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  IUCN 17 May 06
Communicating biodiversity: Hard work and no fear of figures

Even from the top of Europe the outlook is bleak, participants of a three-day course on environmental journalism in Gudauri, Georgia concluded.

To overcome low public interest, stories need to be relevant for the audience, easily understandable and supplemented by real-life examples, the twelve journalists from Central and Eastern Europe recommended.

This does not mean that biodiversity is impossible to communicate to the man on the street.

This media training "Biodiversity--Seeing the wood for the trees" is part of a series of workshops where the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the COM+ Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development help journalists improve their skills and encourage them to report on environmental topics.

Colin McIntyre, former Reuters correspondent and trainer of the course explained: "It is our duty as journalists to find the stories and tell them to the person in the street, but sometimes it is difficult to get your head around all this scientific data. It is here where the environmental community can help us understand the issues at stake."

It's a numbers game

Numbers can be a particular challenge: Journalists need to discard misleading figures, identify the most relevant data for the story, calculate trends and round the numbers for a non-expert audience.

After having written their first story based only on raw data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, participants of the media training acknowledged how a well-written press release helps prioritise the vast amount of information available.

But organisations should shy away from jargon. Even though references to previous processes and the use of technical terms are important for an expert audience, they are often the first reason why most people will stop reading the stories behind them.

In this way, it quickly pays off to invest more time and thinking into the actual message and real life impact of the story.

It is a two way path--while training journalists to report on biodiversity and environmental issues, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) also helps environmental experts get their message across.

"A lot of our work happens at meetings", Tim Christophersen, IUCN European Programme Coordinator admits. "The challenge for us is to see how these processes are relevant for a general audience, and to reduce the complexity of the environmental problems we encounter for them."

The training was held in parallel to the international conference "Countdown 2010 in the Caucasus" which discussed ways to save biodiversity in Europe's natural treasure chest. The conference gathered experts from four Caucasian countries, international NGOs and other organisations. On May 17, the conference results will be presented as the "Message from Gudauri" to decision makers and stakeholders.

For more information: www.countdown2010.net and www.complusalliance.org
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