The Iwokrama International Centre for Conservation and Development (IICCD) has generated some interest in the region and further afield following a presentation by Director Dr Kathryn Monk in Jamaica last weekend.
Dr Monk was among several prominent panellists and journalists from the Caribbean, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America who made presentations at the first seminar hosted by Sandals/University of the West Indies. The seminar coincided with their annual Eco-Tourism Awards ceremony held at the Beaches Grande Sport in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
Dr Monk, an environmentalist and natural resource management specialist, gave a general overview of the project to date. It would appear from the response that very little or nothing was known of the Iwokrama project in spite of its international characteristics and Dr Monk acknowledged that more funds were needed for its public information department in an effort to publicise and advertise its work.
Dr Monk's presentation led Barbadian journalist Wahad 'Terry' Ally, who had paid a visit to Iwokrama some time ago, to throw out the challenge to Sandals to hold next year's awards ceremony (and seminar) at the Iwokrama field station in Region Eight. Ally said "if you have not been there it is an awfully good place to take environmental journalists to learn about the environment."
Ally also challenged Sandals to offer fellowships in environmental reporting to CARIMAC for young reporters in the region with no more than two years general reporting experience over a three-year project. Reporters could be trained in environmental reporting skills perhaps over a two-week period. This, he feels, would have an impact on raising the region's public environmental awareness. It would be as significant "as when Butch Stewart [Chairman of Sandals] acted as a catalyst to bail out the Jamaican economy some years ago," he said.
Ally was a member of the panel that included Trinidad Guardian Editor-in-Chief, Lennox Grant; Grenadian radio editor, Odette Campbell; and Belizean senior journalist, Stewart Krohn. The presentations by Ally, Campbell, Grant and Krohn provoked heated debates between the environmentalists and journalists with academics interjecting to bring a balance to the debate as environmentalists proceeded to tell the journalists about their opinion of "investigative reporting", "responsible reporting" and "partnerships with the media".
Towards the end of that debate, however, it was generally acknowledged that the independent media had a responsibility to carry out their duty working along with stakeholders, without compromising their professionalism, to ensure fair and unbiased reporting.
Among others making presentations were Stabroek News senior reporter Miranda La Rose who hosted the breakfast session on networking and case studies in environmental management by Guy Crittenden, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian trade magazine Hazardous Materials Management and sister publication Solid Waste and Re-cycling; Environmental Management and Project Development Specialist, Eleanor Jones; Environmental Scientist Margaret Jones-Williams; Civil Engineer and Environmentalist, Ana Treasurer and Peter Melhado.
During this session, issues pertinent to the Caribbean like global warming which has led to extreme and variable weather patterns such as hurricanes, floods and sea level rise were highlighted. Attention was also paid to coastal zone management including sand quarrying, coral reefs and coastal eco-systems such as the fisheries sector and marine turtle conservation, 'Queen Conch' of which Jamaica is a major exporter, water supply, food security, energy, and waste management challenges and opportunities in the Caribbean. Adaptation, planning and coping mechanisms were looked at.
Other panellists included British journalists Frances Cairncross from the Economist who dealt with the issue of 'Globalisation: Environment and Trade' and an associate editor of The Independent newspaper in London, Hamish McRae. McRae, described as a futurologist, looked at the future of the world environment as he sees it expressing some concerns following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
According to McRae, September 11 could lead to people being more worried about security than the environment. September 11, he felt, has hit the world at the worst possible time as the cycle in the world economy was already heading downward. However, he said that it has at the same time created possibilities for the hospitality industry, forcing it to adapt. Because of the shift in the leisure industry created by September 11, he said, people will be looking for order and safety and in this respect they will be looking at culture and heritage tourism, which the Caribbean can provide. The current collapse of the tourism industry in Egypt and the Red Sea, he said, was only for the short term because of the conflict in the Middle East. At present it may be to the advantage of tourism in the Caribbean Sea. He felt that the willingness of people to travel will most likely recover after two to three years. While pollution might be a problem, he opined that the leisure industry could help to fix it. He said that it was profoundly important for the leisure industry to be a good environmentalist. So apart from having a great teaching responsibility they must also be practical.
It was noted that discussions pertaining to coverage of environmental issues had come a far way in recent years from the time when even "hard-nosed editors" did not respond favourably to issues of the environment but now make provision for an environmental page or column or assigned reporters to cover environmental issues.
Commenting on the seminar in response to a question, Coordinator of the event Sandals Resort International Director of Finance and Planning, Patrick Lynch, said that the seminar exceeded the organisers' expectations even though bad weather barred some of the local journalists from taking part in day one. Jamaica suffered the backlash of Hurricane Michelle, which during the seminar, ravaged Cuba and parts of Central America.