Methods of Dissemination of Environmental Information

Disseminating information about our environment is essential for the proper utilization of environmental resources and its sustainability. It also needs to cover both age groups in urban and rural populations.

The beneficiaries at the community level are as much a clientele for environmental information as are the policy makers, the decision makers and the project implementers.

Hence, environmental information needs to be conveyed to these different categories of people through formal education systems, non-formal education systems and the use of mass media.

Environmental Information

Rapid economic development across the globe has led to a massive use of natural resources as well as a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions which in turn has brought about noticeable environmental problems.

The lack of a widespread environmental awareness on the part of those acting in various sectors (industry, public administration, users) sometimes inhibit the implementation of legislation already in existence as well as the introduction of new technologies (Walter, 2000).

There is an urgent need to undertake initiatives in the environment field where environmental information may be used intelligently. This means that there needs to be sensible use of the large amount of environmental information available at sources such as the German Federal Environmental Agency in Berlin and the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen (Walter, 2000).

Environmental information is understood as everything that has to do with the rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely and if not, then they are not sustainable (Anna and Iwona, 2017).

This includes climate, stability, air, land and water quality, land use and soil erosion, biodiversity (diversity of species and habitats), and ecosystem services (e.g. pollination and photosynthesis).

The dissemination of environmental information means the production, creation, collection, preparation and presentation or forwarding of such information to various target groups.

These target groups refer to stakeholders, who according to (Freeman, 1984) are any group who can affect or are affected by something such as the environment or environmental information.

The production of environmental information requires data collection and feedback from various stakeholders on the reports, strategy documents, and plans for environmental sustainable development that have already been published (Anna and Iwona, 2017).

Access to environmental information can help stakeholders in identifying, recognizing and diagnosing a problem or opportunity; searching for and developing alternatives; and selecting alternatives and acting accordingly (Mintzberg et al., 1976).

Read Also : The Role of Educational Intervention in Environmental Action

According to Anna and Iwona (2017) dissemination of environmental information has a positive effect on the decision-making of internal stakeholders.

Dissemination of Environmental Information

Although the dissemination of environmental information requires the production of such information which in turn requires the collection and analysis of environmental data (Anna and Iwona, 2017; Alister, 2000), dissemination is perhaps the most important step in bringing environmental change.

This is why most organisations focus more on disseminating their environmental research to the appropriate target groups.