Deadline: 7-Feb-25
The Earth Journalism Network is offering media grants to newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries to support in-depth and enterprise reporting projects, initiatives to train journalists and other activities designed to increase media coverage and the capacity of journalists to report on 30×30 marine conservation targets.
In December 2022, more than 190 countries committed to achieve ‘30×30’ under target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This target calls for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, by the year 2030.
Yet summits since then have made it clear the world is not on track to meet this target. In fact, so far countries have only fully or highly protected 2.9% of the oceans, far from the 30% target.
There are solutions in development: Creating marine protected areas (MPAs) and other area-based conservation measures with strong rules and enforcement are among the most effective ways to conserve biodiversity. Newly developed tools such as the 30×30 Progress Tracker will help make tracking, planning, and advocating for progress toward meeting the 30×30 goal more streamlined.
News organizations and journalists, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, often lack the resources, knowledge, or capacity to report relevant and high-quality ocean-related information. Many journalists themselves may not be familiar with ocean issues, 30×30 or MPAs.
To fill this gap, EJN is offering media grants with support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation to newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries to conduct in-depth reporting, train journalists and increase the quality and quantity of coverage about the 30×30 target and efforts to reach this goal.
Themes and Objectives
- EJN is looking to fund to projects that train journalists—and/or produce media coverage—on topics including, but not limited to:
- The commitments made by government(s) to meet the 30×30 target, including the activities being developed, regulations being implemented and the money being spent;
- The effectiveness of proposed or created Marine Protected Areas, including the lack of regulations on harmful fishing practices;
- The impact of transnational fishing fleets and the global fishing industry on efforts to reach the 30×30 target;
- How Indigenous and local communities were or were not involved in the creation of protected areas that intersect with their traditional territories;
- Technologies such as satellites, remote sensing, eDNA and artificial intelligence for the effective management of MPAs;
- National and international policy negotiations and instruments to achieve the 30 x 30 target.
Funding Information
- They anticipate supporting two organizations with grants of US$ 10,000 each.
- They expect to notify successful applicants in March 2025, with work starting in April. Projects should be completed within 6 months, by the end of October 2025. Applicants should consider this timeline when developing their work plan.
Eligibility Criteria
- Newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries are eligible to apply. Because 30×30 refers to marine conservation, they will not accept applications from countries with a freshwater coast; only coastal countries with a marine border will be considered.
- EJN’s definition of media for this opportunity includes newspapers, online media, radio, television, multimedia platforms, journalist networks, collectives and other groups that produce and distribute news and information.
- Civil society organizations, academic institutions, NGOs or environmental groups who do not fit the definition above are not eligible for this opportunity. Applications with a focus on advocacy and/or political campaigning will not be considered.
- For the purposes of this grant opportunity, they will only be accepting applications in English. Unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to consider applications in other languages at this time. Applicants must either have a working understanding of English or have a translator available to assist with communication with Internews staff. Projects may, however, produce content in any language best suited for their audience.
- Former EJN grantees are eligible to apply. They will take the performance of former grantees into consideration during the selection. Organizations with an existing EJN grant are not eligible.
- Applicants are required to be transparent about the use of generative AI tools, if any, to revise their proposals. 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, submitting AI-generated content as their own.
Judging Criteria
- All applications they receive are reviewed and discussed by a panel of international judges, comprising Internews staff and experts in environmental journalism.
- Applications will be evaluated using the following assessment criteria:
- The overall quality of the proposal;
- The relevance of the proposed project in contributing to the objectives and priorities of this grant program;
- The potential impact of the proposed project, including the quality and effectiveness of the project design;
- The innovative characteristics of the proposed activities;
- The financial viability and cost-effectiveness of the proposed activity;
- The ability of the applicant to carry it out;
- The geographical spread of the grantees.
For more information, visit EJN.