Grant Amount Equivalent to USD 5,000;

Funding agency: The Ramsar Regional Center – East Asia (RRC-EA) Wetland Fund 2018.
Project Summary (Thematic Area 2 of Ramsar Wetland Fund – Celebration of World Wetlands Day 2018)
Title Celebrating World Wetlands Day 2019 – National Social Media Awareness Campaign Implementing organization CGED – Nepal

MAJOR RESULTS:
a) Hard and Soft video production files on Wetlands and Ramsar Sites: As our main project objective was to produce an informational video to raise awareness on wetlands of Nepal, our production files are the MP4 files of the video itself (copies uploaded online, in office computers and shared with various stakeholders). We also have all research materials (published research, books, pamphlets, etc.) and scripts and notes that went into producing the final video.

b) List of current issues negatively affecting Wetlands: This data was collected in our research phase of work and has been directly recommended by our experts through research or through government departments and INGOs especially the WWF and IUCN. This data has been added into our video prominently as a major part of wetland awareness.

c) Simple solutions that can be utilized by the general population to help protect Wetlands: We have made sure to clearly state the current problems affecting wetlands in Nepal and provided the government policies that govern wetlands. We also outlined simple steps which can be taken by common citizens to move towards utilizing wetland resources in an inclusive and sustainable manner with support of the government. The wetland policies, CGED-Nepal has pointed out has provided space for community-based activities as it empowers buffer zone user groups to engage in conservation/investment opportunities without doing much advocacy work.

d) Beginning of Media work, towards the video campaign: This involved choosing the right organizational partner who would be responsible for our video production’s technical work. We made sure to select an organization that had previous knowledge in documentary making, advertising and film production and having knowledge of audience retention and the online social media viewership market. We made sure that the video would encapsulate not only a knowledge based viewpoint but also an artistic flair which would capture audience attention and make them curious enough to watch our video and understand the information that we were hoping to transmit, for the betterment of the wetland environment especially in Ramsar sites.

e) Video presentation with extensive information material collection and resources persons identified: The main focus of the project work took 3-4 months to make the video, with relevant information and more importantly with a simple storyline that would allow people to view the video with curiosity and eagerness. The research and expert based knowledge went into the script writing, video making and making sure that it respected the sensitivities of Nepalese people especially those of indigenous people and women. The script highlighted more positive aspects of citizens working together and doing collective action to save the wetlands by practicing sustainable consumption and production. We made sure that the video content provokes audience so that we can learn through feedback received.

f) Social Media presence geared towards the final video ad: This included consolidating CGED-Nepal’s social media presence and researching into the best avenue of focus regarding the social media sites. We needed to make sure that we put our efforts into approaching the most relevant social media sites in Nepal and have our video presented where there was high likelihood to get the most hits, engagements and feedback.
We presented ourselves with 4 sites to use, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter where Facebook turned out to be the most active site for Nepalese people and hence we focused our efforts here.

g) The actual video launch through social media: After finalizing the video through our organization experts and consultants, we moved towards the video launch part of the campaign. This started on 1st Feb 2019 and continued for the month of February. We uploaded and shared the video on our social media platforms and related organizational associates and soon concentrated efforts towards Facebook: