“Think nature!” January: Training for journalism students, citizen journalists, but also the selection for the most beautiful mini garden

We started the new year with a reminder of what will mark it – the selection of new projects that will be awarded grants “Think Nature!”. The application deadline is the 17th of this month.

In the part of the year when a large number of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing the problem of air pollution, we reminded the causes and consequences of this problem through the blog of our volunteer Emina Sultanović.

However, our happiest campaign – “I plant, and you?” – made sure that everything was not dark. As previously announced, a call for proposals for the most beautiful edible mini garden (on the balcony, garden, and/or other space) has been published. This month, the winners of the selection for the most beautiful edible mini garden (on the balcony, garden, garden, and/or other space) were announced, and the selection is completely left to all members of the Facebook platform who are nature lovers. We thank everyone who “voted”, left reactions to great, innovative, edible mini gardens, and thus determined who will receive the awards. In total, there were more than 20,200 reactions, and photos of edible mini gardens garnered more than 1,000 reactions. Our participants in the competition showed that food can be grown in small spaces and urban areas. The winners of the three main awards are Elvira Serdarević and Adna Ćurt from Sanski Most, and Draga Vučić from Banja Luka.

In line with epidemiological conditions, lectures for journalism students started last year have continued online. On January 18, Sabina Jukan, Environmental Advisor for the “Think Nature!” Project gave a lecture on how to report on environmental protection. Sabina, as a master of technical sciences in the field of environmental engineering and environmental protection, has been dealing with environmental issues for years, initiated and led numerous projects in this field, and left behind successes such as the construction of the first plant-based wastewater treatment system Sistem BiCon and legal regulation protection of Mount Konjuh. Through many years of experience in the field of environmental protection, Sabina has collaborated with the media, identifying their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to reporting in this area. Twenty students had the opportunity to hear from a professional what are the things a journalist needs to know to deal with environmental protection and what things to pay attention to in the process.

The public call for the most beautiful mini garden is not the only one we have announced this month – there is also a call for blogs called “Nature is screaming – you describe it!”. Once again, we invited young people to write and send us their blogs about nature. We believe that young people are the voice of nature and in this way, by publishing on our website mislioprirodi.ba, we want to support young people in their care for nature. Monthly, the two best blogs will be awarded.

This month, in addition to training for students, within the segment of the Eco Media project, we organized a two-day online training for citizens, journalists, which brought together more than 20 activists for environmental protection. The training was attended by members of civil society organizations, such as REIC from Sarajevo, UG “Nešto više” from Mostar, or UG LIR Evolution from Banja Luka, but also independent activists interested in environmental protection. Participants had the opportunity to expand and strengthen their knowledge and skills of presenting information, conclusions, and recommendations to the public. The training also served as a kind of opportunity for citizens to present the environmental problems they face in their communities, and together with educators, they found the most effective ways to present them to the public.

The training was led by N1 Television journalist Tina Jelin Dizdar, who gave lectures on the basics of journalism and the difference between citizen and professional journalism and led an exercise in which participants wrote news on environmental topics of their choice and discussed them. Apart from Jelin Dizdar, RTV FBiH journalist Sanel Kajan shared her experience of reporting on environmental issues, Milena Dragović, Communications Officer at the World Wildlife Fund Adria, spoke about PR and media relations, while Radio Sarajevo Director Suada Peštek gave a lecture on the topic of social networks and new media to promote environmental topics.

Of course, we continued to work with the Eco-School program. We held a workshop for schools that belong to the area of ​​Eco HUBs Sarajevo, Maglaj, and Zenica. . The Manual for the implementation of the Certification Mechanism of Eco-Schools in BiH, how to use it, and various examples of necessary tools for the implementation of the Eco-Action Plan itself were presented. The way to start and create the School Eco-Action Plan was also presented, where during the presentation of their plans, the schools showed great interest, knowledge, and desire for change in their schools.

The first “Think Nature!” Podcast, produced by SeharaCast, was released this month. The first guest was project manager Dajana Cvjetković, who talked with the great SeharaCast team about inspiring actions of young people in the field of environmental protection, growing plants at home, what nature means to all of us, and many other topics that will surely be interesting to you.

When it comes to the numerous activities of grant beneficiaries “Think nature!”, we will single out the Eco HUB Sarajevo, which launched the initiative “Think about your cigarette butt”. The idea to launch the initiative arose in response to the long-standing problem of improper disposal of cigarette butts in Sarajevo, which not only aesthetically affects the appearance of the city, but also sends a message about the bad attitude of our society towards the environment. As part of this initiative, it is planned to prepare a legal analysis “Improving the legal framework to promote recycling and disposal of cigarette butts in Sarajevo Canton”, as well as prepare a short video story about the problem that plagues tourist guides in Sarajevo. What we must also emphasize is the adoption of the FBiH Law on Environmental Protection, which was initiated by the Eco HUB Sarajevo as part of its two-year campaign.

Eco HUB Široki Brijeg held a beautiful recycling in the kindergarten “Trnoružica”, while Eco HUB Maglaj announced the second public call for local environmental actions in the municipalities of Maglaj, Usora, Zavidovići, and Žepče.