WildLifeDirect is is a program of the Africa Conservation Fund which uses blogs in its effort to promote conservation in African national parks. So far they have conservation bloggers based in the DR of Congo and Kenya. They have also experimented with YouTube videos. Sub-Saharan Africa Editor Ndesanjo Macha wrote an excellent piece on their blogging operation on Global Voices.

 

Several of our June 2007 applications also focused on using new media for wildlife conservation. This page is to brainstorm some of those ideas, to offer suggestions and feedback about how they can be improved as well as work together. Please press "Edit page" and add your ideas.

 

Alamangue Azul Expeditions 2008: Local Voices Promoting Sustainable Tourism (Panama)

 

Involving Students in Narrowing the Digital Divide (Tanzania)

 

Radio Rijan'Ambato- Online (Madagascar)

 

Social Production Island (Brazil)

 

Sapo National Park Preservation Project (Liberia)

 

Community for Sustainable Development (Ghana)

 

Profiling and Combating Draught  With A Band of Dynamic Rural Students Belonging To Poor Tribal and Indiginous Communities In a Draught Prone Zone of India (India)

 

Mad Conservation Voices Online (Madagascar)

 

 

ALMANAQUE AZUL EXPEDITIONS 2008: local voices promoting sustainable tourism

FUNDACIÓN ALMANAQUE AZUL__

www.almanaqueazul.org

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

We want to take the next step after the experience we had at training and organising teams of volunteer reporters with our “Almanaque Azul Expeditions 2007” project during the last dry season (Dec 2006-April 2007).  This time we have a more ambitious goal, which is to facilitate teams closer to the communities we cover, which outside funds would make much more feasible.

 

Ours is a Project of participatory journalism, where the public contributes with articles, pictures and comments on our website.

 

We will be providing a space for people from coastal communities to tell their story as a way of promoting conservation of the cultural and natural wealth of the environment where they live.

 

In our experience, participatory journalism can be a transforming experience for the volunteers who take part in it, whom we would train in basic tools of written, visual and radio journalism.

  

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

Almanaque Azul is a guide to sustainable tourism in islands, coasts and beaches of Panama which publishes information gathered by volunteers through our website and more recently through our weekly radio program.  We provide a unique combination of tourist information and news on environmental conflicts as a way of promoting a kind of tourism that benefits local communities directly and which considers environmental protection, respect of coastal cultures and the socioeconomic value of low-impact tourism for these communities.

 

Through basic workshops in journalism, we will train young people to present information in an innovative way.

 

The project will produce content on beaches, coasts and islands of Panama in the following forms:

 

-    Personal histories in the first person from the point of view of a local resident or a visitor from a nearby town.

-    Tourist guides with an emphasis in community, environmental and sustainable tourism options, and promoting local tourism service providers

-    Narratives on local social and environmental conflicts, particularly those related to non-sustainable tourism development.

-    Social monitoring and updating on the items above

-    Audio content including interviews of local residents for broadcast radio and podcasting

-    Photography of natural and cultural subjects

 

From the Almanaque Azul team:

-    Radio scripts based on stories from volunteers

-    Maps based on geographical data gathered by the volunteers

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

“Expeditions 2008” will seek volunteers (the “explorers”) in coastal communities as well as nearby urban and semi-urban localities and will organise them by regional teams in 6 critical regions of the country.

 

This will be a development of our previous effort, which at the time had mostly urban and suburban volunteers from Panama City.  The 2007 project provided many useful lessons on working with inexperienced volunteers which we will apply here.

 

Our target audience is people from the 15-35 age range from the Republic of Panama.  People in this age range usually travel on a budget and have a higher likelihood of practising low impact tourism while looking for new places.  We’ve noticed that people within this age range are more knowledgeable and receptive to changing their interactions with nature and communities towards more sustainable ones.

 

As we work on the printed book we will adapt our material to a broader and more international audience.

 

Our foundation has been working for more than 2 years.  We currently receive about 2000 hits a day and we have become the main tourism guide for Panama (Alexa).  The page is updated an average of once every 10 days and there is an open publishing, unmoderated forum.

 

Almanaque Azul started broadcasting a weekly radio show 3 months ago.  We also plan to publish a guidebook with tourist information on beaches and coasts of Panama.

 

Print media, including a glossy monthly as well as a popular tabloid newspaper regularly reproduce our content with our permission.

 

Spanish will remain the language of our website and our radio show, but the Almanaque Azul book will be published in English or bilingual format and will subsidise a low-cost Spanish version.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

We tell our public that going to the beach and getting to know it from a different perspective is the easiest way to participate.  Almanaque Azul has achieved a healthy level of good-quality participation by the public as seen in the comments on the website. We get many comments from local residents on articles about their communities.  We expect this to continue and grow as the radio show evolves and when we move to a radio station with national coverage.  

  

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

Almanaque Azul has created links with various community organisations and individuals in coastal communities across the country with which there are good working relationships.  We believe we have the capacity to bring together urban volunteers and community participants in horizontal teams.

 

Our experience in a similar project this year, the relevant content we provide and the unique linkage we establish between community organisations and the general urban public make us well suited to lead the project.

 

As part of the Expediciones 2007” project we managed to organise 12 expeditions with a self-raised budget of US$1.300 and participation by young volunteers.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

The tools we will use include: digital cameras, sound recorders and GPS units, as well as text, image and map editing software.

 

The skills we will bring include editing articles produced by volunteer teams, image editing, cartography and GIS to produce maps from GPS data and information gathered, as well as logistical support.

 

In this project we will work with journalists and photographers to provide workshops for participating volunteers and provide the basic tools to produce relevant content.  We will then assist them in organising their expeditions.  Each team will need a camera, a GPS, a sound recorder and maps, as well as money for transportation, lodging and paying for local tourism services.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

-    Through the quality of the participants’ contributions and their capacity to provide multiple content (text, pictures, audio)

-    The scope and level of detail of the contributions

-    The capacity of participants to continue generating content

-    Through the number of visits and comments on web articles from contributions

-    By informal surveys of the change in tourist visits and use of local services after the information is published

 

We expect to receive around 250 applications to participate, of which about 50 people will eventually self-select themselves to continue in the project.  We will then form regional teams.

