Journalists renew commitment to climate change adaptation Issues

Journalists renew commitment  to climate change adaptation Issues

Against the background of the paucity of public knowledge of adaptation to climate change in Nigeria, a forum of Nigerian journalists rallied by the African Adaptation Programme-AAP (Nigeria) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has proffered new ways of creating more awareness of climate change adaptation issues amongst to the citizenry.

At a workshop held at the Lagos Airport Hotel in Lagos, the journalists who who cover various professional beats and were drawn from various media organisations identified climate change as a phenomenon that needs holistic understanding by the public. They also agreed that reportage of climate change adaptation issues should be presented from every possible thematic angle.

The Forum resolved that every news department in the media, including politics, business, sports, lifestyle, insurance and others should identify adaptation issues on their beats and bring them to the front burner so that their readers or audience could more readily identify with the issues rather than percieve them as being esoteric or purely scientific.

The National Coordinator of the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), Nigeria, Dr Samuel Adejuwon, in a goodwill message sent to the Forum, charged  journalists to come up with workable strategy that will help to effectively communicate climate change adaptation to the grassroots in order to complement the various programmes of the AAP in Nigeria.

According to him: “The overall programme objectives of AAP are to enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable countries to climate change and disaster risks within the context of sustainable development; to promote early adaptation through evidence-based solutions and initiatives for action and to lay the foundation for long-term investment to increase resilience to climate change and other threats across the African continent.”

Renowned environment journalist, Tunde Akingbade  and the Deputy Editor, Sunday Independent newspaper, Michael Simire, presented two papers at the Forum, titled: “The Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation Reporting and the Media in Nigeria” and  “Multi-Angle Approach to Reporting Climate Change Adaptation in Nigeria" respectively.

Mr Tunde Akingbade, in his paper, highlighted various challenges that an average journalist in Nigeria faces in reporting the environment generally and climate change adaptation in particular. He identified the media's inadequate capacity to keep up with the speed of development regarding global climate change adaptation issues as a major challenge, which he said was a consequence  of non-availability of funds and training resources in the country unlike what used to obtain in the past when aspiring environment journalists had access to vast training resources.

He also identified institutional problems as curtailing the effectiveness of  journalists in Nigeria. In his words: “There is also lack of awareness amongst some editorial staff and editors who either dump (environment) stories or use them as briefs. Another challenge is that the climate or environment reporter who is not adequately informed may walk past a good story. There is also lack of basic equipment and many climate change journalists in the electronic and print media have to buy their working tools themselves. If not, how would they drive home their messages?"

“Again, there is space or time constraint in the newspaper, radio and television. The climate change reporter has to make his story very interesting to be able to get good space and airtime.”

                                                                                    

Whilst speaking on multi-angle reportage of climate change adaptation, Michael Simire, stressed the fact that climate change adaptation, which has evolved for centuries into the lifestyles of peoples all over the world, need not be just a subject for scientific reporting.

According to him, “Humans have been adapting to their environments throughout history by developing practices, cultures and livelihoods suited to local conditions – from the Mediterranean siesta to the Vietnamese practice of building homes on stilts to protect against monsoonal rains.”

He challenged journalists to identify diverse issues that appear to be  'irrelevant' on their various beats but, in reality, are clear cases of climate change adaptation, stressing that these issues need to be thoroughly analyzed and presented to the public, especially in terms of benefits and other socio-economic or political impacts.

The Forum ended with a robust discussion of the papers that were presented, whereupon the participants committed to identify adaptation issues in all their beats and bring them to the front burner for proper public understanding and for the good of the environment in Nigeria.