Bloggers and journalists gathered in Nairobi to tackle climate change

Bloggers and Journalists in a training , June 2nd to June 12th 2015, Nairobi Kenya

In preparation of the COP21‬ in ‪Paris‬ this December and to fully cover climate change and raise awareness the French government through CFI with Medias 21 Africa project, has gathered journalists and bloggers from Tanzania, Kenya, Rwandan and Madagascar.

The training that is taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from June 1st to June 12th, aims to enhance and emphasize the capacity of journalists and bloggers to report on climate change with the aim of informing the populations.

“To win people’s heart, they must first win the heart of their editor”, said Wanjohi Kabukuru, editor of the Indian ocean observatory news.

Kabukuru, advised the participants to always tell stories that educate the masses on climate change since they are directly affected.

Kabukuru observed that journalists are expected to give different views from experts and government officials.

“As an outsider you need to balance your story in favor of all stakeholders with the aim of creating awareness without favor,” he said.

He however appealed to climate change experts to simplify the the terms to enable farmers and other members of the society to understand the problems associated with climate change.

According to Kabukuru, the technical termer that often used in the media creates confusion among the readers.

A Malagasy newspaper La Nation, reported that soil erosion is a threat to food security in the country due to climate change that has brought about heavy rainfall and cyclones as opposed to trends in the past.

La nation recently named Analamanga region as the most affected by this phenomenon hence calling for concerted effort towards environmental conservation.

“Technicians from the ministry of agriculture are in the process of training farmers from the vulnerable regions on how they can adopt conservation agriculture,” said Rakotondramanana, from Groupement Semi-Direct of Madagascar or GSDM.

Rakotondramanana revealed that conservation program has already covered plots of a span of 5 to 10000 hectares.

That measure has to be taken, to avoid food insecurity in the next 50 years if measures are not taken urgently.

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