 

Their participation will be obtained through direct contact with community based organisations we or our associates have worked with in the past, announcements in local universities, radio advertising and written and radio media appearances.

 

The tools we will provide to volunteers are knowledge-based tools, which will become permanent, and tools such as digital cameras may remain with selected community groups with an interest in keeping them and in continuing contributing to the Foundation.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

1.    Desertion of volunteers from the project: Based on our previous experience, in order to ensure an adequate level of perticipation it is necessary to cast a wide call for participation so that sufficient numbers of volunteers who are really interested remain.  Some 180 people applied to participate in the “Expeditions 2007”, of which less than half ended up attending workshops and in the end about 30 actually took part in expeditions and some are still contributors to the website.

2.    Low quality contributions: The workshops ensure a minimum level of quality and relevance of the contributions.  Preparing the expedition and setting clear objectives also help ensure good contributions. There is the extra motivation of being from the local community and knowing the information they share will help the community.  

3.    Limited access to the Internet and lack of understanding about its character and influence in the wider world by people in rural areas: This factor is outside of our control but the trend is positive.  We will offset it by providing printed copies of the articles to the community as well as by the future printed book.  We will also continue publishing regularly in print newspapers and soon broadcasting form a radio station with national coverage.

 

 How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

Almanaque Azul has been successful in motivating participation by the public without our direct intervention.  The experience of producing this content will provide useful tools to community organisations and individuals.  The direct effects that we expect this information to cause, as well as the empowerment this knowledge and experience will provide will keep them motivated to keep producing content and seek and generate spaces to publish it, hopefully also outside Almanaque Azul.

 

Particularly in places with local environment-development conflicts we have served as a conduit for local residents to obtain exposure.  We intend to focus on positive stories that talk about alternatives to large-scale development. With our own funds Almanaque Azul will follow up on regional teams, helping them organise expeditions to other coastal sites of their region.

 

Almanaque Azul has been operating for two years with funds generated by ourselves, through various fundraising activities which will continue.  We will soon start selling advertising space in our website and in our radio program.  We are also working in producing Almanaque Azul t-shirts for sale and in 2008 we expect to publish Almanaque Azul as as a print guidebook in English or bilingual format that will allow us to subsidise a cheap Spanish version that can be distributed in coastal communities.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

We need grant funds for the following:

-    Logistics of photography, writing, radio and coastal ecology workshops

-    Funds for transportation, lodging and services for expeditions

-    Purchasing of digital cameras, sound recorders, maps, gps units

 

Rising Voices will provide additional international visibility to the project, promoting exchanges with other initiatives working on the issue of tourism development and sustainability, or on promoting participation in media by local communities.  

 

A grant from Rising Voices would be the first outside funds received by Almanaque Azul and hopefully will open the doors to other sources of funding for other projects, particularly producing the radio program, the printed book and environmental education work in local coastal schools.

 

Rising Voices can help with an expert for providing workshops on journalism, writing or photography for participants in the Expediciones 2008.

 

INVOLVING STUDENTS IN NARROWING RURAL DIGITAL DIVIDE

http://www.kilimo.go.tz  and http://mongidreams.blogspot.com

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

In Tanzania, about 80% of the population lives in the rural areas. Some rural areas like Tabora region are poorly accessible. This is the area where digital divide shows its impact. Lack of information has characterized the communities continued desperate and marginalization in participation for their development. I see Rising Voices to have opened a window of opportunity to narrow down this information gap.  Enhancing the communities participation in development through exchange of information and dialogue is the reason behind this project. The target area for the project is four villages surrounding the millennium villages’ project in Mbola Tanzania. It is expected that the project will stimulate quick spill over of any success and challenges of millennium project to nearby villages’ community. He project will serve as a model for the effective planning alternatives in decreasing the rural poverty.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

A remote area like Tumbi is an information land locked. The sharing of information and learning from outside is minimum. The vision of this project is empowered rural communities with communication skills and hence increased participation in exchanging information on the related to the eight targets of millennium development goals. The content will be integrative in nature covering all aspects of social, economic and cultural development. Reported issues will include the initiatives to end poverty and hunger, rural health, education, environment and water. In addition, crosscutting issues such as gender participation, HIV/AIDS, and Information and Communication Technology will constitute the content. The coverage will include the success stories from the implementation of various projects in the millennium development village. The content will also address the challenges and the way the villagers are facing them. There will be feedback to such information from the community hence two-way communication.

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The project will involve students at Tumbi Agricultural Research Institute and 4 key informants. The students pursuing diploma and certificates in different rural development disciplines do interact with the community in course of their learning. The project will involve them as part of their extra-curricula activities. The project will create a community weblog and establish an info-center near the research station where a remote access to satellite internet facility is provided. The project will purchase 2 computers and 4 low cost mobile phones for the key informants. Each of the four villages will have two key informants and one mobile phone. The key informants together with 4 key information sources will attend a seminar on communication skills and weblogs that will be organized by the project twice a year.  The project will inspire active participation of students and key informants from the MVP village and other villages. There will be 4 active participants who shall collect the information and send through SMS. The information will be compiled and published on the Community weblog to be created.  A team of volunteer blog editors will be uploading the information in the blog and forward the headlines to other key informants through SMS. Students under the leading of the project coordinator will make the team. The project team shall make every possible effort to ensure that it uploads at least one post each day.

 

Community members are the key audience of the information. The Info-center will be accessible to them free of charge for 12 hours each day, 7 days a week. Swahili language is widely spoken in Tanzania and Tabora in particular. Almost everybody knows to speak this language. Therefore, Swahili language will be the main medium of communication of the weblog. However, for the purpose of feedback and interaction, a summary of posts will be given in English at the end of each week.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners /viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

The project’s objective is to enhance participation in information generation and sharing. This means an interactive environment is required. Members of the community will be free to comment on any particular post on the weblog or through the key informant. The project mobile number will also be available for any member of the community who shall like to participate by posting or comment on the posts. I believe incentive to blogging is a blog itself. Therefore, the community blog will acknowledge any information posted by the provider.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I have been a member of this community for the last six years. My office has been in the community, in their farms and households working out together on how to alleviate extreme poverty and hunger. I have a bit of experience in community media. I have also been blogging on agricultural development, which I think is one of the ignored fields in the world of blogging.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

The project will use a combination of technologies to stimulate dialogue and information sharing in the target area. Internet technologies particularly weblog will be intensively used. The project will assess and subscribe the most efficient weblog service provider. Parallel to this, the project will enhance communication and dialogue through Short Message Services to Key Informants. Key informants in the rural areas are the source of information for and about the community. The project will ensure that the key informants are supplied with the most correct information possible and they give the proper feedback.  I am currently about to complete my MS degree in Information Technology at Carnegie Mellon University and will soon join the community members to put information sharing in its proper perspective.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

The impact of the project will be measured by how many members of community are informed about the particular issues raised in the communication process. The number of community members using the info-center and the amount of comments received will also measure the impact of the project.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

Managing the information collection and validation may pose a challenge to the project. To deal with this, the project will train the key informants and the volunteers on media ethics. An internet based communication tool will be a new experience to rural areas. I thus expect challenges for those who do not know how to access the web but are willing to learn and practice.

