The Siwalik mountain range spanning Nepal serves as a lifeline for nearly half of the country’s 30 million people who are concentrated in the lowlands just next to these mountains or around them. It is their main source of water, fuelwood and other forest products, but the ecosystem is under severe pressure from threats such as rampant development, migration, deforestation and the extraction of sand and boulders for use in construction.

To raise awareness about this fragile mountain range and the impact its destruction could have on the wildlife and communities that depend on it, the Digital Broadcast Initiative Equal Access (DBI-EA), which supports local media to enhance access to information, organized a four-day virtual training for radio journalists from across Nepal from June 13-16.

With financial support and resources provided by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, the training focused on how to produce radio content about conservation efforts tied to the Siwalik, or Chure, mountain range. It was divided into, sessions covering radio techniques; conservation science; ways to utilize information and communications technology applications; and public-hearing sessions, group discussions that DBI-EA often hosts involving communities, experts, political leaders and conservationists.

To keep the online workshop engaging and participatory, environmental experts and journalism trainers – including EJN’s South Asia Content Coordinator Ramesh Bhushal – led interactive sessions to help participants understand  different radio formats and target content at policymakers and citizens.

Eighteen radio journalists joined the training from three lowland districts – Dhanusha, Mahottari and Sarlahi – which are all likely to see increasingly severe flooding as the mountains’ ecosystems degrade. In total, eight sessions were organized over the four days.

Learn more about all the work being done by our partners at DBI-EA.

(Banner photo: screenshot of a virtual training.)