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Each group need to understand their particular roles, responsibilities and ways for making their voices Module
heard, and for building consensus for social action. For policy makers and other interested groups, the
ultimate aim was to channel new social norms and attitudes that emerge toward concrete actions 3

that can address climate change

Encourage Community-based Initiatives

Community development, knowledge sharing and grass-roots communication for urban, sub-urban
and village communities are important initiatives that were nurtured as part of the national public Abu Dhabi, UAE
awareness strategy. There are many NGOs in the Kingdom of Bahrain that have formulated plans to

strengthen the adaptive capacity of local communities to various stresses including climate variability.
These plans have typically included community-based education, training, public awareness and
demonstration projects. Such efforts extended to address climate change could help promote local

community resilience to climate stresses and other environmental pressures. It should also enhance
local capacity building for participatory decision-making and collective action.

These initiatives, suitably interwoven with future plans and programmes of grass-roots NGOs, will

enhance understanding of the climate change issues, and its implications for the Kingdom of Bahrain
(Khalil, 2004).

Strategic approach

The focus of the last activity of the project (awareness strategy), was to organize the national training
workshop to seek public input on how to build public awareness around climate change issues. There

has been a broad level of public participation concerning the strategic aims of such a process. The
objectives of the training workshop were articulated around the systematic approaches of raising
public awareness, designing and planning of environmental awareness campaigns within the context
of climate change. For environmental conservation and public awareness to succeed, the public
must be given the appropriate training and skills so that they can effectively participate. Organized

by the Desert and Arid Zones Sciences Programme of the Arabian Gulf University, the workshop
was attended by representatives from government, NGOs, scientific research and training institutes,
the private sector, and media outlets. At the end of the workshop and based on the findings of
GHG inventory, mitigation options vulnerability and impacts assessments and adaptation policies, the

participants proposed a cost-effective public awareness programme to promote understanding of
climate change issues and to undertake effective awareness campaigns in the future, with the aim of
enhancing the national capacities to assess, address and mitigate its impacts and implications, (Khalil,
2004; Zubari et al, 2004).

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