Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: The public media can be the focal point for community action to improve the environment. Media often defines morality and environmental concerns are, at their heart, moral issues. In the Kingdom of Tonga, a radio initiative to foster environmental awareness resulted in a decided change of behaviour and a measurable improvement in the environment.

Background in summary:

     Media coordinates and stimulates community spirit

     Tonga Environmental Awareness - a training course via radio: Week Starting in 1984, as the result of a training course in environmental radio broadcasting (Chesher 1984), the Government of Tonga began an Environmental Awareness Week. It has continued every year since and is one example in the Pacific islands where one can point to positive changes in the environment resulting from the change in behavior of the people.

     Support from the government to run the radio programme: The main radio station in Tonga is owned and run by the Government. When a young radio announcer wanted to initiate an annual radio series on environment, the Environmental Division of the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Natural Resources worked with her to create a week long programme that linked with the United Nation's World Environment Day and, as it happens, the King's Birthday.

     Activities and target group of the programme: The project involves a week long celebration of the environment, with schools, businesses and government offices participating in a variety of activities. The radio station presents and coordinates the program in association with the Environment Unit and all the Government ministries that are involved with environmental issues.

     Although individual projects and themes vary from year to year, the week usually includes:

• On Sunday the churches discuss the environment and people's obligation to protect it.
  
  
• On Monday everyone cleans up the island; a massive campaign of sweeping, litter collecting, and trimming of hedges and lawns. Prizes are awarded for the tidiest village.
  
  
• On Tuesday, the Agriculture Department provides seedling trees for free and thousands of people plant thousands of trees on public and private property.
  
  
• On Wednesday there is a contest for the best songs, dances and artwork posters for the environment.
  
  
• On Thursday there is a radio talkback show where people call in to ask a panel of key government officials for information on environmental topics.
  
  
• Radio shows each day of the week on different environmental issues.
  
  

     This programme has made changes to environmental conditions: Sapling trees planted in the first environmental awareness week are now reasonably sized trees. Not all the trees survived, but each year thousands more are planted; fruit trees, nut trees, decorative trees, medicinal trees. It is one of the few examples where one can return more than a decade after an environmental project started in the Pacific islands and find a measurable improvement in the flora.

     Reasons for the success of this programme: The fact that the week happens to be in June, at the same time as the King's birthday, helps the festive spirit and the government commitment. It's success also centers on the realization by the Church, NGOs, schools, government departments, and businesses that the Environmental Awareness Week is a time for co-operation for the benefit of the whole community. Radio has been a big help and, in more recent years, television. People get involved.

Peer Review Committee Good practice rating: (1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score)
Sustainability		Efficiency
2	Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other.	1	Cost efficient.
2	Sustainable over time (not one-off)	Process
Adaptability		2	Participation of the community
2	Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?)	2	Participation of resource owners/users
2	Socio-cultural adaptability.	2	Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private)
2	Level of development adaptability.	2	Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments.
1	Style of government adaptability.	2	Ability to attract political interest/support
2	Degree of decentralization adaptability.	-	Procedures for feedback and review.
Comments on this example:       Success was a blend of Government and Media working together for the benefit of the whole community. Media has been an essential ingredient in almost every successful sustainable development story. Sustainability of the project:      Awareness and visions: The Environmental Awareness Week as you can see is a major awareness raising programme that tries to involve everyone in the society in this activity. They have made the week a very festive week so to attract peoples attention. Adaptability of the project to other situations:       Environmental awareness weeks are also conducted in Samoa and American Samoa and other Pacific island countries, but Tonga has consistently had the largest and best organised programs. Process of decision making and implementation:      After the awareness week is over, there should be immediately follow up programmes to measure how effective the awareness week was in terms of awareness raising. There should also be long term follow up programmes to see how the peoples behavior have changed to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable.      In addition to that, throughout the year, there should be programmes that act as a reminder of environmental awareness, so that people will not forget about the issue once the week is over. Cost efficiency:      Cost efficient: The media has the power to reach a large number of people throughout the country, therefore, it is the most suitable and inexpensive mean to be used to promote this programme and communicate with the public.