Journey into the Mau forest with #asjc2012

Maina Waruru
Freelance journalist, SciDev.Net

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It was an opening day that resembled no other, with no official opening ceremony. Session one, day one, saw field visits for all science journalism practitioners who had gathered in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru in Kenya.

After a hurried breakfast, everybody boarded the buses to their pre-selected destinations. These included visits to HIV/AIDS community projects, Kenya Agriculture Research Institute projects in the region, and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate labs.

For me, none of these were particularly exciting. Instead, I chose to tour the Mau forest, the biggest and most critical ‘natural water tower’ in the East Africa region, which stores rain during the wet seasons and pumps it out during the dry months. I wanted to hear and see how a community of less than three thousand people had battled with the Kenyan government to restore this vital part of their ecosystem. As one of Africa’s smallest communities, they were determined to conserve this water tower using traditional knowledge.

So after no less than 50 miles, mostly along rough roads, we reached Marioshoni village where the Ogiek community lives. In contrast to their traditional roles as hunter-gatherers, they now lead a modern, unhappy life as farmers. 65-year-old Kipkinie Morish told us how their food, medicine and livelihoods depend on the honey, bark and roots from the forest.

Mau Forest, Kenya. Photo credit: bbcworldservice, flickr

For years, the Kenyan government plundered the Mau forest, ejecting villagers from their homes. They shared out over 26,000 hectares of land, not only to the Ogiek people but also to already wealthy, greedy local leaders. As one of the biggest water catchments in the country, this had devastating effects on rainfall patterns, causing the forest to dry up and plantations to fail. In 1996, this community attempted to sue the government, and since then have taken their grievances to every other international conservation forum.

Their wish is that the forest land be returned to them, so that they can abandon farming and let the vegetation grow back. For a community so poor in material terms and so far removed from ‘civilisation’, only their traditional way of life will save them from extinction.

As we learnt from elder Morish, this indigenous knowledge could save his beloved Marioshoni village from frequent dry spells and restore rainfall levels to those from his childhood in the 1960s.

The Africa Science Journalists Conference (ASJC) “officially” begins later tonight.

This blog post is part of our Africa Science Journalists Conference 2012 blog, which takes place 20-23 August in Nakuru, Kenya. To read news and analysis on science journalism please visit our website.

Science journalism: filling gaps in Africa’s development at #asjc2012

Ochieng’ Ogodo
Sub-Saharan Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

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On Monday, and for the following five days, African journalists will converge in Kenya’s Nakuru town, situated in the bewitchingly scenic Rift Valley.

They will be attending the Africa Science Journalists Conference (ASJC). Among others, they will seek to delve deep into science news reporting, looking at various interesting issues such as transforming communities through digital technology, Africa’s fight to achieve its full agricultural productivity potential and intriguing debates like: ‘Why we do not need more science reporters’.

But what is the significance of this gathering and similar conferences elsewhere in Africa?

To me, the conference is one of the many noble efforts by journalists and journalists’ networks in the continent to inspire and mainstream science journalism. They aim for science reporting to become one of the integral components for Africa’s socio-economic transformation and democratisation.

The meeting, like many other similar meetings, will be held against the backdrop of a continent under political transition and the role of science journalism in the emerging socio-economic and political dispensations cannot be gainsaid.

In the mid-1980s, democratic theory and politics in Africa entered a new phase and a fresh wave of struggles for democratisation spread across the continent. It elicited vibrant debates on the processes, prospects, and problems of Africa’s democratic projects.

Many countries introduced political reforms and became somewhat democratic or were in the process of becoming so. Literature on African democracy exploded and the media has been awash with news about the changing political circumstances, but there has been very little on the scientific tools needed to transform the socio-political changes into tangible economic gains for the benefit of the majority of Africans.

Largely, there has been a lack of simplified scientific information for making informed choices.  But science journalism seems to be gaining more currency. Other upcoming science journalism meetings are scheduled: 19–20 September will see ‘Making Scientific Information more accessible for Africa’s development’, taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the first Pan-African Science Journalists Conference is planned for the end of the year.

But more needs to be done: for example, there have been recent calls for more science in the media in Ghana, and in Senegal, and for a dedicated science news service for Africa.

The ASJC, organised by Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture seems promising, and we will keep you posted on the proceedings through incisive blog posts from our esteemed writers. Watch this space.

This blog post is part of our Africa Science Journalists Conference 2012 blog, which takes place 20-23 August in Nakuru, Kenya. To read news and analysis on science journalism please visit our website.

Last thoughts from PCST … and what next?

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Well, the conference is finished, and my luggage ready for the 6am morning flight. Before leaving, I asked Massimiano Bucchi, co-chair of PCST 2012, to give me his comments on this year’s conference.

“It was an intense programme. The sessions and discussions were of very good quality,” he said.

Bucchi said the meeting had strengthened “the interaction between research and practice” in science communication, and said for him one of the highlights this year was a meeting of PhD students, which attracted some 60 people from around the world who are engaged in science communication research.

