News Coverage of various media after Jutepani Community works. Annex: F - 92 Glimpses of the Activities: Media Coverage of Toolkit Book Lunch. 8. Training Presentation and Programs - 105 Project Completion Report Raising Public and Media Awareness on Climate Change and Environmental Management ADB TA 7173 1. Background Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists 9NEFEJ0 and Ministry of Environment 9MoEnv0 signed a memorandum of understanding 9MoU0 for "Raising Public and Media Awareness on Climate Change and Environmental Management" on May 2, 2011. Ms. Meena Khanal, Joint Secretary, MoEnv and Laxman Upreti, the President of NEFEJ, signed the memorandum. Similarly, NEFEJ and MoEnv signed the contract version 1 with the aim of imparting training to the journalists on Climate Change and Environmental also NEFEJ need to distribute the toolkit prepared under the agreement of May 2, 2011. The MOU was signed on 25 October 2011 and signed by Purna Bhakta Tuladhar, undersecretary of MoEnv, and Laxman Upreti, President of NEFEJ. Under the first agreement NEFEJ has the following mandates: Develop an information kit for journalists that would support factual, timely and influential reporting on climate change and environmental management. An agreed upon, the operational mode of sharing media-friendly content generated from academia and civil society with journalists An awareness initiative at the community level with the participation of media users, which promotes understanding of climate change and environmental issues, media coverage of these issues, and public discussion. Likewise, under the agreement of October 25, 2011 NEFEJ is obliged to carry out the following activities Organize regional media training on Climate Change and Environmental Management in five regions of Nepal. Disseminate reporting toolkit prepared under the first agreement. 1 2. Objectives The activities are based on the following three major objectives: Inspire journalists for reporting on environmental and climate change issues relating to various themes of community livelihoods and adaptation. Raise public and media awareness on climate change and environmental management. Sharpen environment reporting skills of journalists. Make the community aware of different aspects of climate change and environmental management and establish functional relation between community and community media. 3 Activities I) Production of media toolkit on climate change and environmental management. II) Community engagement activities. III) Organize launching ceremony for the toolkit. IV) Organize five regional media trainings on Climate Change and Environment to enhance skills and knowledge of the journalists. 2 4. Delivery: Following the first agreement, NEFEJ initiated all the activities in time and took consultation and participatory approach to move forward. The project team was formulated