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

Students are enrolled each year and studies for two years. Each year the project will involve 5 students in its activities for two years. The outgoing students will the mentor of outgoing students and therefore there will be very little need for formal training. The outgoing students with their skills are expected to promote information sharing in the rural areas where they work. This justifies for the positive impact in rural information and communication. The project will create a dialogue with local councils to support the sustainability of these activities. The project will also enhance the spirit of volunteering among its members and communities at large.  

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Rising Voices is expected to provide financial support as per the budget below. The project may also need assistance in hosting fees and curricular resources on communication for development. Rising Voices is also expected to provide technical advises when deemed required.

 

 

Radio Rijan'Ambato - Online

www.prism-media.org

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

Although Madagascar is one of the world’s major conservation hotspots, the voice of Malagasy people is often ignored.  

 

Radio Rijan'Ambato is the only independent media outlet in Madagascar's largest district, Ambatofinandrahana.  Activist and musician Dama Mahaleo launched the solar-powered station in 2000 to bring a local perspective to the airwaves. An all-volunteer staff of farmers who have been trained as radio technicians run the station. Rijan’Ambato provides a public service for residents to transmit messages, and also broadcasts music shows and original educational programs.

 

We recognize that in the mainstream media, and even on the Internet, productions in the Malagasy language are a rarity.  Our project will bring Rijan’Ambato online and expand its programming to include all-Malagasy video podcasts and blogs.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

Currently, Rijan'Ambato produces shows on topics such as agriculture, women's health, child nutrition, and local politics.  The Rijan'Ambato team will build on its professional expertise to create dynamic new shows for and by Malagasy people:

 

-    Video reports documenting local cultural events;

-    Written narratives archiving oral histories and traditions;

-    Programs for/by youth made in collaboration with students from the local high school;

-    Profiles of local entrepreneurs and agriculturists sharing lessons learned from best practices;

-    Informative discussions about improved health practices, concerning in particular sex education and HIV/AIDS.

 

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

The Rijan'Ambato team is already skilled in scripting news reports, carrying out interviews, and producing educational programs for its broad audience of radio listeners. The team will utilize this same level of high quality production to generate the content for its website.

 

Although the number of home computers in Madagascar is still low, the use of the Internet by young people and professionals of all ages - at schools, offices, and cyber cafés - is clearly on the rise.  We expect the national audience will be based primarily in cities, where information about rural life is not frequently available; even less so, new stories produced by individuals whose perspective is rooted in rural communities, as is the case for the Rijan'Ambato team

 

We anticipate an enthusiastic international audience as well since there are many Malagasy people living abroad, mainly in Europe and North America.  As with any group of émigrés, these individuals are eager to hear news from their homeland; however, even the top commercial media outlets in Madagascar maintain a weak online presence.  Expatriate Malagasy rely, therefore, on families and contacts to supply local news directly.  We expect that Rijan'Ambato's current and on-the-ground perspective will be a breath of fresh air for Malagasy communities living abroad.

 

Further, we are open to cultivating relationships with major Malagasy media outlets in order to provide a better-informed perspective of rural life.  Professional exchanges will raise the bar of media content across Madagascar.

 

While official Malagasy will be the language of all content at the beginning, with time and an increase in capacity (staff, funding for travel) we can expect to produce work in the various regional dialects spread across the island.

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

Radio Rijan'Ambato is already used as a megaphone for the people to communicate their opinions and news, whether through written messages or personal visits.  Online, forums and message boards will foster this same type of dialogue with audiences across Madagascar and abroad.    

 

At the launch of the project, we will concentrate our productions within the Ambatofinandrahana district to build proficiency in new media forms.  Therefore, in the short term, we will cultivate a network of professional and independent Malagasy journalists to supply content from other regions.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

For the past four years, Jack Gordon has worked extensively in Madagascar as a media producer; first as co-founder/technical director of Digital Development Communications, a media firm serving NGOs; and later as founder/director of Prism Community Arts, an organization supporting community-based art and media.  

 

Although he was born and raised in the USA, Jack is comfortable communicating in Malagasy as well as French, the second official language.

 

Through Prism, Jack already has experience working with the staff of Rijan'Ambato and is committed to supporting the expansion and improvement of media and communications in Madagascar.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

Our project requires a laptop computer for word processing, audio and video editing; an mp3 recorder to conduct interviews; a camera kit for video production; web hosting and design assistance for our site; and expendables such as video tapes.

 

Jack Gordon and the Rijan'Ambato team have the skills and experience to produce the video, audio, and written content.  Prism also maintains an office in Antananarivo, the capital, equipped with an Internet connection sufficient for uploading all content onto the web.  

 

We anticipate securing other funding sources to cover additional salaries and operation costs.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

The goal of this project is to support Malagasy-language media produced with the most current media tools available. The strongest indicator will be the increased technical capacity of the main participants themselves, who will become leaders and teachers amongst their peers.  For the half-dozen staff members of Rijan'Ambato, an opportunity to advance their skills as media producers opens a door unavailable to most people born and raised in rural Madagascar.  These valuable professional skills will ensure new employment opportunities, better income, and therefore a higher standard of living for their families and reinvestment in their community.

 

This website will also encourage an increased number of Malagasy media professionals to freely share their ideas, perspectives, and productions as part of this independent, nonpartisan outlet.  Selection will be based on merit and skill, rather than corporate or political agendas.  As such, the site will be a strong example of media democratization, particularly in regards to online media.