“It was a good opportunity for networking and to make more visible what Italian institutions are doing in terms of public engagement,” Bucchi said.

There was also an announcement in the final session from Toss Gascoigne, about an important change to the PCST network, of which he is the president.

“The network has been working in an informal way for more than two decades, headed by a scientific committee,” he said.

“Now, we [have] decided to make a structural change toward a formal network, with legal status,” he said, adding that the constitution of the network and a membership scheme will be discussed in the coming months.

After the final session, the scientific committee — of which I am a member — met to take some decisions.  We approved two workshops to be held in 2013; one in New Zealand and other in Indonesia.

Then we had to decide where to hold the PCST 2016. We received two bids from two very exciting cities: Nairobi, in Kenya, and Istanbul, in Turkey. Very exciting, isn’t it? And the decision was… Istanbul!

But before the Istanbul conference there is, obviously, PCST 2014 which will be in another part of the globe: Brazil! I will be one of the chairs of that meeting, sharing the responsibility with Germana Barata.

Two strong institutions will host the conference: the Museum of Life/House of Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, and Labjor/State University of Campinas.

It is very exciting, since it will be the first PCST conference to be held in the Americas. We want to show that Latin America is the stage of an increasingly vibrant science communication community, strong in both practical and academic approaches.

After having had beauty, honesty and quality as the theme of this year’s conference — so apt in such a wonderful city as Florence — we want to add social and political concern ingredients to the discussion on science communication.

So the 2014 meeting will have as its theme, “Science communication for social inclusion and political engagement”. It will be held in Salvador, another fantastic city, with an extremely diverse culture.

See you there!

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Sustainable development through comics

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Communicating science in Mexico, as in any developing world country, can be a big challenge. Most of Mexico’s estimated 100 million inhabitants have only received eight years of basic education. For every 100 inhabitants over the age of 15 years, eleven females and seven males are illiterate.

On the other hand, comics are enormously popular in Mexico. Having this situation in mind, Aquiles Negrete, a researcher at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, has been describing his exploration of the use of comics to communicate science issues at PCST.

An image from the comic, "Sustainable Love"

His Sustento de amor (sustainable love) comic is a love story that uses visuals and a skilled narrative to disseminate information about sustainable development and natural resources  in Mexico and Central America.

Negrete has also developed what he calls the ‘RIRC’ method to evaluate the project, which uses four memory tasks, and  explores different levels of understanding.

“Our results show that comics can be an interesting tool for communicating science,” he says.

Also from Mexico, Rolando Riley from the Autonomous University of Chiapas, is using visual information to get science news and ideas to Chiapas, a state in which access to scientific information is poor.

“About 35 per cent of the population do not speak Spanish, the official language,” he explains.

One of the pilot projects is on nutrition, with a view to targeting women, because they “actually decide what the family will eat”.  Two other pilot projects will start soon, focusing on technology applied to agriculture, and the use of natural resources.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Exploring science theatre

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Two ‘classics’ of science communication — Baudouin Jurdant from the University of Paris 7 (pictured on the left) and Steve Miller of University College London, taking part in an exploration of science theatre at PCST 2012.

The pair participated in a play reading that aimed to encourage reflections on the challenges for communicating science to the public using drama.

The reading was also participated in by Jöelle Le Marec of the Université Paris Diderot and Yves Jeanneret of Paris Sorbonne Université — both in France —  and Ana Godinho from the Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem in Portugal.

The play was written by Jurdant, who has no immediate plans to stage the play in a regular theatre.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Happy birthday, Public Understanding of Science!

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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The commemoration of the 20^th anniversary of the journal of Public Understanding of Science (PUS) has recevied its own plenary session at PCST 2012, with the participation of all four editors: John Durant (MIT, US), Bruce Lewenstein (Cornell University, US), Edna Einsiedel (University of Calgary, Canada) and Martin Bauer (London School of Economics, UK).

Public Understanding of Science

It was a good opportunity for thinking about the past, the present and the future. The history of the journal coincides with an important moment of consolidation of the academic field.

One of the main journals for researchers in this discipline, it has doubled its publication rate since 1992, moving from 4 issues a year to 8. The editors say they want to broaden the journal’s current “North Atlantic driven” focus.

“We need to increase the presence of other countries and push the internationalisation of the authorship,” said Bauer, the journal’s president editor.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Journalists under pressure

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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The wide use of the internet has brought unquestionable new benefits to journalists. Discussing the challenges of science journalism at PCST today, Suzanne de Cheveigné, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, highlighted that it also puts journalists increasingly under pressure.

“Editors are putting too much pressure on journalists in terms of reducing the time [it takes to write stories],” de Cheveigné said, referring to a qualitative study she has carried out with environment journalists.

I am not myself a environment journalist (and prefer to refer to myself as science journalist) but I can understand very well this feeling.  Actually, I can visualise the face of my editor in London, waiting for posts for this blog, while I attend several sessions, chair a few of them and do a couple of presentations myself. It’s very cool, but also feels like too much pressure sometimes.

According to de Cheveigné, the avalanche of emails journalists receive is another example of journalists being overwhelmed in the internet age.

