Building the Island Communications Toolkit



Sean Southey, Media Impact a partner of GLISPA

8 December, Cancun Mexico - The building of a biodiversity and climate change communications toolkit is now underway. It is planned the kit will address a number of different issues whether it be questions to reduce the impacts of climate change on island biodiversity, or to find ways to adapt to a changing climate. It is hoped that in this toolkit communities will be able to find answers from others, to share stories and to locate further tools that they can use to develop their capacity.

Stemming from an informal discussion between communicators in October, partners have come together again at the UN Climate change talks in Cancun to pave a way forward for the toolkit as partnership is one of the key factors of its production.

The toolkit will be a living project that includes an online component where stakeholders will contribute resources and engage in dialogues about the best ways to communicate and be educated on climate change and biodiversity. This component will be followed by other print products that will then be used in capacity development activities in 2011 and beyond.

David Ainsworth, CBD Secretariat

Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the relationship between climate change and biodiversity is a key cross-cutting issue that is of particular relevance for island ecosystems.

With the financial support of the government of the Netherlands, and in partnership with the Global Island Partnership (GLISPA), the Commission on Education and Communication of IUCN and others, the Secretariat is developing this Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) toolkit on climate change and biodiversity specifically devoted to the needs of Small Islands Developing States.

The meeting of partners included those from UNESCO, PANOS Caribbean, Many Strong Voices, The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and others.

The next goal is to have a soft launch of a site by March with which island partners can begin to work with.