Landscape Surgery Campaign (details)

The main target groups of the grant are local communities, self-organised school groups and social organisations. The grant was described in grant observer magazines (eg.: 'Sansz', 'PályázatFigyelő'), on several websites, including web newsletters on pedagogy, and also in our own newsletter, the 'Waste Diver'. Besides, several daily papers and the electronic media reported on it. In February 2002 publicity was reinforced, and from March on we could publish payed advertisements in regional newspapers. We also made two public service announcements for television, which, so far, have been broadcasted by local and regional cabel television channels. The negotiation with the national public and private televison companies is in progress.

The Landscape Surgery Campaign has been built up regionally. Orginally eleven regional environmental NGOs volunteered to coordinate the regional projects, but two more (in Vas and Veszprém region) joined later on which made the regional organising work even more effective and direct. Training was held three times for the NGOs, along with two strategic organising workshops. The regional centers have gained local finanacial aids and awards, besides, they have been in charge of maintaining communication with the media and giving professional advice to the community applying.

As a result of advertising groups around fifteen and twenty have applied in each region so far, the likes of schools, scout groups, local NGOs, environmental groups, with which communication has been maintained on a daily basis. At the moment 154 groups are involved in the project, but their number is continuosly growing.

Some groups have already fulfilled all three stages of the campaign, which are exploration, organisation, and disposal. In these cases, the representative of the regional centre attended all occasions. Most of the groups, however, are still at the stage of mapping and organising.

With the assistance of Attila Kemény, the deputy under-secretary of state from the Ministry of Environment, a forum was held in the ministry where self-governing bodies, communal servising enterprises, representatives of environmental industry and of the media attended.

Also with the assistance of Attila Kemény we participated in the conference of the management of the inspectorate and national parks where the project was also received favourably.

We invited Béla Turi-Kovács, the Minister of Environment, to become the patron of our campaign and he accepted our request. We held three press conferences in which the minister participated as well. All proved to be very efficient and received successful media coverage.

We held a presentation at the conference of the 'Public Cleanness Syndicate' in Szombathely where the project was also well received, many servicing companies indicated to be willing to be helpful in the future.

We have published four newsletters so far, which the regional centers posted to the regional and local groups, schools, NGOs, and also to the media. They meant to broadcast the then present stage of the campaign, the local programmes and results.

A methodology file was made for all the three stages of the Landscape Surgery Campaign.

The campaign received attention several times in the media, it was discussed two times in the daily magazine "Napközben" of the most popular station of the Hungarian National Radio, "Kossuth", once in the biggest environmental magazine, "Oxigen", of the same station, and also Info Radio, which is another radio station, reported on it quite regularly. Private media showed interest in the project as well, both private radio and private television companies dealt with it.

We made contact with the Hungarian Railway Company (MÁV) and initiated a MÁV-Surgery Project. The head of the company received the initiative well, and we are still waiting for appointments with the heads of competent portfolios.

The website of the campaign, www.tajsebeszet.hu, has been already registered and completed, though it is under continuous development. The website gives the opportunity to sign on on-line and record datas on illegal wastedumps.

Articles on the campaign were published in numerous journals ("Hulladéksors", "IUCN-híradó", "Környezeti Nevelési Hálózat") where the ethical, cultural, economic and logistic sides of illegal wastedumping were discussed, while its legal-economic background was examined by experts in our Waste Diver.

Plenty of TH-shirts, stickers, placards, and publications were made for the applicants, some of which have been already distributed.

Media and communication

I.Public service announcements made for television: according to our financial possibilities and in view of the kind of the campaign we are running the emphases has been placed on local and regional television channels. We made two public service announcements for television, of which one of them is rather critical, while the other one is more concerned about introducing the whole process of the campaign. Both advertisements have been broadcasted by local cabel channels from early March on.

II.Before, during and after the main news program, "Krónika", of the Hungarian National Radio: we received five minutes free of charge spot for advertising our campaign around the time of the news, and we were also charged at a reduced price for further advertising. These public service announcements were broadcasted for two weeks in early March.

III.Reginal newspapers: payed advertisements were distributed to the two main publishing companies ("Axel-Springer" and "The Society of Pannon Papers") who published them in all the regional papers. Our logo and access were also published in the widely known daily free paper, "Metro". Besides, we have received further propositions from the printed media. The negotiations are still in progress.

IV.Placard: twelve thousands colourful placards were made which were distributed to the regional centers, and through them, to the educational institutions.

V.E-mail, website: requests, calls, along with all the data, achievements, results, and the description of the campaign can be found on our website (www.tajsebeszet.hu), from where our public service announcements, both the audiovisual made for television, and the audio made for radio, can be unloaded as well. In order to maintain a medium for efficient and direct communication, we also created a 'Landscape Surgery' mailing list with the aid of which the regional centers can easily communicate with each other, and everybody can be kept informed about current issues, news.

VI."Appearing everywhere": since personal attendence and appearance are crucial factors in running a campaign, we intend to participate in every environmental and cultural programmes where we can propagate our campaign.

Plans for the future:

• We intend to publish two further issues of our Landscape Surgery Newsletter.
• The database on wastedumps is continuously improved, while statistics and data of the campaign are updated on a day-to-day basis.
• Regional centers continue to attend at all local programmes they are informed about.
• The deadline of application for the grant is 15 May. The regional committees decide on the best works which they then forward to the main board of trustees which finally makes the decision nationwide.
• On 5 July, the International Environmental Day, the awards will be distributed and also the exhibition on the work done will be opened.
• The experiences encountered will be given an account of at a press conference, where further proposals will be made about the next stage of the process, namely about the disposal of the already explored dumps.
• An overall colourful publication on our Landscape Surgery project is planned.