The Global Environment Facility-funded Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (GEF IWEco) Project, executed by the Cartagena Convention Secretariat, is thrilled to announce that its "Caribbean Breaking Up With Plastics" video won two major awards in May 2020!
- A silver Telly Award in the category "Green/Eco-Friendly for Online", and
- A Communicators Award of Distinction for the category "Individual-Social Responsibility for Online Video".
The Telly Awards annually honour excellence in video and television across all screens. These recognize work that has been created by advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers around the world on the behalf of a client, for a specific brand and/or company. PCI Media Impact Inc., the Project’s lead Communications Partner in 2019, submitted the video for consideration.
The Communicators Award is an international awards program, founded nearly three decades ago, which recognises big ideas in marketing and communications. The Awards are judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) and in 2019 received over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.
PCI Media coordinated production of the “Breaking Up With Plastics” video early in 2019, as part of GEF IWEco’s Communications Partnership. We are extremely proud of this true Caribbean collaboration between All Biz Ltd. of Saint Lucia (http://www.allbizmedia.com/), which did the scripting and videography, and Future Crab Studios of Trinidad and Tobago (https://futurecrabstudios.com/), which wrote and produced the song and music. Other members of the Partnership – the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), PANOS Caribbean and WaterWays - provided specific technical guidance.
“Caribbean Breaking Up With Plastics” takes a lighter look at the issue of marine litter and asks everyone around the world to break-up with single-use plastics. It was launched at the end of July 2019 in a social media campaign; shorter versions were subsequently, in February 2020, promoted in a Caribbean-wide television and radio campaign coordinated by PCI Media.
GEF IWEco produced the video in support of the UN Environment Programme’s #CleanSeas Campaign to engage governments, the public, civil society, and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic litter. #CleanSeas aims to address the root-cause of marine litter by targeting the production and consumption of non-recoverable and single-use plastic by engaging citizens to address the problem in their daily lives.
In the Caribbean, plastic waste makes up a large proportion of debris reaching the sea from sources on land. In the ocean it harms marine life, threatens ecosystems, health and the region’s tourism-based economy. Plastic pollution not only diminishes the natural beauty for which the islands are known; it also compromises the role of the ocean as a provider of food, other resources, and livelihoods.
The movement to ban single-use plastics, including plastic bags and/or Styrofoam throughout the Wider Caribbean Region is gaining momentum. To date more than 20 Caribbean territories have definitively banned single-use plastic and/or Styrofoam products.
The United Nations Environment Programme is GEF IWEco’s lead Implementing Agency. UN Environment Programme’s Cartagena Convention Secretariat is the lead co-executing agency; the other co-executing agency is the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). Ten Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are participating in the project - Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago. For more information on the Project visit www.iweco.org
Congratulations to all of GEF IWEco’s collaborators in creation of this fun and dynamic video! Help us to make sure that its important message reaches even more people!
You can find the original 3.5 minute version of “Breaking Up With Plastics” here: https://youtu.be/j0FHWQSAP1M
For more information, contact Donna Sue Spencer at donna.spencer@un.org
