The Drum Beat 362: MDG #7 - Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

This Drum Beat issue presents a variety of communication-focused initiatives, strategies, and resources emerging from community-based, collaborative, creative, and high-tech efforts to help meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) #7 worldwide. Indicators for this Goal measure progress toward environmental sustainability as gauged by the degree to which the principles of sustainable development are integrated into country policies and programmes, the proportion of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water, and the quality of life of slum dwellers. For further details about this Goal, please click here.

Next month, we will focus on MDG #8: Developing a global partnership for development. Please send your projects, articles, events, etc. to Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

 

CONTEXT

1. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006 [PDF]

• The net decrease in forest area over the period 2000-2005 is about 7.3 million hectares per year, down from 8.9 million hectares per year from 1990 to 2000. Still, the current net loss is equivalent to about 200 square kilometres per day.
• Per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) remained fairly constant between 1990 and 2003, at 4 metric tons per person. But due to population and economic growth, overall CO2 emissions continue to rise, especially in the developing world.
• Between 1990 and 2004, sanitation coverage in the developing world increased from to 35% to 50% (1.2 billion people gained access to sanitation). Another 300 million people should have been served, however, to keep the world on track towards the 2015 target.
• The share of people using drinking water from improved sources reached 80% in 2004, up from 71% in 1990. But parts of sub-Saharan Africa, city dwellers are twice as likely to have safe water as their rural counterparts.
• In 2007, for the first time in history, the majority of people will live in urban areas. Throughout most of the developing world, this will result in larger slum populations.

2. World's Forests Continue to Shrink
The world's forests have shrunk by 40% since agriculture began 11,000 years ago. 75% of this loss occurred in the last 200 years to make way for farms and meet demand for wood. Over the last 5 years, the world suffered a net loss of some 37 million hectares (91 million acres) of forest.

3. Household Energy and Health
According to a 2006 World Health Organization report, cooking with solid fuels was responsible for nearly 800,000 deaths among children and more than 500,000 deaths among women in 2002. In sub-Saharan Africa, reliance on biomass fuels appears to be growing as a result of population growth and the unavailability of, or increases in the price of, alternatives such as kerosene and liquid petroleum gas.

COMMUNITY-BASED NETWORKING & ACTION

4. Community Taba: Local Voices for a Global Vision - Curitiba, Brazil & Global
In March 2006, as part of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (COP8), The Equator Initiative hosted a "dialogue space" through which grassroots environmental leaders from around the world shared their experiences. The effort was premised on the conviction that "any undertaking in pursuit of the 2010 Biodiversity Target, a necessary first step towards achieving the MDG's in 2015, must first recognize the close relationship that exists between sustainable community livelihoods and biodiversity conservation." Located in Curitiba, Brazil (the site of COP8), the Community Taba took the form of an indigenous village setting built by the InterTribal Committee of Brazil. This space, meant to be owned and occupied by grassroots representatives in preparation for and as a complement to daily COP8 events, served as a networking and knowledge sharing space for community representatives as world leaders convened to discuss the Convention on Biological Diversity - thereby ensuring that their voices would be brought "to the table" in as strong and effective a manner as possible.
Contact EquatorInitiative@undp.org

5. Youth Awareness Environment Forum (YAEF) - Nepal
YAEF's members (ages 18-55 years) are interested in serving Nepalese society with environmental enthusiasm. One of their key strategies is publication of a monthly magazine as a medium to raise a voice against activities that harm the environment; it is distributed free of charge to rural dwellers. YAEF's community environmental library is designed to preserve history and raise awareness by freely sharing books. Each year, YAEF celebrates World Environment Day (WED) on June 5th by organising a festival that centres around a bicycle rally; the goal is to raise awareness while encouraging citizens to make a promise to apply the WED slogan in their everyday lives. YAEF also carries out such actions as distributing nursery plants, conducting tree plantation and conservation, building public toilets and distributes hand pumps and tool wells, creating environmental literacy programmes, carrying out door-to-door campaigns to share environmental information, and advising the government about the environment (e.g., advocacy to fight the use of plastic).
Contact Astaman Kisee Maharjan yaefast@wlink.com.np

6. Modes of Communication and Effectiveness of Agroforestry Extension in Eastern India
by Anthony Glendinning, Ajay Mahapatra & C. Paul Mitchell
This study focuses on the modes of communication in extension activities carried out as part of a community forestry project in the state of Orissa, eastern India in 1998. Information flow was promoted by 3 means: mass media, group media, and interpersonal contact (which involved social forestry supervisors and village forestry field-workers visiting farmers, villagers, and village leaders in order to promote participation in community forestry programmes and to plant trees on farm land). Direct personal contact by social forestry extension workers appeared to be the key factor related to project participation, particularly among disadvantaged farm households. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that farm forestry projects would be strengthened by promoting farmer-to-farmer, and farmer-to-extension dialogue.

7. Building Bridges at the Grassroots: Scaling up Through Knowledge-sharing: Background Workshop Paper
by Theo Schilderman
"...the number of people living in slums is set to double by 2030..." This paper proposes that social networks allow slum residents to pool resources, share information, and gain influence. Evidence is starting to emerge that good practice can spread, and upgrading can be scaled up, through exchanges of information between these networks, and innovative uses of communication methods. This publication considers a number of such examples, including the Slums Information Development & Resource Centre (SIDAREC) in Pumwani (a Nairobi slum with about 200,000 inhabitants), which is aiming to develop the awareness and skills of people between 15 and 35 years of age. SIDAREC's methods include a newsletter, community theatre, audio tapes used in a weekly radio slot, youth networks, and an internet café.

8. Experience from a Community Based Education Program in Burkina Faso: The Tostan Program
"This study describes a project that tested the feasibility and effectiveness of replicating the village empowerment program (VEP) developed by the Senegalese NGO [non-governmental organisation], TOSTAN, in Burkina Faso. Although one of the ultimate goals of this model is the eradication of female genital cutting (FGC)...as a direct effect of the program, the inhabitants of the 23 experimental communities undertook activities to improve environmental hygiene through cleaning the schools and health centers, as well as the areas surrounding sources of water. Healthcare huts were constructed, improvements made to homes, and water sources repaired."

9. Solar Power = Community Power - Turkmenistan
As part of this communication action project, participatory video is used to document and raise awareness about the challenges and decision-making processes involved in the community-led installation of solar power within different shepherding villages in Turkmenistan's Karra Kum desert. As part of the process, each family exchanges one ewe and one female lamb for their solar panel; these animals became the collective property of the village and are used as a "community action fund." As this flock increases in size, so, too, does the villagers' resource base for carrying out their own community action. As part of this programme, since 2001 more than 450 individuals have been provided with electricity in 6 different shepherding villages. Further, "in each village dependency on external solutions and support has been reduced and collective community action and decision making has been encouraged. An additional shepherding job is also created."
Contact Chris Lunch clunch@insightshare.org

See Also:

• Water Works: Capacity and Communication for Social Change in Peruvian Municipalities
• Impact Data - Action for Slum Dwellers' Reproductive Health, Allahabad (ASRHA) - Uttar Pradesh, India

VISUALISING CHANGE: FILM/VIDEO & TV FOR AWARENESS & ADVOCACY

10. Any Colour is Fine, Provided It Has a Shade of Green: Indian Environmental Film-making Spurts in Richness and Depth
by Frederick Noronha
This article explores trends in the use of the medium of documentary film to communicate about, and advocate increased attention to, environmental, wildlife, and natural resources management issues in India. Noronha focuses here on Vatavaran, a festival of environmental and wildlife films which was screened in the national capital of New Delhi in November 2005 and is in 2006 traveling across the country. One official explained, "We feel Vatavaran is one of the most powerful platforms for advocacy (about the environment). It's not just a film festival." In keeping with that strategy, 2005's screenings coincided with the annual congress of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists. Collaborative efforts have been underway to promote a "film bazaar" where environment enthusiasts are encouraged to buy films for use in their advocacy work. Along these lines, workshops on subjects like the shifting trends in wildlife film-making, corporate social responsibility for sustainable development, electronic waste management, underwater filming, and environmental journalism, have also been incorporated into Vatavaran.

11. Proyecto Plaza Sésamo como Apoyo al Programa de Educación Inicial: Summary of SEP Research Findings
by Yolanda Platón
The purpose of this research was to examine the use of Plaza Sésamo, Mexico's version of the Sesame Workshop entertainment-education television series Sesame Street, in preschool settings. There were notable changes with regard to children's performance on a "conserving the environment task" after viewing the programme.

