Why does any of my research matter? How does my work
pertain to the overall mission?
1. Education/Training:
As part of
the public relations plan, our team wants to increase the awareness of
the public about the environmental problems concerning the Amazon Basin
Rainforest and about our Mission 2006 project. We have researched some existing
environmental education programs in Brazil as well as proposed environmental
training and education programs in projects organized by the World Bank.
We have found that there have been extensive efforts in developing plans
for environmental education with the goals that we have in mind. We can
modify these existing plans to educate people about our project. The next
step of our research would be to look at how effective these programs have
been and look for possible areas of improvement.
Environmental Education Policies
- This is an abstract of environmental education policies already in place
in Brazil. The information is not complete at this point.
Environmental Education Projects
- This is a look at environmental education components in projects already
in place that are funded by the World Bank.
Education Evaluation - In order
to get a better idea of how to plan an environmental education program, we
will look at an example of how an environmental education program was developed,
implemented, and evaluated using the Planning-Process-Product (PPP) evaluation
model. The example we look at is a case study of an environmental education
program in the Morro do Diabo State Park, located in the state of Sao Paulo
in Brazil. All the information pertaining to this case study is taken from
the paper of Suzana M. Padua and Susan K. Jacobson.
Education Links - This is a list of
useful links pertaining to the Brazil environmental educational system.
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2. Dissemination of Information/Media Outlets:
Dissemination
goes hand in hand with education. This topic involves the means of letting
people know about our project and the environmental problems concerning
the Amazon Basin Rainforest in general. I have complied a list of Brazillian
television and newspaper outlets. Radiobras and TV Globo seem to be the
two television outlets that are most accessible and most likely to aid our
project. Radiobras is a part of Agencia Brazil and is responsible for dissemination
of Brazillian government information. "TV Globo is the largest televison
outlet in Brazil and has a weekly documentary program 'GLOBO REPORTER' on
controversial topics of general interest that includes environmental questions.
Other examples of environmental- friendly media outlets in Brazil are:
TV Cultura (the program REPORTER ECO), the magazines Veja, Ciencia Hoje,
and Superinteressante, the newspapers Folha de Sao Paulo, and Agencia Estado,
and Globo Ciencia." (1)
Besides disseminating
information through traditional mass media, the internet serves as a great
means of dissemination. I have found that
Rainforestweb.org to be a very informative
website about rainforests. We need to create a website that is accessible
and comprehensive to the general public. One thing we have started to work
on is a FAQ list.
Dissemination
of information on a more local level is also very important. Our team has
discussed ideas about talking to indigenous people or training them as teachers.
Mainly, we want interactions on a personal level as part of a good public
relations strategy for our project. Possible ideas include visiting schools,
holding town information sessions, etc.
Media Outlets - This is a basic listing of
various mass media outlets that we can use to spread information about
or project.
3. Interest Group
Alliances:
It is important
that Mission 2006 forms alliances with interest groups that have the same
goals as we do for the overall image and success of our project. It is also
important to note the existing projects that these groups have already implemented,
some of which are very similar to what we are trying to do. The key interest
groups that I have identified are
The
World Bank/WWF Forest Alliance, Green Peace,
and
The Rainforest Action Network. Some
of the programs that relate to conservation and monitoring of the Amazon
Basin Rainforest are ARPA (The
Amazon Region Protected Area Program),
MAP (Monitoring and Analysis Project), and LBA (The Large Scale Biosphere-Atmoshpere
Experiment in Amazonia).
Conservation Projects - provides more detailed information
on the conservation projects mentioned.
4. Other Public Relations ideas:
Our team talked
about surveying public opinions or at least have a plan to figure out the
general response to our project once it is hypothetically implemented. The
reason being that the success of such a large-scale project relies on the
cooperation of the government, which depends on the public opinion. Politics
is a very large aspect of the public relations policy because we have to
make the project appealing to the Brazilian government as well as the Brazillian
citizens.
Source: (1) Ministry of
Environment. First National Report for the Convention
of Biological Diversity - BRAZIL: Chapter IV Legislation, Policies and Programmes:
Implementing Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, p179-181.
Retrieved October 29th, 2002, from http://www.mma.gov.br/biodiversidade/doc/chapter4.pdf