Bush Melee – Radio Mini-Drama Builds Awareness of Sustainable Forest Management

(3BL Media) April 24, 2012 - Fire, drama and lessons on sustainable forest management practices are intertwined in an exciting radio magazine recently broadcast across the airwaves on St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Radio NBC.

You can now listen online here: http://mediaimpact.org/?page_id=843

Bush Melee is a new local radio mini drama about love, life and livelihoods around St Vincent.  Tune in to meet our characters from  Mavis, a jewelry maker who is struggling to single handedly look after her six children, to Mr Pappyshow who is known by all for his bad attitude and taste for rum.

As listeners follow the fast paced twists and turns in the character’s lives, important values around our relationship to the environment become clear, from the negative impact of slash and burning on the forest and the importance of a healthy environment, to being able to put food on the dinner table of our families.

Bush Melee was aired as part of a broader radio magazine, Bush Talk, that discusses issues of how to use the forests and its resources in ways that will make sure we can continue to get food and clean water for our children’s generations.

Bush Talk and Bush Melee have been developed as part of a workshop that was facilitated by CANARI and PCI-Media Impact and the St Vincent Department of Forestry in late 2011 in Kingstown, St Vincent. The workshop involved representatives of local civil society organizations and state agencies that work in areas related to forest management. 

Bush Talk and Bush Melee were both written and produced during this workshop to focus on local values and issues in St Vincent.  These efforts are part of overall public education and outreach efforts funded by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) to promote community involvement in forest management to benefit local livelihoods.

Participants in the programme also gained hands-on experience in how to use entertainment education that they can use later in their individual organisations for their public education activities. 

The four episodes of Bush Talk and Bush Melee are available online at PCI Media Impact’s website: http://mediaimpact.org/?page_id=843

For more information on CANARI and its work to promote community forestry and sustainable community livelihoods throughout the Caribbean, visit the website at www.canari.org. For more information on PCI Media Impact and their work in using Entertainment Education for social change, go to www.mediaimpact.org.