 

For Madagascar as a whole, this project will support the valorization of the Malagasy language, which has historically been marginalized in favor of French, the colonial language, and English.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

Although the Rijan'Ambato team is already skilled in media production, because we are experimenting with new media forms, we must anticipate some technical setbacks along the way.  Thankfully, we have a support network of Malagasy and foreign media professionals experienced in a range of disciplines that will be available for guidance and assistance.

 

It is also necessary to prepare for some level of resistance to the project from the current presidential administration, which in general does not enjoy criticism.  Again, a broad network of professionals in Madagascar and abroad will support us if the difficult situations arise.

 

 How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The staff of Rijan’Ambato presently operates their radio station on a daily basis with dedication and commitment.  We are confident in this continued work ethic as we expand to include new media forms.  A spirit of ‘each one, teach one’ during local workshops in Ambatofinandrahana as well as during travel trips to other regions will ensure the growth of a team with superior technical capacity.

 

The radio station itself has already proved its sustainability over nearly a decade of operation.  Recently, Rijan’Ambato became 100% solar-powered and is now liberated from reliance on faulty gas generators.

 

Our financial plan is likewise based on a commitment to self-sufficiency.  Prism Community Arts supports its activities through donations and sales of items linked directly to our programs (Example: At Prism's touring exhibition of silk weaving and photography from Madagascar, we raised funds to assist a weavers cooperative by selling their silk shawls. This revenue was then used to purchase more weaving equipment, expand a forestry conservation project, and start a scholarship for village youth).

 

To generate further income, we plan to host advertisements from Malagasy businesses.  We anticipate that Malagasy businesses will have a keen interest in marketing themselves on this groundbreaking website.  Commercial advertising will ensure that the media production will continue.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

As the project advances, it will be important for Malagasy media makers to have the chance to meet and share experiences with other content producers in other parts of the world.  A Rising Voices regional conference on the African continent, in the Indian Ocean, or elsewhere will provide a terrific opportunity for our team.  In the event of such a monumental occasion, assistance securing funding for travel expenses would also be appreciated.

 

Wildlife Video Volunteers

Channel NewsAsia, MediaCorp

http://www.wildlife1.org

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

The funding will jumpstart a grassroots program to train youth volunteers in Singapore to script, shoot and edit digital video stories about Asia’s illegal wildlife trade. The reports will be posted on a videoblog featuring citizen-generated content on conservation and animal-protection issues.

 

The wildlife trade has spawned a culture of killing in Asia that threatens the biodiversity of the world. Singapore’s geographical location in Asia has made it a hub for the wild trade. This project arms youth with the principles and skills of citizen journalism to harness communal voices to raise awareness and dispel the myths contributing to illicit trafficking of animals globally and in Asia.

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

The video blog enhances understanding of the present status of endangered and potentially endangered species in Asia and of the forces driving the market and illegal trade.

 

I intend to help youth use video to tell stories based on the first wildlife rescue centre in Singapore. Besides providing a safe haven for wild animals rescued, the 2-hectare centre is the centerpiece of a volunteer-driven effort to end the cruel trafficking in wildlife through serving as an educational facility. It complements state enforcement efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

My youth citizen media project offers hope for the plundered ecosystems in the form of education, awareness and public interaction. Education is the key to changing attitudes of present and future generations. I will use my journalistic and documentary making skills to drive coverage in the following areas:

 

Hard News - Stories highlight the wildlife crisis in Asia and seek to effectively address it.

Features - Students report on animal adoption efforts and profile creatures rescued.

Videotorials - Peer-to-peer opinion pieces on why the issue must be urgently addressed.

Facts on Wildlife – Youth blog about their research on the subject

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 word)

 

My vision is to work with school groups to train a cadre of young people to use video as a tool to speak up for endangered animals and end their abuse. In the storytelling process, the project serves as a platform to promote compassion and volunteerism.

 

I will guide and aggregate content and help video volunteers locate and generate voices that help the community understand that livelihoods can be earned other than through destruction of resources. The larger message is that our anthropocentric vision can be broadened to appreciate and respect diversity and richness beyond our own lives and needs.

The target audience is schools, youth groups and netizens in Singapore and Asia. The content can be shared physically with the community by means of video screenings and talks. The vblog will be hosted on a server and updated weekly by video volunteers. All content will be in English. Where people speak in their native tongues, the interviews will be subtitled.

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

 The “Wildlife Video Volunteers” vlog will facilitate viewer comments and voting. It will

provide links to telephone and email hotlines that are being developed and currently exist in countries within the region. In addition, the site will provide statistics on the number of hits logged and facilitate information flow to appropriate agencies and authorities through a readily available medium.

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

I know the Asia Pacific region intimately. I am a Malaysian-born veteran journalist and documentary maker who trained in journalism in the US and worked in the media in Singapore. I am presently a current affairs producer with Channel NewsAsia, a multiple award-winning Singapore-based network which broadcasts to the region.

 

In 2005, I collaborated with Television for Education Asia Pacific on a documentary and web project tracking the recovery of child survivors of the Asian Tsunami. My works have been honored for excellence in journalism. I speak frequently at conferences on citizen media outreach. As a volunteer, I conduct media literacy workshops and teach youth new media journalism.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

My project will use two digital video cameras for volunteers to gather content. The footage will be edited with iMovie software on a Macbook. I will mentor youth volunteers in scripting and video storytelling techniques, but would need to enlist a video editor to cut the footage and a webmaster to administer the vlog.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

The site will provide statistics on the number of hits logged and facilitate information flow to appropriate agencies and authorities through a readily available medium.

 

I expect an initial core group of 20 active volunteers to sustain the project over one year. During this period, I plan to work with TV stations to integrate the videos and youth-generated media on current affairs programming over national TV.

 

Promising youth who prove adept at video journalism and are able to develop distinctive voices on conservation issues may be given a platform on mainstream TV as hosts, reporters and producers for a series conceptualized around “Wildlife Video Volunteers.” Such a TV series will work in synergy with the vlog and sustain it with cross-platform promotion.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

Singapore society is apathetic to conservation and wildlife causes and youth are disinclined to volunteer their time unless a project benefits them materially. My challenge is to enthuse this potential group of video volunteers with the mission of the project and what it can ultimately help them do for the community.

