Kandy, Sri Lanka, 14 July 2016 — Seven young journalists from six countries in South Asia completed a two-day media fellowship programme under the theme of “Homegarden systems in the face of climate change,” jointly organised by APN and the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
The media fellowship programme was launched in celebration of APN’s achievements in the past two decades bridging the global change science and policy-making communities. It is also APN’s first attempt directly engaging the mass media in disseminating outcomes of APN-funded projects to wider public audiences.
Selected journalists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka were invited to interact with researchers from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and government officials at the local and national levels. The programme started with a visit to selected homegardens located in Pethiyagoda, Kandy City and face-to-face interviews with local homegardeners on their perceptions and actions in relation to homegardens management.
This was followed by a presentation and discussion session on an APN-funded study conducted by researchers at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. The study, entitled “Vulnerability of home garden systems to climate change and its impacts on food security in South Asia” was conducted by Professor Buddhi Marambe and his team at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, and aims to assess the degree of vulnerability and impacts of changing climates in homegarden systems in South Asia, and in so doing, to investigate the climate resilience of homegarden systems and their contribution to household food security, which could shed light on practical adaptation measures for countries in the region.
A policy session was held on Day 2, featuring talks by national and local governmental officers at the Department of Agriculture and Department of Meteorology, Sri Lanka that demonstrated how the project team engaged with the policy-making community throughout the project cycle from design to implementation, and how the interactions between the two groups contributed to the development of policy-relevant knowledge for national policy planning, including the formulation of the national adaptation plan (NAP) for Sri Lanka.
The programme culminated with a lively science-policy-media round-table discussion facilitated by Mr. Nalaka Gunawardene, a celebrated science writer and communicator in Sri Lanka, where the role of media in raising the awareness of environmental issues in the region was discussed. Participants shared their thoughts and take-home ideas resulted from the exchange of ideas in the course of the programme.
For more information about the media fellowship programme, please refer to the Information Package of the fellowship programme.
Presentations
1-3 The APN Homegarden Project
1-4 Vision for Research on Homegardens in Sri Lanka
2-3 Kandyan Homegardens in Sri Lanka
2-4 Media Role in Climate Change Awareness
Articles
Climate change in Sri Lanka : Food security alert! — by Rukshana Rizwie
Home gardens – ensuring food security in a changing climate — by Sohara Mehroze Sachi
Contacts
Professor Buddhi Marambe
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya; Email: [email protected]
Ms. Dyota Condrorini
APN Secretariat; Email: [email protected]
Mr. Xiaojun Deng
APN Secretariat; Email: [email protected]
