In many countries, there remain significant challenges in forest governance, such as: poor rule of law; a lack of transparency and accountability; inadequate stakeholder participation in decision-making; barriers to civil society and community participation in policymaking and sustainable forest product development; and the marginalization of women and other groups.
To help bring global attention to these issues, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is launching this first call for applications for media grants under its new Forest Governance Media Initiative (FGMI). This media grant opportunity will award up to nine grants in total to media organizations in Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Vietnam and Indonesia, for projects that will increase media coverage and/or improve journalists’ capacity to report on forest governance topics. This work is funded with UK International Development from the UK government.
Project themes and objectives
Projects funded by this grant should seek to strengthen the capacity of journalists and media organizations in one or more of the target countries to produce high-quality, evidence-based and engaging stories on forest governance policies, challenges and solutions. Supported projects should aim to amplify the voices of marginalized groups directly affected by these issues, while drawing public and decision-maker attention to the threats to—and solutions for—equitable and sustainable forest management.
For organizations proposing content production only, these activities must result in robust and in-depth outputs (for example, a series of podcasts or a multi-part investigation). Applications that propose less than 10 stories will not be considered competitive, unless they also propose to include capacity-building activities as part of the project.
All projects supported by this grant should focus, at least in part, on the following country-specific themes:
- Indonesia: Deforestation driven by oil palm plantations and mineral mining, IPLC land rights, forest law enforcement gaps, social forestry, the SVLK timber legality assurance system and FLEGT licensed timber.
- Vietnam: Timber trade, REDD+, implementation of the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement with the EU, benefit sharing for local communities.
- Cameroon: REDD+, community forestry, illegal logging and related activities, cocoa plantations and forest law enforcement.
- Liberia: Illegal logging, mining and deforestation, financial crimes, EU-Liberia directives and agreements.
- Ghana: Impacts of gold mining and cocoa production on forests, implementation of FLEGT licensing.
- International: International forest governance processes, trade relationships or policies that affect Indonesia, Vietnam, Cameroon, Liberia and Ghana, such as the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR), REDD+, the Global Biodiversity Framework, etc.
Examples of activities or outputs that can be supported include, but are not limited to:
- Training workshops for journalists and communicators, to build their knowledge and capacity to cover forest governance issues
- Story grants and mentoring for journalists to produce and disseminate quality news and information on forest governance issues.
- The development of reporters’ resources and/or e-learning tools to benefit environmental reporters and their audiences
- The development of innovative mapping, data visualization and/or fact-checking tools to support reporting and/or the distribution of stories on forest governance topics
- Transboundary, collaborative, investigative and/or data-led reporting projects that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and content sharing among media outlets based in different regions or countries, particularly that that explores FRC trade relationships between producer and processor/consumer countries
- The establishment of new storytelling platforms
- Partnerships and network-building activities such as the formation of an environmental journalists’ network or an investigative reporting collective
- Cross-sectoral collaborations and knowledge exchange between journalists, information providers, researchers and policymakers
Grants
We anticipate supporting nine organizations with grants of 10,000 GBP each, with at least one organization supported in each country. In general, proposals with smaller budgets will be more competitive. Larger grant amounts will be considered for projects that use innovative approaches and may be more resource- and time-consuming.
Eligibility
Media organizations in Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Vietnam and Indonesia are eligible to apply. .
This opportunity is open to journalist networks, media organizations, civil society organizations or academic institutions. Although we will consider applications by NGOs or environmental groups looking to build the capacity of journalists to cover conservation issues, preference will be given to applications from or affiliated with professional journalists, media organizations, journalism schools and the like.
We will not consider applications rooted in advocacy or political campaigning.
For the purposes of this grant opportunity, we will only be accepting applications in English. Unfortunately, we 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.
Existing or former EJN grantees are eligible to apply. We will take the performance of existing or former grantees into consideration during the selection.
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.
All grantees that intend to support the production of stories as part of their project will be informed of the FGMI project’s high-quality journalism standards, and are expected to encourage their supported journalists to produce work in line with these standards. These include—but are not limited to—the inclusion of marginalized sources, comprehensive and fair coverage with representation of all stakeholders, attributable quotes, personal narratives and other elements to be discussed during onboarding for this grant opportunity.
Judging criteria
All applications we 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 and application.
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