 

The outcomes of the project are to facilitate youth to catalyze the following:

 

·    Use video to raise funds to support conservation projects.

·    Donate time and skills to conservation activities.

·    Write to government representatives to do more to protect wildlife.

·    Teach peers to respect and appreciate nature

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

The project will seek donations and sponsors through its website. If web traffic is good, the vlog will carry advertisements as a source of revenue. Other fundraising methods include a “Wildlife Video Festival” when tickets will be sold and donations solicited.

 

A big portion of revenue will be derived from the animal rescue center where educational activities will be conducted. The exact projects are still being worked out and I am unable at this stage to detail the activities planned.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

Rising Voices can provide monetary and moral support through its endorsement of this grassroots effort in a society that is generally apathetic about conservation and animal issues.

 

It can refer and recommend the project for additional funding after the initial sum is exhausted.  

 

I would also like to tap the specific expertise of Rising Voices in using the Web to advocate and generate community around civic issues.

 

Sapo National Park Preservations Project

U. Mass Center for Democracy and Development

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

<<  Sapo National Park in Liberia is one of the last extant and most biodiverse tropical rainforests in West Africa. It is also under tremendous pressure from illegal miners, loggers and animal poachers. We would be seeking funding to train one or two local journalists to track down and document violations of the Park using digital technologies (GPS, digital video, web-site, cell phones).

 

Sapo is in a remote part of the country and generally out of the range from the press corps in Monrovia. Our project would locate and train journalists from the region whose main focus would be on protecting the park.>>

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

<<  We would have our reporters establish a network of informants in and around the park who would report to them any violations. We would also work with the local UN Military contingent to provide escorts and security to our journalists while they did their work. This is still a relatively unstable area so involving all the stakeholders from the community would be essential. The content would essentially fall into three categories: general information about the park and its treasures (flora and fauna), reportage on any incidents of violations, profiles on efforts being made to preserve the park. We would then gather all this information on a website so it would be made available world-wide to the community of researchers and conservationists who would be naturally drawn to a unique environment such as Sapo. >>

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

<<  The content would be generated by a small team of journalists and assistants who live near the park. The target audience is policy and security officials in Monrovia, the capital, who would have an interest in any illegal activity taking place near the park, international research and conservation organizations who have an interest in Tropical rain forests, human rights organizations as well as anyone in Liberia who has an interest in preserving the natural resources of the country.  The content would be available in English.>>

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

 <<  Sapo is a world treasure so we would expect that any violations taking place there would have global significance. More importantly though would be the ability to influence decision makers in the Liberian government who have the power to influence what happens in the park. There are also powerful international corporate mining and timber companies that would come under scrutiny as a result of these investigations. There would be no need to encourage participation as the issue is one that would naturally draw attention to itself once it was exposed.>>>

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

<< We have been working in Liberia for over a year. We have extensive experience and contact with the Liberian media both in Monrovia as well as in the countryside where we are also spearheading a rural radio project. In addition we are working closely with Flora and Fauna intl. the main conservation group that has ben tracking developments in and around Sapo.  This year we conducted the first ever citizen media survey in Liberia and will bring Liberian journalists to the US in the Fall.  We also have many contacts with the Liberian community in the US and thus have great access in Liberia proper.>>

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

<<  Our project would require two digital video cameras, two laptop computers with editing software, two handheld gps devices, and a pair of cell phones. We would be able to provide the video photography training and editing expertise all using local Liberian talent.

We would need some technical assistance in setting up the project web-site.>>

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

<< The success of the project will be measured along two dimensions:  the ability to expose and report on violations taking place in the Park as well as inquiries to the website from the international community. As a separate project we are working to build a permanent research facility at the park where the international community can come and study the riches of the park. It will be critical to have a constant stream of stories coming from the project in order to gather a web following.>>

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

The main challenges we expect to face are concern on the part of the local communities about any activity being undertaken by outsiders. We will overcome that challenge by enlisting and training locals to undertake the bulk of the reporting. There are also security issues that we expect the UN Military contingent to help us with.

 

 How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

<< We expect that the project will have such a positive impact that we will be able to raise funding for its continuation directly off the website. We intend to advertise the existence of the site by direct e-mailings to every research institution, individual and conservation groups who work on rainforest conservation. This group is quite extensive. >>

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

<< We would be most grateful if Rising Voices would provide funds for the purchase of video cameras, GPS devices, cell phones and laptops and also provide some funding towards the creation of the project web-site.  On our side we will provide travel and training expenses as well as hosting expenses for the web-site. We will also provide all outreach expenses to generate interest in the project in coordination with Flora and Fauna international.>>

 

 

Communicating for Sustainable Development

League of Environmental Journalists

 

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

 

I am seeking Rising Voices funding to cater for the costs involved in bringing to light the increasing adverse impact of gold mining operations in four host rural communities in terms of human rights violations and environmental degradation such as the destruction of biodiversity, forests and livelihoods and the pollution of rivers and streams with harmful chemicals used in mining such as cyanide.

 

With the support of Rising Voices funding, these issues will be sustained in the center stage of public discussions through a series of print media reports and video documentaries.

 

 

The burden the target communities will lessen when these mounting injustices being meted out to them by multinational mining companies are consistently kept in the public domain for discussions, debate and remedial action.

 

The reality is that, for Ghanaians and the affected poor and rural host communities in particular to make intelligent decisions about mining and related issues, they need accurate timely and unbiased information on these issues.  This would enable them to participate actively in related decision making.

 

Mounting evidence however suggest that most of the rural communities affected by mining have a superficial knowledge of the country's minerals policy, compensation, corporate and social responsibility and how and where to seek redress.

 

 

The need for sustained media coverage of these issues is imperative, as media reports can increase awareness of the problems engendered by gold mining and further establish the foundation for an informed and active participation of stakeholders in the protection of local communities and the judicious use of natural resources.

 

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

 

News, stories and information provided by the project will highlight human rights violations particularly the maiming and shooting of community members who dare protest. Other issues will center on environmental degradation and the increasing conflicts in some mining affected communities over pollution of sources of drinking water with lethal mining chemicals through the operations of multinational mining companies.

