On Earth Day, AMARC calls on its members to lead the discussion on climate change

Montreal, April 22, 2015. Today, as we celebrate Earth Day throughout every continent, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) calls on its members to act as actors of political, economical, cultural and social changes and lead the discussion on climate change and sustainable development.

Members of the network of AMARC are already doing their part to change the narrative, inform the population and share stories from their communities about the numerous impacts of climate change. In 2014, AMARC associated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to organize an awareness campaign on family farming, food security. This fruitful partnership led to another campaign on nutrition, food, agriculture and hunger that was launched last fall. Since March 2015, members of AMARC are producing stories for an international audio series entitled Stories from the soils in the context of the International Year of Soils (IYS2015). This series aims to tell the story of the land beneath our feet, sensitize the public about climate change and the importance of soils as essential eco-systems.

Francesco Diasio, AMARC’s Secretary General says: “Community radios are indispensable actors in sustainable development processes. They help develop, sustain and improve of the quality of life of communities, including in rural areas. Considering this, AMARC wishes to continue on this path and encourage community radios to share programmes for its campaigns.”

The programmes are available for download and distribution on AMARC’s website. AMARC encourages its members and the public to disseminate them widely.

AMARC hopes that this year’s international broadcast campaign will generate discussions about marginalized and poor populations’ role in ameliorating their livelihoods, in shaping long-term sustainable community development and to confront the crisis created by climate change. We also hope that this multilingual broadcast campaign will contribute to the discussion on these important issues and will identify practical as well as long-term solutions.

If you wish to share a programme related to Earth Day, please send it along with a short summary and your contact information via We Transfer to secretariat@si.amarc.org. We hope for a strong participation from the network. It’s our turn to lead!