12. Participatory Video for Community-Led Research: Natural Resource Management in the Mountain Regions of Asia (NORMA) - India, China & Pakistan
In this European Commission-funded project, Insight used participatory video as a tool to enable local communities, non-governmental organisations and grassroots organisations in the Karakoram-Hindu Kush-Himalayan region to communicate their own views and ideas about natural resource management problems and solutions directly to scientists, senior policy makers and donors. More than 50 people in each community got directly involved in sustainable integrated mountain development through the video making process, and more than 40 participants attended the accompanying multi-stakeholder workshop (where one attendee commented, "I was impressed by the ease and clarity with which illiterate nomads and farmers expressed their concerns related to environmental change. Such videos carry messages that go far beyond language.")
Contact Chris Lunch clunch@insightshare.org

See Also:

• green.tv

COLLABORATION FOR INFO & ACTION

13. Conservation Commons - Global
This cooperative effort on the part of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), international and multi-lateral organisations, governments, academia, and the private sector aims to improve open access to and unrestricted use of data, information and knowledge related to the conservation of biodiversity. An interactive website is at the centre of this push to "promote conscious, effective, and equitable sharing of knowledge resources to advance conservation."
Contact Tom Hammond tom.hammond@iucn.org OR contact@conservationcommons.org

14. Zero Evictions Campaign - Global
In an effort to achieve by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, the International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) launched a movement which involves strengthening the commitment, proposals and struggle of citizens, associations of inhabitants, urban social movements, local authorities, non-government organisations (NGOs), and progressive governments to act. For example, in October 2005, Eviction World Days saw 30 groups, with a total of over 350 individuals, responding to the appeal by organising initiatives in 22 countries throughout the world. Examples of action taken include: public protest marches, information booths, occupation of land/lodgings, seminars, petitions, laying of the foundation stones of new houses, and press conferences. IAI estimates that more than 100,000 people were directly contacted through such activities during the month.
Contact Cesare Ottolini info@habitants.org

15. Habitat Forum (INHAF) - India
This platform facilitates and promotes information exchange, experience sharing, lateral learning and joint action among non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civic groups, building and development professionals, professional training institutions and students concerned with and working in the human settlements field - hopefully in the process "strengthening civil society towards advocating and influencing change in policies, institutional plans, programmes, projects, governance and management structures - all towards achieving a sustainable model of human settlements." At the core of INHAF's networking function is an interactive web portal which is meant to serve as a "one-stop shop" for information on conferences, events, network contacts and other areas of interest in addition to an online library on "habitat" issues.
Contact info@inhaf.org

See Also:

• In Search of Excellence: Exemplary Forest Management in Asia and the Pacific

TECH APPROACHES & TRENDS

16. Water Alert - Global
Water Alert! is an interactive online game developed by UNICEF's Voices of Youth (VOY) initiative in an effort to create an educational yet entertaining learning experience focused on water, sanitation, and the environment. Tested and developed in consultation with young people in many parts of the world, this "edutainment"-style resource engages young people in an adventure of strategy and survival that explores real-life situations. Available with audio in English and Spanish (and in French, without audio), the game is accompanied by a facilitator's guide with instructions for its use as a teaching tool.
Contact voy@unicef.org OR Donna L. Goodman DonnaLGoodman@aol.com OR dgoodman@unicef.org

17. The Future Impact of ICTs on Environmental Sustainability
by Lorenz Erdmann, Lorenz Hilty, James Goodman & Peter Arnfalk
This report describes the methodology and results of a modelling project exploring qualitatively and assessing quantitatively the way in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers, mobile phones, and microchips can influence environmental sustainability. The authors observe that "there are significant opportunities for improving environmental sustainability through ICTs, which can rationalise energy management in housing (or facilities), make passenger and freight transport more efficient, and enable a product-to-service shift across the economy." However, "environmental policies have to be designed to ensure that ICT applications make a beneficial contribution to environmental outcomes, and, at the same time, suppress rebound effects."

18. Participation through Communicative Action: A Case Study of GIS for Addressing Land/Water Development in India
by S. K. Puri & Sundeep Sahay
According to this paper, the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the fight against accelerated process of land degradation offers opportunities to optimise the use of resources to rejuvenate the land. A 2002 case study of the planning and implementation of a GIS-based intervention for land and water recuperation in Anantapur, Andra Pradesh, India found that a participatory approach to integrating GIS encouraged local people to assume ownership of development programmes; scientists confirmed that the databases created by local units were very accurate and useful for the analysis of existing conditions and resources. However, there are concerns about how development initiatives relying on advanced technological systems can effectively respond to local needs.

