Program Spotlight: Conservation Coverage in Georgia
From Poaching to Pollution

By Rob Taylor, Director, Science and Environment Programs, ICFJ

Borjomi, Georgia – “Environmental issues are not popular here in Georgia,” said Magda Chinidzhishvili of Kutaisi.

“That is because reporters do technical, boring stories,” replied Georgian television journalist Ekaterine Gurgenidze. “You can make it interesting if you do it right.”

Thus began a four-day-long discussion. From May 1-4, Armenian and Georgian journalists here debated, studied and honed their skills for covering conservation of biological diversity in the Caucasus region.

They soaked up information on conservation issues – from the location of the last Caucasian leopards to efforts to combat poachers and illegal loggers. They absorbed insights on how to frame stories and weave in colorful details. They practiced writing story proposals and crafting articles.

“I have new connections in the world of eco-journalism,” said Nino Kvirikashvili, a reporter for Georgia’s Imedi television. “I hope these days in Borjomi will help me to improve the ways I can get information to the public.”

The journalists themselves got to sample a protected environment in Borjomi, a mountain resort famous for its clean air and mineral waters. The group hiked into the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, the first and best developed park in Georgia. They fed black and white bezoar goats, which were imported from Armenia to replenish stocks in Georgia that have been hunted to the verge of extinction.

The International Center for Journalists organized the training workshop with funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). The event was part of a two-year program of journalism workshops, coaching, reporting contests and other activities for the media of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Russian Republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. In Georgia, ICFJ worked with a local partner, the Caucasus Center for Journalists (CCFJ), as well as two conservation groups, the World Wildlife Fund and the Regional Environmental Center for the Caucasus.

Some journalists said the environment was hard to sell to editors and the public in the Caucasus. “It’s strange to talk about conservation of animals and plants when we have abuses of human rights and other urgent problems in our country,” said Emzar Diasamidze, a Batumi journalist. At the same time, most of the journalists recited lists of compelling environmental stories near their hometowns. Illegal timber cutting led the list, followed by pollution, poaching, and the disappearance of unique animals and fish.

Getting good information is hard in the region. “Most of the environmental issues are politically sensitive,” noted Marta Akhnazaryan, who works for a newspaper in Yerevan, Armenia, “which is why officials don’t like to give us information on them.”

Lasha Zarginava, reporter for a newspaper in the Black Sea port of Poti, said that in a small country such as Georgia, many people have a personal interest in slanting the information. What is hard for journalists, he said, is to find independent experts.

Tiko Tsomaia, a journalism instructor for the Georgia Institute of Public Affairs, advised reporters on how to use courts to force government officials to release information. Even if that takes time, added Gesine Dornblueth, a trainer and reporter for German Public Radio, it may make officials less likely to withhold information in the future.

More than a half-dozen expert speakers from government and nongovernmental organizations spoke to the group at the Borjomi Gorge Hotel. Tsomaia urged journalists to go beyond them, to seek out multiple sources to give people a broad range of facts and views.

ICFJ promotes quality journalism worldwide in the belief that independent, vigorous media are crucial in improving the human condition. ICFJ believes that high-quality journalism provokes better governance decisions on all issues, including how to manage public resources. In 2002 and 2003, ICFJ carried out a similar journalism program for CEPF in Peru and Bolivia.

CEPF works to improve conservation efforts in 25 “hotspot” regions around the globe where plant and wildlife diversity is unusually rich and threatened. CEPF is a partnership of the Global Environment Facility, the government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Conservation International.

Program Spotlight: Conservation Coverage in Georgia From Poaching to Pollution

Program Spotlight: Conservation Coverage in Georgia
From Poaching to Pollution