Earth Journalism (EJN) Biodiversity Story Grants 2024 – EJN is providing reporting grants to help with the creation of in-depth articles that shed light on hitherto unknown risks to biodiversity around the world or investigate novel conservation-based remedies.
The next sections contain crucial information on eligibility and the application procedure, so please take the time to thoroughly read them.
The well-being of our planet and, by extension, all of humanity, is gravely threatened by the rising biodiversity catastrophe. However, human activity is the primary cause of this climatic emergency; activities like poaching, trafficking, and deforestation all threaten the robustness, stability, and health of the planet’s ecosystems, which are essential to human survival.
The public needs to be made aware of the seriousness of this issue, and journalists can do this by involving them in conversations, debates, and activities regarding natural remedies that could slow the loss of biodiversity.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for countries to conserve a certain amount of land, and the media is essential to tracking this progress and ensuring that domestic audiences have access to timely, relevant, and localized global stories. This year’s United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) will be held in Colombia from October 21 to November 1.
Through its Biodiversity Media Initiative, which is currently entering its third phase of operation since its inception in 2016, EJN is offering story grants to journalists to produce compelling, timely, and impactful stories in order to help them raise awareness and accountability of citizens, policymakers, and corporations in tackling the biodiversity crisis.
Story themes
Pitch ideas for ambitious stories that leverage cutting-edge multimedia, collaborative, cross-border, or investigative tactics to extend coverage of biodiversity or conservation subjects are welcome for this grant opportunity. We also encourage proposals that make use of geojournalism and data journalism.
This year, themes we are interested in supporting include (but are not limited to):
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Under-reported stories of trade and trafficking of endangered flora and fauna and its impacts
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New or little-known threats to species diversity, e.g. cryptocurrency mining, seabed mining
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New methods to track environmental crimes such as illegal mining and logging, and other drivers of biodiversity loss
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Innovative, potentially scalable conservation solutions led by communities, governments or corporations
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Efforts to boost “green” and “blue” economies to enable development that conserves rather than exploits the environment
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New or proposed policies which could be either harmful or beneficial to biodiversity
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Biodiversity and conservation in urban areas
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Mechanisms for financing biodiversity conservation such as biodiversity credits
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Benefit-sharing from digital sequence information and its possibilities and risks
Candidates that plan to track and assess the promises made by the Global Biodiversity Framework in the run-up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP), which will be held in October 2024 in Colombia, will receive special consideration.
Proposals that center on subjects or narratives that have not received much media attention are favored, as our goal is to increase awareness about emerging risks and potential solutions on a global scale. Topics that are overly covered in the media or don’t offer novel perspectives are unlikely to be chosen.
You can read published stories supported by the Biodiversity Media Initiative in previous years here.
Earth Journalism Biodiversity Story Grants 2024 Eligibility
For the purposes of this grant call, we are only accepting applications for stories focused on the countries listed here, though journalists from any country can apply.
We would like to hear from applicants based in countries in which we have not offered grants to previously. We encourage applications in particular from West Africa Central America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, and specifically from the following countries: Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Applications are open to journalists (online, print, television, radio) and other expert media practitioners with experience in investigative reporting and covering environmental issues.
We are seeking to support both early-career and senior journalists with many years of reporting experience. We encourage applications from freelancers and staff from all types of media organizations—international, national, local and community-based.
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.
EJN reserves the right to disqualify applicants from consideration if they have been found to have engaged in unethical or improper professional conduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism and/or submitting AI-generated content as their own.
Story logistics
Award amounts are expected to be in the range of 1,000-2,000 EUR with investigative or other types of in-depth reporting more likely to be approved for higher amounts (up to 5,000 EUR).
We plan to issue grants in May 2024 with the expectation that all stories will be published by 1 December 2024, though longer timelines may be considered for more in-depth reporting approaches. Applicants should consider this when drafting their workplan.
Safety: We encourage reporters to follow public health regulations and best practices for local disease outbreaks when out in the field, so you do not endanger yourself or the people you’re interviewing. If needed, you should include any Covid-related costs, such as tests or personal protective equipment, in your budget. We also encourage journalists to follow best practice on safeguarding physical and digital safety.
Language of publication: Stories can be produced in any language. However, applicants who intend to write or produce stories in their local language need to also include an English translation. Please include the cost for translation in the budget, if necessary.
Story budget: Successful applicants are expected to put these grants toward travel for field reporting, research, and production. We expect that proposals will largely reflect what equipment the applicant already has access to (including cameras, drones, lighting, tripods, etc.) and will not consider budgets that heavily focus on procuring new equipment.
All applicants are required to provide a detailed budget using this template with justification for the amount requested. Please also note on your budget form if you are receiving funding from any other donors for the story.
We will consider a stipend for the reporters’ salary, particularly if the applicant is a freelancer. Please estimate the time you’ll need to complete this story and propose compensation you believe reflects a fair market rate. We ask, however, that this comprises no more than 30% of the total budget.
Acknowledgement of EJN support: Published stories and/or broadcasts must disclose EJN support by including this tagline: “This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.”
Republication rights: Please note that Internews’ EJN and its partners have the right to edit, publish, broadcast and distribute grantees’ stories freely after they have been published/broadcast in the original media outlet. Full credit and a link will be provided to the media organization that originally published/aired the stories.
Plan for timely publication: Reporters, whether freelance or employed at a media outlet, will need to include a letter of support from an editor in their application, committing to publish the stories in a timely manner following completion of the final draft, and no later than 1 December 2024 (unless otherwise agreed with EJN).
Judging criteria
Applicants should consider the following points when devising their story proposals.
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Relevance: Does the proposal meet the criteria and objectives of the call? Why does this story matter and to whom? Is the main idea, context and overall value to the target audience clearly defined?
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Angle: If the story has been covered by mainstream media, does your proposal bring new insights into the topic or offer a fresh angle?
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Impact: Does the proposal have a compelling narrative or investigative element that will inform and engage, draw attention, trigger debate and urge action?
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Innovative storytelling: The use of creative approaches, multimedia and data visualization will be considered a plus.
EJN Application process
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Click the ‘Apply now’ button at the top of the page.
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If you have an existing account, you’ll need to log in. If not, you will need to create an account by clicking “Log in” on the top right of the page and click the “Sign up” link at the bottom of the page that opens. Click here for detailed instructions on how to create an account, and here for detailed instructions on how to reset your password.
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If you start the application and want to come back and complete it later, you can click ‘Save Draft.’ To return to the draft, you’ll need to go back to the opportunity and click ‘Apply now’ again to finalize the application.
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Applications should submit two samples of stories or links to relevant work, a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested, and a signed letter of support from their editor, explicitly stating that the media outlet will publish the stories produced as a result of this grant.
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Applications should provide a detailed budget with justification for the amount requested. Download the budget template now by clicking on this link.
Note: Once the application process begins, you will be required to upload these supporting papers, so please make sure you have them ready.
Please email info.ejn@internews.org if you have any concerns about the funds or if you are having trouble submitting your application.Applications received after the deadline won’t be taken into account.
For more Information: Visit the website for Earth Journalism (EJN) Biodiversity Story Grants 2024
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