“It is actually impossible to open all of them,” she said.

Another study among environment journalists carried out by Ana Claudia Nepote, at the Autonomous National University in Mexico, brought further information about the pressures on the profession.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey distributed electronically to journalists, 38 of whom responded.

Ana Claudia observed that respondents were concentrated in the capital, Mexico City, or in Veracruz, where there is a masters course on environment journalism.

“We had no answers from the northeast, [where there is] a lot of economical development activity, or southern areas such as Chiapas and Oaxaca, which are very rich cultural and biological regions,” she said regretfully.

“Our results indicate that there is a lack of projects such as community radio and other strategies to engage local communities.”

Nepote also called for greater efforts to strengthen press offices at universities, research centres and government agencies such as the National Council of Science and Technology.

“We need to push the press officers, since they are facilitator agents between science and the public,” she said.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Beauty has a specific space in our brain?

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Beautiful things have one thing in common: they activate a specific area of the brain. This intriguing idea was raised in the opening session of this year’s conference by Semir Zeki, professor at neurosthetics at University College London, United Kingdom, in a talk on the measurement of beauty.

It’s a controversial and possibly reductionist idea, but one thing we would probably agree on is that if there was a way of testing our brain activity during his talk, we would have been pretty active.

The PCST 2012 venue - Florence's Palazzo Vecchio

Certainly no one could disagree that the location of the 12^th International Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST 2012) is one of beauty. We are at the Palazzo Vecchio, surrounded by fantastic artworks, including a Michelangelo.

For Piero Angela, a senior Italian TV announcer who has been central to the primetime science show “Superquark“, emotion is the central issue in engaging the public in science.

“Without emotion, we are not able to switch on the brain, to activate the memories,” he told the opening session.

The conference has attracted 647 delegates from 46 countries. The majority are from Europe (72 per cent), followed by Asia (9 per cent), North America (9 per cent) and Oceania (5 per cent).  Just 4 per cent and 1 per cent of the delegates are from Latin America and Africa respectively.

We will have two very packed and exciting days!

Note from Editor: The organisers have uploaded podcasts from conference sessions here.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Luggage ready, destination Florence!

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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I just finished packing my luggage. I am very excited about travelling to Florence, Italy. The city is fantastic, the wine and the food are both so good as to be indescribable.

Florence is hosting PCST2012

But it is unlikely that I can taste any of these delights, as I will be extremely busy.  Not that I am unhappy, though. The Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference (PCST) is one of my favourites.

There are other two other key international conferences on science communication: the World Conference for Science Journalists and  the World Conference for Science Centers. I really enjoy both of them, but PCST is about everything and everybody together: scientists, journalists, artists etc (and there are a lot of “etc”!).  It is about both research and practical initiatives. In summary: everything related to science communication.

And one of the most enjoyable aspects of these international conferences is that they are held in a different country each time.  It’s a great opportunity to observe how the concept of science communication can change according to a specific cultural, social and economic context.

I have high expectations for the meeting in Florence. The organisers are expecting around 850 people, and looking at the programme, it’s very exciting. There are some extremely well-known and well-respected speakers.

More from me very soon. In the meantime, check out the website, where you can find out more about the conference and read the full programme.

Note from Editor: This year the organisers will be recording sessions and making them available on the conference site as podcasts.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Declarations, dancing… but will the Forum deliver action?

Ochieng’ Ogodo
Sub-Saharan Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

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In an evening of a cosy buffet and free flowing drinks, many at the Forum’s conference dinner discussed Africa’s love of conferences and the lack of implementation of their outcomes.

Kenya’s Minister for Higher Education Science and Technology, Margaret Kamar, who was the host, could have not been more apt in terming the continent “a sleeping giant with tons of declarations with nothing being done to fulfil them.”

And she said she hoped that at the end of the Africa Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation that scenario would change.

“I hope tomorrow will mark the end of declarations for Africa and we must translate these outcomes into development,” she said.

She had some food for thought for the delegates, that unlocking the continent’s potential won’t come from meetings and resolutions but on the ability of her people to wake up the giant and give it the much needed push to development.

“It’s time for science, technology and innovation in Africa and there is no short cut. We must do it. We want solutions that will work. Practical solutions for practical problems,” Kamar said.

The dinner was also a chance for delegates to relax after a long day’s deliberations, with African beats belching out from big speakers.  There was talents galore in footwork, and some very intricate and rare dance steps.  It was a reminder that everyone there, irrespective of their stations in public life — academics, diplomats, and even journalists like me — have many other gifts… including dancing.

Nonetheless, Kamar’s remarks echoed what has been said in many other places, at other meetings in other posh hotels, where excellent declarations have been made that rarely translate into tangible solutions for Africa’s people, the majority of whom are trapped in abject poverty.

Africa can only come unstuck with a paradigm shift, not business as usual.

We are now waiting to see how — and whether — this Nairobi meeting that had at its theme the promotion of Youth Employment, Human Capital Development and Inclusive growth will contribute to bringing about real change.