By Hele Ikimotu with visuals by Blessen Tom in Suva

Ten students from the University of the South Pacific have captured the effects of climate change on their smartphone devices.

The task was organised through an eParticipatory Observers Project (ePOP) workshop last month by members of the ePOP network based in France.

The ePOP project was established by RFI Planète Radio, along with the IRD (National French Research Institute for Sustainable Development). The project aims to raise awareness about climate change through videos produced by young people.

The workshop at USP was over four days, with the first part of the workshop developing the students’ filming and editing skills. The students then applied these skills to produce videos about communities affected by climate change.

Bigger platform
Koroi Tadulala, a third year Fiji journalism student took part in the ePOP project both last year and this year.

“I joined ePOP because I’ve always been keen about climate change and the environment. I had been writing climate change stories since I started first year.

“Ever since then, I’ve been following up stories on climate change and then ePOP came around. I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to put my skills to use and address this issue on a bigger platform.”

The Fijian student bears a close connection to the effects of climate change as his own village is affected by sea level rise.

He said it made him want to be an activist in spreading “the word of climate change”.

“As part of the ePOP project, we go to the grassroots level and sit down with a lot of community members and ask them to share their stories with us,” he said.

Tadulala said it was a great opportunity to produce and share the stories to a wider audience.

‘Amazing’ response
“We brought out some of the stories that we didn’t really know about and now people are reacting to it. It’s amazing to see how people take it in.”

Tadulala created a video story on the effect of the 2016 Cyclone Winston on food security and a story on how the Fiji village of Nabudakra thinks they should strengthen their faith with God to reduce the impact of cyclones.

He said a project like ePOP catered to the digital era and encouraged young people to engage with issues around climate change.

“We create short videos from two to three minutes long so it enables them to go through the whole video without being bored.

“We decided to put this out on social media, especially because most of the people are using social media networks and it’s only smart to use that platform to put out the word of climate change.”

Filmmaking interest
Mia Kami, a law student at USP, also took part in the ePOP workshop out of an interest for filmmaking.

The student, of Tongan descent, said the ePOP team had shared that awareness of climate change issues faced by the Pacific was not as strong in Europe.

“Their [ePOP’s] goal was to spread awareness of climate change in Europe, so the videos that we did were based on climate change.

“I think because it was from a student in the Pacific, it would be a lot more heartfelt so people would understand it more from a Pacific point of view,” said Kami.

Kami and a few other students went to a fish market and interviewed vendors to get their perspective on how climate change affected fisheries.

She said she was surprised at what their idea of climate change was and how it affected them.

“The first lady we interviewed, her definition of climate change was that it’s bad weather.

Water pollution
“She believes that the bad weather is making the fishermen stop fishing, so they don’t fish and she doesn’t get to buy fish from them so she can sell. So that’s how she said that climate change affected her.”

Speaking of another vendor she interviewed, Kami said the vendor did not think overfishing was an issue and felt that it was water pollution.

“I feel like a lot of the media coverage that we do based on climate change, it doesn’t reach as far as their areas because a lot of the vendors are based in rural areas.

“I feel like the proper research on it doesn’t reach that grassroots level so I think if people took climate change into the more grassroots level, it would give them a totally different perspective.”

Kami enjoyed the ePOP project and the process of producing the video story. She said it was important for young people to make themselves aware of climate change.

“It’s our future. I think it’s important that we make an attempt to lessen the damage that we’re going to face in the future,” she said.

“What we can do now is so essential. If we know more about it, it makes so much of a difference. It all starts with ourselves.”

Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom are in Fiji as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness 2018 climate change project. They are collaborating with the University of the South Pacific.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Elizabeth Osifelo in Suva

The French government is committed to the fight against climate change in the Pacific and hopes programmes such as the eParticipatory Observers Project (ePOP) will shed light on the impact of this global phenomenon in the region.

Ambassador of France to Fiji Sujiro Seam made the assurance during a visit to the journalism newsroom at the University of the South Pacific in Suva last week to observe the progress made at the conclusion of an ePOP workshop, which focused on producing short videos about the perceptions and impact of climate and environmental changes on Pacific Island populations.

Seam said ePOP targeted young people and gave them an opportunity to share stories on climate change and environmental issues taking place in their communities.

“I am very happy that we have this programme because it is not only beneficial for the youth but it also focuses on climate change,” he said.

“Since COP21 and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, France tries to stay at the forefront of this fight against climate change.

“With the ePOP training, there are some good tools for the participants’ personal development and their professional career.

-Partners-

“I think it is important today to master these techniques and knowhow to tell a story in different formats.”

French actors
Seam said it was also appropriate for him as Ambassador of France in Suva to support the initiative which was designed and led by French actors.

Ten students from USP, including a group of journalism students, were part of the four-day intensive training ePOP workshop which enabled them to maximise their reach through video storytelling and develop a brand narrative across multiple social media platforms.

One of the training facilitators was Julien Pain, former editor-in-chief of France24’s Observers, a citizen journalism project he set up in 2007. Prior to that, Pain was head of the new media desk at the Paris-based global media freedom agency Reporters Without Borders.

ePOP is a concept imagined by RFI Planète Radio (France Media Monde Group) and developed with the IRD (National French Research institute for Sustainable Development), in collaboration with many partners including the PIDF (Pacific Island Development Forum), L’Office des postes et télécommunications (OPT) in New Caledonia, the Fondation Expéditions Tara, la Fondation de France , la Fondation des Alliances françaises et l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF).

Two Auckland University of Technology students, Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom, are travelling to Fiji later this month on the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness climate change project and will be working with USP students and staff.

Elizabeth Osifelo is a final year student journalist at the University of the South Pacific.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz