Communication experts in the field of conservation have urged media practitioners to break down the messaging on conservation issues in a manner that helps their audience relate the subject matter to social and economic realities.
This was during a media workshop held on the sideline of the ongoing African Protected Areas Congress (APAC) held on July 19 under a theme "Challenges and Opportunities of Conservation Journalism in Africa.”
The congress has brought together more than 2000 delegates from different African countries and beyond to discuss matters pertaining to protection and restoration of wildlife and protected areas on the continent.
Among efforts of conservation, experts in this area highlighted that media has an important role to play in informing and engaging all concerned parties to effectively achieve desired results in biodiversity protection.
Nashipae Orumoy, Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communication at African Wildlife Foundation, identified that gaps in conservation reporting are that journalists often have a unitary mind about their audience, most of the time conservationists, calling for the need to unpack the information for the wider audience.
"Try to connect conservation issues to social and economic issues so that they do not stand isolated, yet, the impacts are cross-cutting.”
Johnson Kanamugire, a Rwandan journalist said one of the challenges is that newsrooms are shrinking and editors would rather have an all-assignment reporter than one who is focused on conservation reporting.
"We shall not be doing justice to what we are supposed to do if we leave out conservation which is of public interest,” he added, saying that there was a need for specialized reporting where journalists have a deep understanding of the subject.
Ndi Eugene Ndi, a journalist from Cameroon, pointed out that generally issues faced by journalists include lack of training in environmental conservation and little or no tools and resources to facilitate adequate reporting on these topics.
He also pointed out the short attention news editors as well as the audience give to conservation topics, whilst they are not considered "sexy” to the readership.
Larissa Sousa, Director of Communications, Gorongosa, based in Mozambique, reiterated that it has to be the use of simple wording to address issues down to reality so that people realize conservation is not a responsibility of a certain group in society.
Didi Wamukoya, Environmental Lawyer and Director, Counter Wildlife Trafficking programme, said that from a legal perspective, journalists have to be aware of the legal sensitivity that comes with conservation topics.
This, she said, is in case some reporting may jeopardize investigations or put the wildlife at risk in areas where there might be poaching.
She added that media practitioners have to be very wary of misinformation as there are some cases where news stories influence the judgment of judges in certain jurisdictions.