Green Echoes #18
Key investigative stories, data sources, funding/training opportunities and our projects from across Asia.
Dear friends and supporters,
Welcome to Green Echoes, a newsletter from the Environmental Reporting Collective that highlights key investigative stories, data sources, funding, reporting and training opportunities and our projects from across Asia.
This week we have a lot to share, including several fellowship and reporting opportunities. If you want to stay on top of our work, or be more involved with our community, a reminder that we have a Slack channel with over 150 members from around the world – do join!
The best reporting from across Asia
We saw some major investigations published in the past few weeks.
First, from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an article that builds on the Paradise Papers collaboration finds evidence that Indonesian paper giant APRIL may have misreported its wood pulp exports while shifting large profits overseas, enabling it to avoid tax. This comes alongside allegations of ongoing forest and peatland clearing.
Then, the Environmental Investigation Agency, has published a report that alleges that the Chinese government’s plan to remove pangolin scales from use in traditional medicine hasn’t been followed through, and that little has actually been done to reduce demand, or usage.
Natural disasters have ravaged many parts of Asia this year, from flooding, typhoons, landslides, and more. In this detailed, interactive piece for Kontinentalist, Gwyneth Cheng uses data and maps to explore the trends around natural disasters in Asia, giving context for what impacting the region.
Data, Resources and Training
First, want to highlight two opportunities from the Pulitzer Center
First, the Rainforest Journalism Fund has launched a special call for proposals for journalists/newsrooms reporting on forest restoration issues across Southeast Asia. For those of you in Vietnam or Indonesia, here are Vietnamese and Bahasa Indonesia calls (Deadline Nov 30).
Second, they are accepting proposals for the inaugural cohort of Rainforest Investigation Fellows, a major new initiative that seeks to harness investigative reporting and cross-border collaboration to tackle stories in the world’s three main tropical rainforest regions: Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia (Deadline Dec 20).
For those of you in, or reporting on, the Himalayan Region – The Energy and Resources Institute and the Earth Journalism Network are accepting applications for a six-month media fellowship for digital, print and radio journalists (Deadline Nov 30).
Also from EJN - biodiversity reporting grants to support the production of in-depth stories that highlight previously untold threats to global biodiversity or explore new conservation-based solutions (Deadline Dec 18).
For multimedia journalists – The Native Foundation, a new organization that wants to change visual journalism to be representative of diverse talent from across the globe, will begin accepting applications from photographers between Jan 1-31, 2021. Details here.
Resource Watch has released a new dataset gives figures on the cost of sustainable water management around the world, including cost to deliver access to clear water, cost to eliminate agricultural water pollution, and more.
Climate Tracker and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security is holding an event on Nov 30 where they’ll share the findings of their research on how Southeast Asia’s media is covering coal. Details about their project here, and you can RSVP here.
The Environmental Reporting Collective is a group of reporters and editors across Asia and elsewhere, working together to rethink how environmental journalism is done. We support collaborative journalism projects that start new conversations on how our societies impact our planet. Such stories are complex and expensive. That’s why they require new approaches to research, reporting, editing and distribution.
To learn more about our work, check out our website, Investigative.Earth, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. You can also let us know what you would like to see in this newsletter by responding to this email.