Feet of Green Award To Young Reporters
May 28, 2009 | Filed Under Education |
28th May 2009 saw the convening of the jury for the international Young Reporters for the Environment awards at the Federation for Environmental Education offices in Paris. Peter Herbert and Dr Richard Hale were delighted to represent the Feet of Green team on jury. This entailed judging from over 40 very high quality environmentally focused reports and photographs submitted from countries as far afield as Canada, Wales, China, Latvia, Montenegro, Malta, Portugal, Turkey, Morrocco, New Zealand, Greece, Romania, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, France and Latvia. Feet of Green were invited to make a special Feet of Green Climate Change award and the results of the deliberations of the jury have now been announced and are attached in the newsletter published at www.youngreporters.org/ - congratulations to the award winners - we plan to publish winning submissions on the Feet of Green site over coming months.
Dr Richard Hale said of the event: “Sitting on the jury was a tough challenge given the quality of submissions which demonstrated the real concern of the young to publicise issues of environmental concern in the categories of Water, Waste, Energy,Climate Change, Cities, Biodiversity and Agriculture and nature. I am so excited that our relationship with the Federation for Environmental Education continues to grow and we are inviting Young Reporters to visit the Feet of Green team in order to research and report the many valuable experiences from the Crossing of Greenland.”
Shown below are members of the jury with Peter Herbert and Richard Hale - the jury comprised:
The International Jury is composed of:
* Mr. Bernard Combes - UNESCO
* Ms. Fabienne Pierre - UNEP
* Ms. Morgan Strecker - UNEP
* Mr. David Ainsworth - Convention on Biological Diversity
* Mr. Alan Chambers - Feet of Green
* Mr. Peter Herbert - Feet of Green
* Dr. Richard Hale - Feet of Green
* Mr. David Solon - Chief Redactor of the “TerraEco” magazine
* Mr. Thierry Lerévérend - FEE France Director
* Mrs. Sarah Winterton - FEE political responsible for YRE
Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) is an international network of secondary school teachers and pupils, represented in 21 countries. Each group involved defines its own investigation project about an environmental issue, with the goal being to communicate relevant information to the public.
The programme has two levels of activity. At the local level the students carry out journalistic enquiries of a problem, linking environmental and scientific issues, and report it to the local community via their chosen media (local press, radio, television, conference, exhibitions). At the International level the students cooperate with young reporters from other countries making use of the Internet to share information and produce joint articles.
Every YRE project must follow 3 main objectives:
1) Investigate local environmental issues, with a problem and solution oriented approach
2) Deliver a journalistic production (articles, photos, exhibitions, radio, etc)
3) Communicate towards a local audience
An International Network of Young Reporters
The international network created between the different groups of students and teachers serves as an international press agency, specializing in producing and delivering information about the environment. The ambition is to enrich local productions with data, advice, information, and photos from other countries.
The YRE teams are supported in their work by the national coordinators and by the YRE website, which aids by proposing a large number of activities, tools and services that can be used in the member communities, according to their own needs and ambitions.
Publications and Awards
Each year the best YRE productions from each country are collected and put into a book, resulting in an international collection of articles in English as well as in national languages, photos and national news. This book serves to illustrate the diversity of the YRE projects and as inspiration for future projects.
A number of articles and photos are chosen by the International YRE Jury each year to receive an award. The awards are given within the categories of agriculture, cities, energy, coastline, waste and water. Among the 6 awarded articles, one is nominated for the Super Award.
YRE Today
In 2008, more than 500 investigation groups have been carrying out YRE activities. Together, these groups have made a network that functions as an international press agency specialised in producing and delivering information about the environment.
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