INTERNATIONAL GREEN PEN AWARD WINNER - 2009
Carmen Miranda - UK

As Director of the Asia Regional programme of Panos Institute in the 90s, she was responsible for developing, designing  and executing a series of dynamic and creative training programmes and fellowships for journalists in South Asia and Indonesia to create awareness and encourage reporting on environmental issues. The programmes were also designed to promote regional exchange of information on the environment, cooperation and understanding and to identify common regional environmental concerns such as the issue of water for example, which was covered extensively and from different perspectives across the region through Panos fellowship programmes. So many of the Panos Fellowships involved travelling to and reporting from neighbouring countries creating a network and valuable links among environmental journalists in the region.
Having travelled extensively across the region, she quickly became aware of the fact that there were vast differences in terms of need for extra training in some of the countries compared to others, and proceeded to provide what she found  necessary to raise standards, while also regularly lobbied the editors of the main newspapers in South Asia to give space to environment reports.
Carmen Miranda also keen to find new undiscovered talent in aspiring young journalists, and give them a fair chance to prove their abilities. As a result, through competitions for fellowships she developed especially in Bangladesh and Nepal in cooperation with the Bangladesh and Nepal Press Institutes a whole new young generation of talented journalists, both male and female were discovered and trained to report on the environment.
Carmen Miranda worked closely with Press Institutes in Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia, helping to develop the skills of a large group of journalists who as a result dedicated themselves to reporting on environment and sustainable development issues; she pioneered the first environmental journalism training programme for women in Nepal and Bangladesh, which for the first time put women in those countries in equal position to compete with their male colleagues for Panos fellowships. Senior female journalists from India and Sri Lanka gave the training courses and were role models.
She expanded environmental reporting from English into 14 vernacular languages across the region and enabled the production of monthly wall newspapers for villagers in several countries. Convinced All India Radio to participate in Panos workshops on environmental reporting, and as a result, radio producers from across  India took part in ground breaking workshops in which for the first time ever two major forces working in parallel (All India Radio and environmental NGOs) met and cooperated for the first time.Carmen Miranda did similar exercises in Indonesia and Pakistan and organised and led the first ever group of 24 senior environmental journalists and water experts from Nepal, India and Bangladesh in a journey down the Ganges up to the Bay of Bengal , to investigate the environmental and water sharing conflicts between those 3 countries. In 1994 with the help of a Ford Foundation Fellowship, She launched a journalistic investigation of the Flood Action Plan in Bangladesh involving 14 local journalists that resulted in the influential book Rivers of Life, published by Panos and BCAS which changed the course of that mega project. Carmen Miranda  initiated the decentralization process of Panos, which culminated in the establishment of the first Panos South Asia in Kathmandu.
Born in Goa, India in 1943, Carmen Miranda studied in the UK and  a Master of Arts (M.A.) in International Communications and Development, City University, London, UK 1997 and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Art and Design (Graphic Design), Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, Kent, UK 1971.
Carmen Miranda an unusual and varied carrier in the communications field that expanded into 10  countries (6 in Asia and 3 in Africa and UK) and that ranged from an award winner designer,  to TV documentary making, to  university lecturer in UK on International Communications and Development, and  Brand Consultancy at Wolff Olins, which is recognised as the most influential international brand consultancy, to working as an interpreter for asylum seekers from war thorn countries in Africa with London's  Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and  Barnet and so on. In early 70s after working in Algeria with the Ministry of Information,  Carmen Miranda returned to London and worked for Medi-Cine Ltd and was responsible for the design and production of the first ever multi-media teaching pack on cardiology ­ Congenital heart diseases comprising of 18 books, 350 slides, 18 animated films and audio tapes. This teaching pack was the winner of several awards in the UK and abroad, including the 1976 gold medal from British Industrial and Scientific Film Awards (BISFA).
Carmen Miranda's turning point into the field of environment and sustainable development was in 1984/85 back in India, when she got involved in the production of one of the first and most influential books on the environment in Asia ­ The State of India's Environment ­ a citizen's report  published  by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi. Working with Anil Agarwal on this book had a marked influence in the new direction of my career.Back in the UK Carmen Miranda worked between 1985 and 1987 as a researcher for TV documentaries on the environment at International Broadcasting Trust (IBT) , in a Channel 4 documentary series that was shown at the time of the launch of Bruntland Report  called ­ Battle for the Planet, which was filmed in 12 countries around the world, and in which Anil Agarwal was one of the environmentalists participating.
Before becoming Director of Asia Regional Programme of Panos Institute, in 1990, she worked as a freelance designer and illustrator for Panos Books, than became assistant to the Director of Regional Programmes and finally Director of Asia Regional Programme, during which time I continued writing for Panoscope Magazine and drawing cartoons to illustrate articles in Panoscope.After retirement Carmen Miranda,  living in London.Now divide her time between taking care of her 3 grandchildren and campaigning activities as a member of the steering committee of Save Western Ghats campaign in India. Carmen Miranda also started to look into the impact of mining exploration (iron ore and manganese) on the environment in Goa, her  native land;  in the UK  Carmen Miranda now getting involved in campaigns for the  prevention of Climate Change. 

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