Environmental Tours

In order to be able to implement non-formal environmental education activities, ProCEEd has purchased a 14-seater bus and an eight-meter truck which serve as environmental education vehicles. Ever since the end of 2013, these environmental vehicles regularly go on tour in Vientiane Capital as well as the Khammouane, Houaphanh, Sayaboury and, since mid 2015, Bolikhamxay Province. Inside the vehicles, a 32” flat screen with audio system allows for watching environmental movies. The truck offers additional facilities for traveling exhibitions, playing interactive games and engaging in other non-formal environmental education activities.

A large white screen can be fixed on to the outside of the vehicles so that movies can also be screened by means of a mobile projector and a computer-assisted multimedia system including speakers and microphones. Activities mainly take place outside of the bus, e.g. meetings, games, theater performances, movie screenings, learning and radio listening groups, exhibitions etc. The vehicles are solar-powered providing approximately 4-5 hours of energy for the electronic devices installed in and outside the vehicles.

The Environmental Tours are implemented by two different teams: One team addresses government line agencies and mass organizations in the respective provincial and district capital cities of the three provinces concerned, the other team tours 15-20 target villages in a particular district. While the ‘government team’ typically conducts two 3-hour programs per day, the ‘village team’ works with school children, village authorities and the adult population of a community for a whole day. Both teams use an infotainment approach, combining information with entertainment, e.g. a 30 min theatre play based on a common outline and script that focuses on the Environmental Tour topics. But other than that, the methods used by the two teams are different.

The ‘government team’ relies on more factual information, e.g. a series of posters (10 FACTS on Forest Protection  FACTS 1-2 FACTS 3-4 FACTS 5-6 FACTS 7-8 FACTS 9-10). The ‘village team’ uses games, songs, drawing contests and exercises with the children, and Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) tools like transect walks, historical trends or focus group discussions with the adults. In the evening, the results from the contests and discussions are presented in a village gathering where also the theatre play is performed and a video about the day of activities in the community is screened.

For 2017, a draft tour program is currently being prepared and will be presented here soon.

In 2016, the environmental bus and truck again toured about 80 villages and numerous district and provincial capitals in the Khammouane, Houaphan, Sayaboury and Bolikhamxay provinces.