 

The quest for minerals and proliferation of multinational mining concerns in the country has also led some mining companies into some protected areas such as biodiversity hot spots and forest reserves in the country.  This is an issue that will be documented by the project.

 

The plan to open up biodiversity hot spots and forest reserves to mining is currently generating debate, outrage and controversy. While the mining industry is agitating that the government should grant them permits to enable them operate in these protected areas, a section of the public is simply of the view that the forest reserves should be out of bounds to the mining companies.

 

 

Local people and fringe communities to be affected by such mining activities in the forest reserves have begun protesting and resisting.  

 

The debate and controversy surrounding plans by government to open up protected areas for mining and the ensuing resistance by communities fringing the protected areas will also be highlighted by the project.

 

 

Stories will also examine the impacts of large scale gold mining on women in the affected communities.

 

Indeed, there is a clear need to raise public awareness at the local and international levels of the impact of mining on gender particularly women's indigenous systems, their role in the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and their human rights.

 

With this, women would be empowered to speak with their own voice and be part of decision-making processes in mining communities.

 

The Fact is that in the rural areas in Ghana where mining is taking a toll on the communities, women exceed men in terms of population structure and they are responsible for the health, education, and food production for the family and the management of natural resources.

 

As the primary natural resources managers of their communities, women possess an intimate knowledge of the environment and many studies have indicated that during environmental crisis and economic dislocation women play an indispensable role in maintaining food generation livelihood, family health  community cohesion as well as resource regeneration.

 

 

Given this unique and indispensable roles that women play in rural societies and the threats posed by large scale gold mining in local communities, "how mining is affecting these poor rural women in the host communities will be an issue for the project with regards to news.

 

Forceful evictions and resettlement of communities and destruction of farmlands by mining companies will also be examined by the project.

 

 

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

 

A team from the League of Environmental Journalists comprising seasoned environmental journalists will generate the content. The target audience is citizens, policy makers inclusive.

 

It will be distributed monthly.

 

The language is English.

 

 

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

 

They will be encouraged to write letters to the editors of the newspapers in which these articles are published. The stories will also spur them on to question their representatives in parliament about the plight of mining communities in the western region and they will also demand transparency, probity and accountability in the mining sector.

 

 

 

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

 

Having worked as a media practitioner covering environmental issues for almost 15 years in most parts of the country, I believe I have in depth knowledge of the target community and the intricacies of citizen media outreach.

 

My pioneering role and outstanding contributions to the promotion of Environmental Journalism in Ghana and beyond and my innovative style of consistently bringing critical environmental issues to the attention of the Ghanaian public and international community for remedial, educational or punitive action are well documented.

 

I am of the view that technical jargons envelope most mining issues and the complex nature of related issues often intimidate many journalists. No wonder a cursory study of the media landscape in Ghana reveals that the press seems to be interested in political reporting and other reports such as sports and sex scandals.

 

The reason for this near absence of interest in the coverage of mining and related issues is not hard to find. Understanding the issues is not easy as one is often confronted with a blend of physics, geography and chemistry and geology.

 

Indeed journalist need to have an insight into the nature of mining issues and their relatedness to be able to cover them meaningfully for a wider audience.

 

 

Journalists therefore need in-depth knowledge and information on mining to enhance related information gathering and dissemination.

 

A well informed media will be able to break down the jargon, produce simple articles and features to the understanding of the man on the street and create a strong and positive awareness of mining and broaden related public discourse.

 

Effective education and meaningful communication can be a powerful force for change. Persuasive messages, proper packaging of stories (lively and interesting media reports) a good grasp of mining and related issues are therefore of priority concern.

 

I also believe that the League of Environmental Journalists which was established in 1992 is the best organization to lead this project because over the years it has contributed immensely towards public awareness and media information on environmental protection and conservation in Ghana and beyond through numerous activities such as training workshops for Journalists on a wide range of environmental issues.

 

The League of environmental Journalists has also handled similar projects aimed at biodiversity conservation in Ghana and it may interest you to know that two of its members have won awards from the International Federation of Environmental Journalists and Conservation International in this regard.

 

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

 

A Video Camera

Voice recorders

Digital Camera

Editing

Internet access

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

Visits to mining affected communities in the western region will be intensified to observe at first hand any visible changes in the plight of residents, There will also be interactions with members of parliament and other policymakers to monitor their understanding of the issues and their commitment to instituting  remedial measures.

The newspapers that carry reports generated by the project will also be monitored to examine possible feed back from readers.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

 

Mining communities are often located in the remotest parts of the country and almost inaccessible. We intend renting a four wheel drive on our visits to some of these areas and also spending longer days in the communities to conduct in depth interviews with residents and managements of mining companies.

To better understand and appreciate the issues that the affected communities have to grapple with daily, we intend staying with them each day we visit the communities. This will however be with their consent so we do not inconvenience them in anyway.

 

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

 

As part of the project, representatives of farmers’ groups, traditional leaders and social activists in the affected communities will be trained to identify, investigate and document news worthy issues or events that come up in their communities. With the support of mobile phones they will send report to the League of Environmental Journalists, the issues raised will be investigated further to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the reports and our findings will be published in the newspapers.

 

This will tremendously sustain the laudable initiative and goal of consistently bringing the issues to the center stage of public discussions even after the project funding is exhausted.

 

 

Profiling and Combating Drought with a band of dynamic rural

Development Media Collective

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

 

A latest assessment profiles rural Orissa as the poorest region of India.  The drought-ridden Paikmal block here is still remote and underdeveloped.  Water scarcity forces millions to migrate – a state unheard of just a century ago.  This rain fed area had tremendous traditional knowledge and techniques to harvest manage the rain water and other natural resources properly.  These systems have eroded. Such knowledge has not percolated down to the current generation.  The project will sensitize students on the real reasons behind drought and the related miseries and enable them to become reporters of their region through blogging.  The project will directly benefit the poor indigenous communities.

 

 

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

 

Drought is a century old phenomenon and yet not understood here.  Drought is the silent killer and rips people of their livelihood and exposes them to endless woes.  Especially because agriculture is the base occupation which is rain dependent and the area has been experiencing continuous failure in production.  The community adaptability measures have also lost ground.  The stories will cover the real reasons behind drought; the traditional methods of adaptability; and success stories of present generation initiatives.  The overall vision will be to make the students aware of the real reason of their community’s underdevelopment and find ways to fight it in a strategic manner.  This will involve collecting information and presenting those in formats which will generate interest of macro level stakeholders in the area and its issues/problems.  The stories will also work in re-establishing the knowledge link between the new generations and the aged of the rural and tribal communities as the students will be encouraged to generate/collect information from the knowledgeable aged who still have those indigenous knowledge to combat drought in their memories and can provide good lessons to the children.  When children collect information from their own parents, grand parents and community members, the interest on issues rise to a practical level and this will in turn benefit the communities in taking suitable action.  So, the stories will also be framed taking in view all these above aspects.

 

 

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

 

College going students from the poor tribal and other indigenous communities of the Paikmal Block in Bargarh district of Orissa in India will be the prime target group of the project.  They will be sensitized and trained to generate the content with guidance of the project leader.  The target audience will be their own community members and other stakeholders including local intelligentsia, government officials, people’s representatives and all other concerned with the development of the region who need to be sensitized on the real issues pertaining to drought and the combat measures.  The dissemination will be in two ways – 1: through a blog that will be created and will be updated month-wise and 2: a local language quarterly newsletter that will be disseminated in the local areas.  While the blog will be in English the newsletter will be in Oriya(the local language).  Besides this, the project will be given at least a page in a bi-monthly newsletter that the Project Leader edits and which is very popular in the state of Orissa and reaches to at least ten thousand audiences – directly and indirectly.

 

 

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

From the very beginning, the project will initiate debates and interactions among various stakeholders.  The blog as well as magazine will invite participation and comments from all the readers/audience.  Further, quarterly interaction gatherings will be held at the project station level to get the feedback and inputs from all types of readers/viewers/audience.  

 

 

 

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

 

The children who will be taken up for the project as direct participants are class ten standard students from the local colleges.  The communities from where these children have come are very poor and illiterate.  The Project Leader has 19 years of experience working with such communities in this region and understands the socio-economic and cultural condition of the area thoroughly.  Besides being a Sociologist, he keeps on writing on the development issues has got several awards and recognitions.  His skills in still photography as well as knowledge on AV documentation will add to this project’s success.  He is currently also convening a network called Development Media Collective which works on similar issues.

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

 

The Project Leader will provide technical skills like generating content, writing stories and publishing it.  For uploading this into a blog or web site, the project may need your technical assistance.  The leader may get access to a computer.  However, with help of the project, he might need a digital camera and some audio recorders.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community? How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

 

The project will follow a participatory system of evaluation and monitoring.  Each quarter, during the interaction meeting with various stakeholders, the impacts will be measured component wise.  Both qualitative and quantitative measures will be done on the content and use of the stories/postings.  The sustenance of involvement of all stakeholders/participants will depend on various factors.  However, the leader will try to sustain their involvement by imbibing the value system of the project through discussions and deliberations.  Further, the leader will try to link this project with other initiatives in the region and outside to keep the tempo and endeavours going.  The project leader is well connected with various media houses and will try to link the reports to mainstream media as well.  That’s how the initiative as well as participants’ participation will be sustained.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

 

Poverty and illiteracy of the target communities from where the project participants belong will be the major challenge.  The leader is well acquainted with the area and has vast experience of motivating the communities.   He will try to motivate the communities to spare time and services to feed the process with knowledge and information.  Further, the students will have formal education and examination pressures.  This will be tackled with making the process very informative and entertaining and through discussion with various stakeholders – especially the teachers of the children.  As the issues will start being raised by the children, some vested interest group in the area who normally exploit the poor people during drought years may oppose to it and will try to put hurdles in way of the success.  This will be tackled with involvement of all the stakeholders, though such hurdles may take some time.  Overall, the leader has experience in managing such situations and processes.

 

 

 

 

How do you plan to sustain your project's content after the Rising Voices funding has ended? Detail specific plans. How do you plan to raise revenue to continue your efforts in the future? (300 words)

 

 

As discussed in the previous as well as some other earlier points, the project will follow a systematic educative process from the beginning involving various stakeholders.  As soon as the project takes off, the message will be spread around to various people and institutions.  As such, the effort will be linked to the existing networks with which the Team Leader is active.  More such linkages will be tried out with various other institutions – regionally, nationally and internationally.  The cases will be brought out in attractive formats to be sent out to potential donors and technical support organizations.  Continuous dialogue will be initiated with several such institutions.  The contents generated will be shared with other people so that the horizontal and vertical spread of issues and progress increases.  As already discussed, the project will get coverage in local and other media increasing its chance therefore to attract suitable collaborations.  In future, the project will be scaled up to a community video and/or radio project as well.

 

What resources and support can Rising Voices provide to your project to ensure its success? (200 words)

 

 

Rising Voices is requested to provide regular technical guidance and linkages.  This may include support in designing a web site for the project; technical linkages and equipments wherever necessary.  Exposure visit for the team leader to similar projects elsewhere may also be a requested area of support from Rising Voices.  Literature in the form of electronic resources, books, journals etc. will be very helpful.  Further, Rising Voices is requested to get us linked to various networks and processes which are promoting such efforts as well as other technical and financial support agencies which may find interest in supporting sustenance as well as scaling up of this project.

 

 

 

 Mad Conservation Voices Online

www.ddcmadagascar.com

www.empyreanmedia.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

Why are you seeking Rising Voices funding? How will your project benefit the community you are targeting? (100 words)

 

 

We are seeking Rising Voices funding to create an independent web-based forum for teaching and discussing the state of the conservation of natural resources industry in Madagascar, called Mad Conservation Voices. An open dialogue for Malagasy students, researchers, professors, and the general public is critical in a country where conservation policy is largely driven by foreign institutions.

 

The project will offer a single multi-media web-based resource that provides a comprehensive overview of conservation policy in Madagascar, while allowing Malagasy readers the opportunity to report on and critically discuss conservation in their country in a forum that is free of intimidation or fear of the loss of employment status.

 

 

 

What kinds of news, stories, information and other content will your project provide? Describe your vision for the content. (250 words)

 

 

Mad Conservation Voices will be a web-based teaching tool that utilizes podcasting, blogging, and discussion groups to allow the free, critical discussion of conservation in Madagascar.

