The biodiversity crisis doesn’t get the headlines it deserves. Habitat loss, overhunting and now climate change threaten wild species across the planet. Scientists warn that the decline in biodiversity will have knock-on effects for humanity, and particularly for people who live closest to nature and who depend most directly on her goods and services.
The challenge of balancing human needs with environmental integrity is huge. The media has a part to play in raising awareness of these issues and enabling citizens, policymakers and private companies to debate and implement solutions. However, current media coverage of biodiversity and conservation is limited.
Internews’ Earth Journalism Network has been addressing this crisis through the Biodiversity Media Initiative.
We started with Biodiversity Media Grants, aimed at strengthening journalism networks and media organizations to report on biodiversity and conservation issues.
Then we issued grants through our Biodiversity Story Fund, which supported the production of stories that investigated new threats to biodiversity, as well as innovative, potentially-scalable conservation solutions.
Our Biodiversity Fellowships enabled journalists to attend and report on major international conferences with a focus on biodiversity and conservation.
The Biodiversity Media Initiative was originally supported from 2016-2018 in partnership with Arcadia — a charitable fund of Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing. During that time it supported more than 150 journalists in the following 33 countries: Argentina; Bolivia; Brazil; Canada; China; Colombia; Cuba; Ecuador; Georgia; Ghana; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; India; Indonesia; Kenya; Malaysia; Mexico; Myanmar; Nepal; New Zealand; Nigeria; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Russia; Solomon Islands; South Africa; Spain; Philippines; Uganda; United Kingdom; United States and Vietnam.
The project has now been relaunched for 2020-2023 with renewed funding from Arcadia. As in the first phase of this project, we will provide Biodiversity Media Grants to organizations, Biodiversity Story Grants to journalists to produce stories on pressing biodiversity issues and Biodiversity Fellowships to the 2021 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity conference in China. We will also be hosting a series of webinars and training courses on biodiversity-related topics, as well as Biodiversity Scholarships that will enable reporters to apply for funding to attend international conferences and report on them independently.
Please check back to learn more about future opportunities related to this project.