19. E Stands for Environment: ICT Tools to Empower Activists Struggling to Protect Environment around the World
by Pavel Antonov
This article explores developments in the use of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the part of civil society worldwide as a strategic tool for keeping the public alert, informed, and inspired to act on issues of the environment and natural resources protection. Pavel Antonov begins by presenting a concrete illustration: the "Cyanide-Free Bulgaria" campaign, which serves as "an example of the power of the internet and electronic communication for environmental protection." Future directions include an Association for Progressive Communication (APC)-designed specialised, interactive portal to guide civil society users through geographic information systems (GIS) and other existing applications for environmental sustainability, as well as an initiative on the part of civil society to work for integration of environmental sustainability into other policy instruments regulating the use of ICTs.

20. Technical Internet Mentoring - Canada/Global
Sponsored by the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), the Technical Internet Mentoring (TIM) project includes a "mentoring" web page focused on the field of drinking water engineering and microbiology through which students and volunteer mentors can discuss issues related to the production and presence of clean drinking water. According to the developer, TIM could provide a practical, problem-solving, accessible teaching tool for students in any setting (i.e. classroom, fieldwork, home). Ultimately, it might provide a valued development tool for countries/regions that need help in solving small technical problems.
Contact Peter Nix pnix@my.bcit.ca

21. The Green Map System as a Means for PPGIS Education and Exploration
by David Tulloch
In this paper, the author explores the technique of the Green Map System (GMS) and the use of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) and Technologies. According to the author, Green Mapping has become an increasingly popular community-based technique for describing the opportunities for sustainable living and showing patterns of green space, and provides an important tool for community participation in capturing and expressing information about the local environment.

See Also:

• Powerful Green Map - New York City, NY, United States
• Maps and Graphics Library

STRATEGIES FOR INVOLVING EXCLUDED VOICES

22. Local Environmental Initiatives Oriented to Children and Youth: A Review of UN-Habitat Best Practices
by Darcy Varney & Willem van Vliet
This paper explores the strategy of engaging children and young people as full participants in community-based environmental action and advocacy work around the world. The authors examine 101 "good," "best" and "award winning" practices identified by UN-Habitat as having a demonstrable, tangible impact on the physical environment for children and youth; these successful practices are characterised as emerging from the result of effective partnerships, and as being socially, culturally, economically, and environmentally sustainable. To cite only one example, in the Delhi, India's Community Led Environment Action Network (CLEAN), children act as the prime agents of change by using water- and air-quality monitoring field kits, participating in the setting up of recycling and composting stations, planting native trees and shrubs, launching campaigns against littering and for the use of polluting polythene bags, and conducting public events to raise popular awareness of a variety of environmental issues. "The impact of the programme at the policy level was profound," in part by generating baseline and seasonal environment data to inform policy initiatives.

23. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa with a Gender Perspective
A roundtable discussion was organised by UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) during the Sept. 2005 World Summit. Participants noted that more than half of all girls who drop out of primary school do so for lack of separate toilets and easy access to safe water. One of the 3 co-conveners of the WSSCC initiative 'Women Leaders for WASH' claimed that part of the problem lies with the fact that "in many parts of the world, sanitation and hygiene are 'woman's issues' and most of those in decision-making positions are men, they seem to be placing higher priority on other issues..." Women leaders, political or otherwise, can join in the struggle by convincing Heads of States and Governments, donors and finance ministers that there are substantial economic and social gains to be made by investing in sanitation and water. Children can get involved as agents of change within their own communities, schools and households to ensure proper school sanitation and hygiene.

24. Child Reporters Reporting on Children's Issues - Koraput, Orissa, India
Implemented under the Advocacy and Partnerships programme of UNICEF Office for Orissa, this project has fostered the training of over 100 child reporters to report on development issues in Koraput's remote, rural, and disadvantaged villages. The hope is that this cadre of child reporters can act as advocates for girls' education, school sanitation, and child survival through stories in the monthly newsletter "Ankurodgam", such as this reflection by an 8-year old tribal girl named Anupama: "The roof of our school leaks in the rainy season. There is no toilet or playground in our school." As part of the project, 10 child reporters traveled to the state capitol to present information about the water and sanitation and environment situation in their villages.
Contact Lalatendu Acharya lacharya@unicef.org OR Chelapila Shantakar Santakar1@rediffmail.com

See Also:

• Gender: The Missing Component in the Response to Climate Change
• Integrating Indigenous and Gender Aspects in Natural Resource Management: Guidelines for Practitioners

This issue was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

 

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