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| Guiana Shield Media Project, South America
The Guiana Shield Media Project is an environmental media project with a focus on the Guiana Shield region of South America. The Guiana Shield stretches from northeastern Brazil, through French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and eastern Colombia, up to the Andes. Inhabited by many indigenous groups, the region has become the focus of attention for several international environmental organisations, and is considered exceptional as almost 90% of the terrain remains in a pristine state.
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Environmentalle conscious organisations however
find themselves on the horns of a seriuous dilemma: while the Guiana
Shield region host some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems
in the world, it is also trapped by large foreign debts and severe
local poverty which force exploitation of the natural resources hastily
and unsustainable.
One of the most important areas of social development is education.
This is a particularly acute issue in the Guiana Shield: as the region
continues to invest in its interior resources, the need for a properly
informed public grows. In particular, there is a need for public education
about environmental issues within the region and abroad. Media attention
can be a poweful tool in educating both the local and the international
consciousness and this the reason for the existence of GSMP. Its primary
objective is to develop informative media products such as television
broadcasts, video documentaries, CD-ROMs and Websites about social,
cultural and environmental issues in the Guiana Shield territory for
regional and international distribution.
GSMP is a project undertaken by Black Eye International; a media co-operative
based in the Netherlands. The project has been supported with assistance
from amongst others the WWF and the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN‹Netherlands). It is co-ordinated by Ray Kril and Dr.Terry
Roopnaraine. Ray Kril has over thirty years of television and filmmaking
experience, and has worked extensively in Guyana, Suriname and other
developing countries. Dr. Roopnaraine holds a PhD in social anthropology
from Cambridge University, and has research interests in the indigenous
cultures of Guyana and Amazon.
The GSMP presently has a regional office in Georgetown, Guyana and
an international office in Amsterdam, Netherlands as well as associates
in the USA, England and Denmark. The GSMP associates include lawyers,
doctors, writers, researchers, biologist, forest experts, economist,
media producers and Indigenous peoples organisations. All professional
members are making contributions of work either free or 40% below
the standard charges.
The Regional Office in Georgetown, Guyana has recently received professional
video production equipment. This was made available trough funding
from the Netherlands Committee of the IUCN Guiana Shield Initiative
programme. The regional team has received basic training with the
equipment. It is our objective to begin using the equipment to produce
news items and short documentaries for local television. Following
several months of this activity it is planned that the GSMP Regional
Team will begin to produce a twice monthly one hour TV programme for
local broadcasters in Guyana as well as Suriname. The programme will
focus on regional and international environment issues. Some of the
regional TV items will also be distributed via the website www.guianashield.tv
. There is further interest from National Geographic TV for distribution
of the items via the NGTV News programme.
Lack of funds for continued training of the Regional Team and for
production costs, i.e. travel, material and editing kept the project
from going onward. The working budget for training and production
for six months is € 9.000,--. This amount will enable the International
professional team to do at least 2 weeks of training with the Regional
Team as well as produce at least 10 news items and the first TV programme.
It is planned that the TV programme will be able to continue from
local financial support. Other organisations donated 9.800 Nfl. Moments
of Joy and the Home Foundation decided to each donate € 2.000,--.
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