Latin America and the Caribbean is a very vulnerable region where the environment is concerned. The Dominican Republic is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) where the impact of climatic change has the potential to be devastating for the environment. Unfortunately media workers and journalists often do not have specialist degrees, and they particularly lack knowledge and training on issues related to the environment. As a consequence, they are unable to reflect objectively such issues, and assume their role of surveying the negative impacts on the environment and educating citizens to protect it. These issues tend to be in the media exclusively as informative, casuistic, nonsystematic and with a catastrophic approach.
 
Offering journalists of Latin America and the Caribbean training on topics such as climate change, deforestation, pollution, natural resources administration, biodiversity protection and sustainable development, is the primary goal of this project. These professionals should become knowledgeable, trained leaders for their counterparts in their countries. This training project will also contribute to the 36 C5 expected result: Resilience of communities reinforced in SIDS, with particular reference to climate change adaptation and natural disaster preparedness, through evidence-based policies, education and capacity development and the mobilization of civil society. Measures will be taken to offer this training programme on an equal basis to men and women and to incorporate gender perspectives while preparing and performing the workshop. UNESCO Model Curricula for Journalism Education will also be used.