Global Issues

Environmental Journalism

The planet’s environmental future will be decided in the developing world. Home to four-fifths of the world’s population, the world’s fastest growing economies, and the richest remaining pockets of biodiversity, these countries will ultimately determine how drastically our climate changes, how many species go extinct, and to what extent our food chain becomes contaminated.

At Gunung Leuser National Park, site of the first national conference of environmental journalists in Indonesia, domesticated elephants are used for patrols and to build trust with local communities. Internews’ Earth Journalism Network sponsored the conference, which launched the Society of Indonesian Journalists, an important step in building capacity for environmental reporting in the developing world. Photo: James Fahn/Internews

The local media play a critical role in influencing how governments and societies balance growth with sustainability. Unfortunately, environmental news is given short shrift almost everywhere, particularly in the developing world, where reporters are often assigned to cover this field without any training in environmental or scientific issues. They also face tremendous pressures from powerful local interests, the advertisers who support their companies, and even their own editors.

Earth Journalism Network

Internews Network and Internews Europe developed the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to empower and enable journalists from developing countries to cover the environment more effectively. Over the last 5 years, we’ve trained over 1,000 journalists from dozens of countries, who have produced over 2,000 stories just during our activities.

EJN’s approach is to help establish networks of environmental journalists in countries and regions where they don’t exist, and build their capacity where they do, through training workshops, support for production and distribution, dispersing small grants and fellowships, research, and the development of curricula and briefing materials.

Sponsors and Partners

The activities of the Earth Journalism Network have been funded by the Marisla Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, the Robert & Michelle Friend Foundation, the Germeshausen Foundation, the Flora Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Edgerton Family Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the European Commission, the UK Department for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency, the United Nations Foundation, the UN Environment Program, the Alumni Fund of the Philanthropy Workshop West at the Tides Foundation and an anonymous donor from the Rockefeller family.

EJN has strategic partnerships with the International Center for Communications Development (China), the Society of Indonesian Environmental Journalists (SIEJ), the Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists (VFEJ), the Network of Climate Change Journalists from the Greater Horn of Africa (NECJOGHA), the Mexican Network of Environmental Journalists (REMPA), the Peruvian Provincial Journalists Network, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Panos, China Dialogue, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Environment News Trust.