June 09, 2011
ECOBLOGY FORUM: THE POWER OF CITIZEN MEDIA
With advanced degrees from universities around the globe, in fields of study that include Resource Management, Sustainable Development, and Conservation, IFP Fellows and Alumni are proving their commitment to environmental progress.
That commitment sprang into action on April 18th, when IFP Russia joined forces with RIA Novosti, Russia’s leading multimedia news agency, to co-host the first Ecoblogy Forum in Moscow.
The two-day event brought together an international community of professional and citizen journalists to discuss global and regional media coverage of environmental issues, and the role bloggers and journalists can play in helping to address environmental problems, including climate change. Over fifty IFP alumni attended, many of whom had traveled from Vietnam, India, Indonesia, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and South Africa to join their Russian counterparts.
"IFP alumni have repeatedly proved their willingness to take a stand on these issues," said IFP Russia director Oksana Oracheva. "This forum is directly relevant to IFP alumni because
many of them have educational backgrounds in ecology and journalism, and are now ready to share their knowledge and experience to improve the environment in their home towns."
Participants had a full agenda, complete with training courses, plenary sessions, and networking events. Alexei Kokorin, head of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Climate Program in Russia, and Tracy Carty, Oxfam’s Climate Change Policy Advisor led a session titled “The Global Climate Change: Nature and the Internet.”RIA Novosti offered a training seminar on how to comment and respond to environmental news stories. The “Environmental Kaleidoscope” roundtable gave Russian and foreign participants the opportunity to discuss acute environmental problems in their own regions, as well as the global ecological consequences of the disaster in Japan.
“RIA Novosti provided great media resources, conference organizing skills, and financial support,” said Hao Xin, an IFP alum who traveled to Ecoblogy from his home country of China, where access to social networking and blogging sites are limited. “At the same time, the Russian IFP Alumni Association was able to mobilize a large number of prestigious, international participants that created a highly professional atmosphere. It was a beautiful marriage.”
For some participants, the Ecoblogy Forum not only shed light on new media as a tool for environmental change; it also offered a fresh perspective on the evolving socio-political role of the internet in the 21st Century. “The New Media boom is helping common people around the world raise their voice at the local level,” said filmmaker Jayprakesh Panwar, an Ecoblogy participant and IFP alum from India. “Many of us have seen how it is influencing governance directly or indirectly. The Ecoblogy Forum is dedicated to environment and climate change issues, but it clarifies for me that the time has come to use all possible social networking and new media devices to protect human rights.”
Photos: Top to bottom -
Ecoblogy participants filmed by news media;
Oksana Oracheva, IFP Russia Director;
Hao Xin presenting on China's social media struggles;
Alla Nadezkina, IFP Russia alum - now Press Secretary for RIA Novosti -with IFP India alum Ambika Aiyadurai.