By EJN Staff
The year 2018 was a big one for environmental reporting, so as we kick off 2019, we would like to acknowledge some well-deserved recognition for some of the Earth Journalism Network’s grantees and partners.
On Nov. 14, Zimbabwean reporter Andrew Mambondiyani received the prize for Best Wildlife Conservation Story at the Environmental Media Awards held in Zimbabwe by Environment Africa, Rainbow Tourism Group and Nyaradzo Group. The award-winning story he produced with his 2018 Biodiversity Media Initiative story grant explored the environmental importance of vultures and the threat they face from poachers.
Yolandi Groenewald, a Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) Fellow in 2015, won an international storytelling contest from the International Center for Journalists’ Global Climate Reporting Program for her coverage of Cape Town’s struggle to secure international climate funding to battle its drought crisis. Drawing on experience earned from years of covering international climate change summits, Groenewald produced the story during the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September.
Another former CCMP Fellow and EJN’s current Philippines and Pacific Content Coordinator, Imelda Abaňo, also received accolades this year. She was named the Philippines’ 2018 Climate Media Champion for her work influencing and promoting Filipinos’ awareness of climate change and solutions for addressing it. She received the award on Nov. 5 at the National Museum in Manila during a ceremony organized by the Climate Reality Project-Philippines, an initiative founded by former US Vice-President and environmental activist Al Gore.
Earlier in the year, our West African Fisheries story grantee Helene Doubidji won the Lauriers de Journalism d’impact du Togo, a prize organized by the French, German and US embassies. Helene won her award for a story about how illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing off West Africa is impacting the lives of fishing communities in Katanga, Togo.
In September, Latin America-based GeoJournalism site InfoAmazonia received the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award for small newsrooms from the Online News Association for its special report “Digging into the Mining Arc”. The story, by reporter Bram Ebus, investigates plans by the Venezuelan government to expand mining in the Amazon, threatening both the environment and the health of dozens of indigenous communities.
And in South Africa, EJN partner Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism won the 2018 SAB Environmental Award for written media. The prize was awarded for Oxpeckers founder Fiona Macleod’s four-part ClimaTracker investigation that showcased how local neighborhoods are surviving disruption by climate change, and a year-long multimedia investigation into alleged land grabs in the anti-poaching buffer zone between Mozambique and the world-famous Kruger National Park in South Africa.
We are pleased to congratulate these journalists on their achievements and wish them all continued success in the future.