 

The website will be divided into sections based on general topics. Each section will feature a series of podcasts that explore the section topic as objectively as possible. For example, we may explore community forestry by interviewing a conservation professional who believes that his community forestry project is effective, and a villager who believes that it is too complicated to understand and, thusly, ineffective.

In addition to the podcasts, each section of the website will compile journal articles, legal texts and laws, dissertations, newspaper articles, or information generated by conservation organizations.

 

Each section will also contain a moderated discussion group, so that readers can share ideas and network.

 

Potential section topics include: - The history of conservation in Madagascar

                - Links between poverty and environmental degradation

                - A discourse analysis of media generated by conservation and

development organizations

- Power and Policy: who has the say in conservation politics?

- Conservation through Education: training free thinkers or docile  

       workers?

- The carbon trade and promises made…

- The state of environmental journalism in Madagascar – is

             questioning the industry dangerous?

- Conservation and land tenure: who owns the forest?

- Bioprospecting and local right to products

 

 

 

Who will generate the content? Who is the target audience? How, and how often, will it be distributed? What language(s) will it be available in? (300 words)

 

 

Tendro and Stephen will initially generate website content, with reader-generated content added after the launch of the project.

 

Our target audience will primarily be students at The University of Antananarivo and other national universities, with a secondary audience composed of researchers, professors, conservation professionals, policy makers, and the general public.

 

University students are not presently taught a comprehensive course about the current state of conservation in Madagascar. While they receive adequate training in the sciences, they do not necessarily receive instruction on how conservation policy is created, implemented, and enforced. Since the government of Madagascar has pledged to increase the amount of protected areas to nearly 6 million hectares by 2008, it is critical that Malagasy students understand the implications of this policy.

 

In order to build capacity and encourage the critical evaluation of the conservation industry in Madagascar, the Mad Conservation Voices website will be launched during a 2 to 3 day conservation workshop at The University of Antananarivo in early to mid 2008. Our workshop will present topics addressed in the website, while introducing the project to the media and to workshop attendees. In addition, attendees will be introduced to citizen media, blogging, podcasting, and other internet-based research and communications tools.

 

The website will be available in Malagasy (an official language), and English (a newly approved official language).

 

After the initial launch, website content will be regularly updated to track current events and changes in conservation trends.

 

 

 

What kinds of participation and interaction do you expect from the readers/listeners/viewers of your content? How will you encourage participation? (75 words)

 

 

Visitors to the website will watch podcasts, view photographs, and access conservation-related documents. Readers will participate in discussion groups, upload their own podcasts, and create conservation-related blogs.

 

Participation in the web-based forum will be encouraged during the conference at The University of Antananarivo. The workshop and website will be advertised on the University of Antananarivo and local private university campuses, in several national newspapers, and in a citywide poster campaign in weeks prior to the workshop.

 

 

 

What is your knowledge of your target community? Why are you the best individual/organization to lead this project? Do you have prior experience in citizen media outreach? (100 words)

 

 

Tendro holds a MS in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University. His family was banned from using their agricultural land after the creation of Ranomafana National Park. Tendro attended college at the University of Antananarivo, where he studied forestry and natural resources management. He is a member of the South Korean Citizen Media Association and maintains a website.

 

Stephen holds a BA in Conservation Studies. In addition to conservation-related work experience in the U.S., he served for two years at Masoala National Park in Madagascar as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. He currently works for Digital Development Communications, a production company based in Antananarivo. Stephen maintains a blog about his Peace Corps experience.

 

 

 

 

Describe what technologies and tools your project will use to produce the content. What kinds of technical skills and expertise do you bring to the project? What are your technical needs? (100 words)

 

 

Tendro has a thorough background in academic research and an extensive knowledge of conservation issues in Madagascar. His various research positions, knowledge of existing literature, and Malagasy perspective make him particularly qualified to lead the Mad Conservation Voices initiative.

 

Stephen has access to Apple film production equipment. He is familiar with the process of creating podcasts and lengthier documentary productions. In addition, his academic background and real-world experience provide him with research skills and many questions to ask.

 

Both Tendro and Stephen have limited experience in building websites. We anticipate that we will need assistance with this aspect of the project.

 

How will you measure and evaluate your project’s impact – on your main participants? other contributors? on the larger community?

 

How many participants do you expect to be involved in your project? How will you seek and sustain their involvement? (200 words)

 

The number of workshop attendees and the volume of visitors to the website will help determine the reach of the project. We expect that more than 100 students, professors, journalists, conservation professionals, and policy makers will attend the initial workshop. We will assess the effectiveness of the workshop through surveys.

 

We will seek student volunteers to regularly update the website with their own content, in order to maintain a dynamic forum that responds to changes in the conservation industry as they happen. These volunteers will also be encouraged to start their own organization to maintain and improve the Mad Conservation Voices initiative. The purchase of a handheld video camera and accessories with project funds will facilitate the production of the podcasts. This camera will be donated to the student organization so that they will be able to produce their own content for the website.

 

Madagascar is world-famous for being a “biodiversity hotpot.” The Mad Conservation Voices website has the potential to become a highly visited resource for web researchers. Currently, the vast majority of online literature about conservation in Madagascar is generated and maintained by foreigners – and many of them are affiliated with conservation organizations. An independent forum managed and presented by Malagasy students and researchers will generate much interest and may inspire similar projects in other parts of the world.

 

What challenges do you expect to face, and how do you plan to overcome them? (200 words)

 

 

We anticipate that our two main challenges will be technical and political.

 

1. We must learn to build a website that will present our materials in the most user-friendly fashion. We must pay special attention to the fact that Internet service in Madagascar can be quite slow, so the website cannot be heavy with graphics. Podcasts tend to load slowly, but are generally viewable.

 

We both have associates who are very knowledgeable in website development. These associates will be consulted to guarantee that the best website will be built to satisfy our needs.

 

2. Malagasy and foreign officials have invested heavily in conservation due to the influence of powerful foreign institutions. Both the government and these institutions are keen to reduce negative publicity. We may face criticism from these entities.

 

We will strive to present our subject matter in the most balanced way possible. While we do have an agenda, our agenda is to present subject matter that is often left out of the mainstream debate, rather than to criticize the conservation industry or government outright. We will uphold the highest journalistic standards in the presentation of our material, providing an outlet for an otherwise underreported perspective.