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TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) announces the global release of its latest Asian regional television series, 'Saving the Planet' (www.savingtheplanet.tv).
The six-episode series features outstanding efforts in education for sustainable development (ESD) in South and Southeast Asia.
It goes in search of answers to these key questions:
· What can ordinary people do for our planet, now under siege from multiple environmental crises?
· How can we change attitudes and lifestyles to consume less and generate less waste?
The stories -– drawn from Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand — were all selected through competitive public nominations in 2007. Each 10-minute story is a self-contained documentary, filmed on location by a local film crew with the participation of local organisations whose work was being profiled.
The stories are diverse and colourful. For example:
· A youth theatre group travels across the Philippines, performing the living cultural heritage of the Ayta indigenous people.
· Radio Sagarmatha, a citizen-owned broadcaster in Nepal, uses its airwaves to resolve conflicts between tourist hotel operators and the local people.
· Housewives and school children join hands to clean up the southern Indian city of Dindigul – and also make money from their garbage.
· Volunteers engage school teachers and students in Laos in a process that introduces fun and play into learning.
These and other efforts featured in 'Saving the Planet' are all local responses to formidable challenges in balancing people's incomes and jobs with community welfare and the local environment.
"'Saving the Planet' profiles individuals and groups working quietly and relentlessly to spread knowledge, understanding and attitudes that inspire action to help humans live in harmony with the planet," says Nalaka Gunawardene, director of TVEAP who scripted and executive produced the series.
"These men, women and children are all silent heroes who often work without external funding and beyond the media spotlight," says Manori Wijesekera, regional programme manager of TVEAP, who was series producer. "They persist with clarity of vision, sincerity of purpose and sheer determination. Their stories can inspire many others to pursue grassroots action for a cleaner and safer planet."
'Saving the Planet' covers the traditional ‘green’ environmental activities as well as the 'brown' environmental issues and related challenges in pursuing sustainable development. Among the topics covered are eco-tourism, preserving cultural heritage of indigenous people and community-based waste management.
The series had its global premiere during the ACCU Asia-Pacific Forum for ESD Educators and Facilitators held in Tokyo, Japan, in late August 2009. The Forum brought together nearly 200 educators, facilitators, policy makers and researchers from 16 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
'Saving the Planet' is available for broadcast, civil society and educational use anywhere in the world. As with all other TVEAP productions, this series comes without license fees, where only copying and dispatch costs are payable.
Television for Education – Asia Pacific, trading as TVE Asia Pacific, is a regional not-for-profit organisation that uses television, video and Internet for public communication of development issues. Governed by an international Board of Directors and headquartered in Sri Lanka, it both produces and distributes editorially independent TV programming, which is regularly carried by over 40 public and private TV channels across the Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit: www.tveap.org
'Saving the Planet' is an educational media project dedicated to the United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, 2005 – 2014. It is implemented by TVE Asia Pacific in collaboration with the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU), Tokyo, Japan, under the framework of ACCU-UNESCO Asia-Pacific Programme with support from the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust for the Promotion of Education for Sustainable Development.
How to access 'Saving the Planet' series:
The entire series can be viewed on line at: http://www.savingtheplanet.tv
Broadcasters may requests tape copies from: <sales@tveap.org>
Educational and civil society users may directly order the series on DVD from TVEAP's online film catalogue at http://www.tveap.org/?q=buy_films.php
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Aung Htun (not his real name) is one of the young video journalists featured in the award-winning feature documentary 'Burma VJ (Reporting from a Closed Country)'. 
