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Guiana Shield Media Project, South America

The Guiana Shield Media Project is an environmental media project with a focus on the Guiana Shield region of South America. The Guiana Shield stretches from northeastern Brazil, through French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and eastern Colombia, up to the Andes. Inhabited by many indigenous groups, the region has become the focus of attention for several international environmental organisations, and is considered exceptional as almost 90% of the terrain remains in a pristine state.

Environmentalle conscious organisations however find themselves on the horns of a seriuous dilemma: while the Guiana Shield region host some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems in the world, it is also trapped by large foreign debts and severe local poverty which force exploitation of the natural resources hastily and unsustainable.

One of the most important areas of social development is education. This is a particularly acute issue in the Guiana Shield: as the region continues to invest in its interior resources, the need for a properly informed public grows. In particular, there is a need for public education about environmental issues within the region and abroad. Media attention can be a poweful tool in educating both the local and the international consciousness and this the reason for the existence of GSMP. Its primary objective is to develop informative media products such as television broadcasts, video documentaries, CD-ROMs and Websites about social, cultural and environmental issues in the Guiana Shield territory for regional and international distribution.

GSMP is a project undertaken by Black Eye International; a media co-operative based in the Netherlands. The project has been supported with assistance from amongst others the WWF and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN‹Netherlands). It is co-ordinated by Ray Kril and Dr.Terry Roopnaraine. Ray Kril has over thirty years of television and filmmaking experience, and has worked extensively in Guyana, Suriname and other developing countries. Dr. Roopnaraine holds a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University, and has research interests in the indigenous cultures of Guyana and Amazon.

The GSMP presently has a regional office in Georgetown, Guyana and an international office in Amsterdam, Netherlands as well as associates in the USA, England and Denmark. The GSMP associates include lawyers, doctors, writers, researchers, biologist, forest experts, economist, media producers and Indigenous peoples organisations. All professional members are making contributions of work either free or 40% below the standard charges.

The Regional Office in Georgetown, Guyana has recently received professional video production equipment. This was made available trough funding from the Netherlands Committee of the IUCN Guiana Shield Initiative programme. The regional team has received basic training with the equipment. It is our objective to begin using the equipment to produce news items and short documentaries for local television. Following several months of this activity it is planned that the GSMP Regional Team will begin to produce a twice monthly one hour TV programme for local broadcasters in Guyana as well as Suriname. The programme will focus on regional and international environment issues. Some of the regional TV items will also be distributed via the website www.guianashield.tv . There is further interest from National Geographic TV for distribution of the items via the NGTV News programme.
Lack of funds for continued training of the Regional Team and for production costs, i.e. travel, material and editing kept the project from going onward. The working budget for training and production for six months is € 9.000,--. This amount will enable the International professional team to do at least 2 weeks of training with the Regional Team as well as produce at least 10 news items and the first TV programme. It is planned that the TV programme will be able to continue from local financial support. Other organisations donated 9.800 Nfl. Moments of Joy and the Home Foundation decided to each donate € 2.000,--.