On September 6, 2021, Bishkek hosted a roundtable for media representatives from Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia, organized by the “Youth Resilience to Climate Change” project and the
WECOOP Project, funded by the European Union (EU).
The event was organized to draw attention to and raise the awareness of media representatives on environmental protection, climate change and biodiversity conservation.
The roundtable “Media Coverage of Climate Change and Biodiversity Issues in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia” brought together more than 40 participants, including editors, journalists, bloggers and eco-activists from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It is worth noting that winners of the EU’s competition among Central Asian journalists, “Restoring Biodiversity Is Our Shared Responsibility”, took part in the roundtable.
Ms. Anna Soltysik-Pawlik, Programme Coordinator at the EU Delegation to the Kyrgyz Republic, addressed the journalists: “As part of the Green Deal, and in line with the EU Strategy for Central Asia, the EU continues to cooperate with Central Asian countries and strengthen their capacity to counter the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. Responding to the crisis of biodiversity loss, resource depletion and climate change requires coordinated action by society as a whole. In this respect, the media play an important role. Keep encouraging people to make small changes in their everyday behavior and inspire them to live more sustainably.”
Valts Vilnitis, WECOOP project team leader, highlighted the importance of improving environmental, climate and water resources policy, including by bringing it closer to EU approaches and standards, where considerable experience has been accumulated, as well as promoting “green” investments.
Climate change, natural ecosystem and biodiversity conservation issues are becoming increasingly relevant, and the media is paying more and more attention to them. According to experts, today the importance of the media sector is growing not only as a creator of primary content, but also as a distributor of environmental information in general.
Angelina Davydova, Director of the “Environmental Information Bureau”, noted that the major challenge is not content production itself, but its distribution: “It’s important to reach your readers and viewers so that they notice your media product. Today, promoting environmental and climate content requires even more time than creating it.”
The “Youth Resilience to Climate Change” project is implemented under the general coordination of the Norwegian Society for the Protection of Nature, in partnership with BIOM and GLIP, with the financial support of the European Union.
