E Stands for Environment: ICT Tools to Empower Activists Struggling to Protect Environment around the World

This article explores developments in the use of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the part of civil society worldwide as a strategic tool for keeping the public alert, informed, and inspired to act on issues of the environment and natural resources protection.

Pavel Antonov begins by presenting a concrete example of this strategy: the "Cyanide-Free Bulgaria" campaign, which was stimulated following the email distribution of a "stunning photo" of a "committed environmental activist" and co-founder of Bulgaria's electronic network BlueLink, who had been detained by police "in a desperate attempt to silence his environmental criticism against two gold mining projects." Within minutes of receiving this email, author Pavel Antonov forwarded the image with an accompanying message to "tens of journalist colleagues through Bulgaria, all over Europe and the world. And I was not the only one to do so." This communication - all of it online - apparently reached the general public, mass media, and the institutions of the European Union (EU). For the author, it serves as "an example of the power of the internet and electronic communication for environmental protection." He elaborates: "Active use of online discussion groups, chat-rooms, a designated campaign website, online news coverage, and information support from BlueLink contributed largely to this success, commented Vassilev after being released from police custody."

Drawing on this example, Antonov discusses several approaches to and insights on what he sees as the "environment & ICT momentum", including:

Providing access to information: To foster access to environmental information, especially in "the South", BlueLink presented the global community with an international treaty that obliges governments to share environmental information with the public using electronic communication - along the lines of the Aarhus convention, which was signed and ratified by most European countries and the EU as a whole and which maintains an international consultation body through which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an active role in monitoring governments' performance under the convention.

Among various already-existing "tool and tactics" that civil society could use for improved use of ICTs for environmental sustainability, APC has identified ICT-based mapping of environmental policies as one "didactical and popular" means of increasing access to environmental information.

Facilitating interactivity and activity: The internet could be used to "talk across borders", fostering the interplay between awareness, responsibility and action. APC suggests that civil society could draw on ICTs to foster awareness globally about the importance of addressing - and developing strategies for - disposing of toxic and radioactive waste (including waste generated by the information technology (IT) industry itself), preserving natural resources, and attending to the side effects of consumption-based lifestypes. The idea is that sharing information will, in turn, stimulate those in developed countries, for instance, to take responsibility and act responsively to diminish the impacts of their lifestyles on the rest of the planet. In short, greater use of ICTs could improve access to environment-related information, dissemination, networking and the exchange of ideas.

Future directions include an APC-designed specialised, interactive portal to guide civil society users through geographic information systems (GIS) and other existing applications for environmental sustainability, as well as an initiative on the part of civil society to work for integration of environmental sustainability into other policy instruments regulating the use of ICTs (including the use of environmentally-friendly materials and technologies in ICT industries). Anticipating these plans, Al Alegre from the Foundation for Media Alternatives in the Philippines claims that "civil society will require basic data and information on the uses of ICTs for environmental sustainability, such as orientation papers, a glossary, and awareness raising and capacity building modules."

Antonov concludes that "Information and communication technologies are a powerful tool for civil society protecting environment. But more is needed to streamline ICT work of different groups and communities, and offer them access to the ICTs they need to secure environmental sustainability."