ekosTV and UNU Media Lab Talk about Saving the Ayuquilla River
MP3 Radio
The United Nations University (UNU) Media Studio was officially launched on March 31, 2003 with a mission to collaboratively build and share engaging online educational content. Through its small team based at the UNU headquarters in Tokyo, the Media Studio works with a network of partners to develop and share rich, dynamic online educational resources while promoting the creation of innovative content. The long-term vision of the UNU is to create a library of e-case studies dealing with pressing global issues of interest to the United Nations and its member states.
The UNU Media Studio’s pilot project, “Saving the Ayuquila River” focuses on the threatened Ayuquila River in Western Mexico. The documentary and e-case study deliver an engaging learning experience by combining the communication power of interactive multimedia with the effectiveness of the case study method of teaching and learning. The documentary and e-case study is used in the educational programmes at the University of Guadalajara, an affiliate of the UNU and the UNU-Global Virtual University network.
The Ayuquila River was facing serious pollution problems that escalated in the 1970s when the federal government dammed the river to encourage agricultural irrigation, in particular the sugar cane industry in the region. These activities severely altered the natural ecosystem that local agricultural and fishing communities had been relying on for generations. Although the sugar mills brought economic prosperity to some of the communities along the river, the livelihoods of many of the communities was destroyed. The documentary and e-case study examines the long struggle between the communities, sugar industry, scientists and government and how these diverse stakeholders eventually joined forces to find solutions towards environmental and economic sustainability. The partnership that emerged between these stakeholders received the 2005 Local Government Award from the Ford Foundation and the Economic Research Center, presented by Mexico’s President Vicente Fox.
Despite the success of these initiatives the responsibilities for environmental stewardship have not disappeared. Within the communities along the Ayuquila River there remains an on-going need for education and implementation of the ecological objectives that have now been established.
In this podcast interview ekosTV producer Patricia Sims speaks with Eduardo Santana Castellon, Researcher for the Manantlan Institute of Ecology, University of Guadalajara, and Luis Patron, Educational Media Producer and Director of the documentary at the UNU Media Studio about how the documentary and e-case study continue to be effective in communicating the problems that the Ayuquila River still faces.
For more information:
The UNU Media Studio home page
http://www.onlinelearning.unu.edu/
The link to the e-case study
http://www.onlinelearning.unu.edu/ayuquila
The link to the documentary on the Media Studio site
http://www.onlinelearning.unu.edu/ayuquila/film.html
