Sandals awards eco-journalism prizes
Its name is synonymous with the romantic luxury of a holiday in a Caribbean paradise. And while promoting that image has made Sandals one of the most successful tourism operations in the region, the company also has a more practical mission: that of ensuring that the Caribbean environment stays healthy. To find out how they’re going about it, last week I took a brief trip to the Bahamas.
Every year, millions of tourists travel to the Caribbean to explore and enjoy the tropical splendour that the region has to offer. However, beaches, reefs, forests and other attractions have been destroyed by companies, governments and individuals who have no regard for the protection of the region’s environment. Today, Caribbean journalists are being challenged to highlight the destruction that is being caused and the steps that are being taken to protect the environment. In return the journalists are being encouraged by Sandals International.
Jacqueline Woods
“Awards ceremonies have been held at Sandals Resorts across the Caribbean. This year the ceremony takes place here at the Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort in beautiful Nassau, Bahamas. For the past 6 years, Sandals International in association with Carimac and the University of the West Indies has been honouring journalists for their outstanding reports on environmental issues that have had an impact on the Caribbean.”
Sandals international which also has properties in Jamaica, Antigua, and St. Lucia has been voted the world’s best all inclusive resort by travel agents worldwide, four years in a row. Today, Sandals can also boast that it has not only established the eco-journalism awards but also sets an example by making its resorts environmentally friendly.
This year, the Sandals Eco-Journalism Awards had a total of 52 entries. The judges chose four entries that they say had all the qualities required to win.
Professor Anthony Clayton, Sustainable Development, UWI
“What we were looking for are things that were well researched. They had to get the science right, they had to get the facts right. We were looking for items that were not in any sense, narrow. They had to address the science involved in difficult environmental issues or decisions. They also had to address the economics, the politics and the people, talk about the impact on people’s lives. And they had to do this justice in a way that was fair, they had to be impartial but at the same time they could be forceful. They could actually make a case and they had to present this well. You don’t escape from the rules of good journalism.”
Four persons representing both print and television received awards. Tony Morrison, a Jamaican freelance journalist received a plaque plus $10,000 U.S for the best television feature entitled “Clear and Present Danger.”
Tony Morrison
“It was a piece which started off by giving overall background about Jamaica’s environmental status. But it concentrated largely on the pollution of the environment being perpetrated by the rum and coffee industries, which are two of the Jamaica’s biggest and most high profile industries. It goes on to highlight what they are doing to about correcting it because both industries have started to correct it. And it placed all that against the background the changing economic conditions globally where we now have a World Trade Organisation and it’s quite likely that, say if Bacardi rum in Puerto Rico which competes against Appleton Rum in Jamaica, decides to file a complaint to the WTO that Appleton is polluting its environment, then maybe the U.S. or Europe can say to Appleton we will no longer take your product. So it becomes more than a question of just concern for the environment, it is starting to affect our nation’s economies, where it hurts, in our pockets.”
Senior Jamaican Environmental journalist, John Maxwell won first place in the print category for a series of articles that involved confrontations between a housing developer, the Jamaican Ministry of Housing and those who opposed to the destruction of green spaces at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica. Special merit award went to Vaneisa Baksh of Trinidad and Tobago, who wrote about the growing problem of asthma in that country. Baksh was rewarded U.S. $1,500. It was in this category that Belize won its award. Vincent Palacio, a technical coordinator at Programme for Belize collected his cash award of U.S. $1,500 for PFB’s video entry on Carbon Sequestration on the Rio Bravo. Palacio says the project includes power companies from North America, U.S.A and Canada working along with PFB to manage a certain portion of the forest in the North West of Belize.
Vincent Palacio
“When these utility companies emit CO2 and other green house gases in the air, the trees in the rain forest absorb this and gives off oxygen, which is what we need to survive. So if these power companies emit the CO2 hence, they give money for us to protect the tree so as to serve as a sink to absorb the CO2 and to give off the oxygen that we need.”
There were many distinguished guests at the ceremony including the prime ministers of the Bahamas and Jamaica. Joe Kennedy, the nephew of former U.S president John F. Kennedy also gave a special address to the journalists present.
Joe Kennedy
“You act to inform and to educate, which are the most valuable weapons in the fight to get out the message, that a healthy environment is not a luxury to be sacrificed to the economic development, but a necessity for long term economic growth and stability. We could not possibly advance the agenda of the environmental protection without your commitment to speaking out. Your work provokes a healthy and much needed debate and of course there will be differences about the best way to proceed, but without that debate, there will only be destruction.”
Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Chairman of Sandals International says it is important for everyone to get concerned about the environment. Stewart says they decided to launch the award because it is only the media that can create the awareness.
Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Chairman, Sandals International
“Nobody else can do it. People can make ad hoc speeches, they can have a couple of organisations that go off, but that message is going to be carried through the pen and the communication of electronics.”
“I’m a fisherman, so I use to go fishing and throw the bottle overboard or the bottle caps, simple things like that. These days, if it happens that you ever make the mistake of doing it, you feel like a criminal. I think that’s what communication has done and the education to the whole process.”
While Channel Five was not among this year’s winners, the station topped the top prize the 2 previous years.
Those past winning entries included William Neal’s story on sea turtles and my own 1998 piece on the erosion of the beach in Monkey River.
