Date: Tuesday, March 15, from 15h to 18h CET

Place: online

The climate crisis is the most important challenge facing the Mediterranean today. With the region heating up 20% faster than the global average, our future depends on how we respond over the next decade.
Coastal wetlands will have a huge role to play in the coming years as we adapt to the realities of a warming world. They’re one of nature’s best solutions to floods, droughts and rising sea levels; and they’re vital for people and nature alike. They’re incredibly rich in biodiversity, while their natural processes sustain 250 million people living on the Mediterranean coast.

So far, though, coastal wetlands have received relatively little coverage in the media, and there’s not enough general awareness of just how important they are. We need to change that and to bring their huge potential into the spotlight: that’s why we’re offering a free three-hour media training session for anyone involved in reporting on the climate crisis. The session will help journalists learn more about the value of coastal wetlands as nature-based solutions, and will offer a unique opportunity for colleagues across the region to share approaches, tools, and ideas on how to tell this vital part of the story.

What you will learn

The media training (delivered online and in English) will help local journalists to build solid stories about wetlands with a “solution journalism” approach. The training will also provide participants with practical tools and information about using and managing scientific data in their everyday work.
Using the “Design Thinking approach”, the workshop will also have an interactive component where participants will develop ideas for local stories, covering wetland-based solutions in an innovative way.

What you will take home:

• Story ideas and sources for covering the climate crisis in the Mediterranean
• An understanding of key coastal wetland issues
• Access to the latest scientific information
• Expert contacts
• Networking opportunities with other journalists in the region
• A new awareness of how solution journalism approaches can tell local stories with a
  global perspective

Agenda
3:00 – 3:10 Welcome & Introduction (Chantal Menard, MedWet)
3:10 – 3:40 Data journalism to cover climate change (Elisabetta Tola, Facta)
3:40 – 4:00 Wetland-based solution journalism: case studies (Giulia Bonelli, Facta)
4:00 – 4:10 Q&A Session
4:10 – 4:30 Design Thinking I: Identifying the (local) problem
4:30 – 4:40 Break
4:40 – 5:10 Design Thinking II: Identifying and communicating the solution
5:10 – 5:45 Breakout rooms exercise
5:45 – 6:00 Wrap-up and discussion

The training will be provided by FACTA through the Wetland-based Solutions project

Facta is a non-profit centre that applies scientific methods to investigative and data-driven journalism, innovating both the process and the final outputs. Facta focuses on the Mediterranean region, where there are enormous environmental, social and political problems. Their scientific approach can help reduce misinformation and disinformation while enhancing the efficacy and impact of journalism and communication to different stakeholders and communities. www.facta.eu

The Wetland-based Solutions project gathers together a powerful network of expert organizations working to preserve and restore Mediterranean coastal wetlands, raise awareness, and spread best practices to ensure people and nature’s survival across the basin as it confronts unprecedented climate and biodiversity crises.
https://wetlandbasedsolutions.org