Deadline: November 15, 2021
EJN is offering reporting grants to support the production of in-depth stories that highlight previously untold threats to global biodiversity or explore new conservation-based solutions.
The upcoming 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is now slated to take place in Kunming, China in April-May 2022, will seek to address the biodiversity crisis—one of the most pressing issues of our time.
Over the next few months, in the lead-up to COP15, the media has an important part to play in raising awareness of biodiversity issues and enabling citizens, policymakers and private companies to debate and determine their commitments to address the drivers of biodiversity loss.
EJN is looking to highlight the gravity of the biodiversity crisis by commissioning a series of stories that investigate new threats to species diversity around the world, as well as explore innovative, potentially scalable conservation solutions—led by governments, corporations or communities—to protect the Earth’s remaining biodiversity and mitigate the impacts of what has already been lost.
This is the second round of story grants under EJN’s Biodiversity Media Initiative, with financial support from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
Story Themes
We welcome all story ideas, but special consideration will be given to applicants looking to conduct investigative or enterprise reporting on biodiversity or conservation topics.
As we are looking to raise global awareness about new threats or solutions, proposals that focus on topics or stories that have not been widely covered are preferred. Issues that have already received a lot of media coverage or don’t provide unique angles are less likely to be selected.
Eligibility:
- Applications are open to journalists (online, print, television, radio) and other expert media practitioners with experience in investigative reporting and covering environmental issues. We encourage applications from freelancers and staff from all types of media organizations—international, national, local and community-based.
- We are seeking to support both early-career and senior journalists with many years of reporting experience. We’ll accept both individual and group applications, but for the latter we ask that the application is made in the name of one lead applicant who will receive the grant on the group’s behalf, if awarded.
Funding:
- 10-14 grants of ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the proposal and needs. We will consider larger grant amounts for stories using innovative or investigative approaches that may be more costly and time-consuming.
