With the effects of environmental degradation becoming more visible, high-quality environmental journalism is more important than ever. But like the journalism sector as a whole, environmental reporting has been affected by changing business models that have reduced the availability of resources for reporting, the decline of press freedom in many countries and the lack of early career opportunities. These issues are especially serious in places that bear the brunt of climate change, loss of biodiversity, destruction of nature and threats against indigenous peoples and local communities.
In response to this situation, Mongabay established the Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Programme. The programme will provide journalists from biodiversity hotspots in tropical countries with opportunities to report on critical environmental issues, gaining valuable training, experience and credibility that will help them advance their careers in journalism and communications.
The programme
The Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Programme is based on Mongabay's long-term internship programme, which has helped build the capacity of environmental journalists in a field where such experience can be hard to come by. Since 2008, the programme has provided training and first-hand reporting experience to dozens of young journalists in more than a dozen countries. Mongabay trainees have gone on to establish careers as professional journalists, communications professionals in scientific institutions and conservation NGOs, and at Mongabay itself.
The Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Programme will support up to 12 fellows per year - six in our global English office and six in our Spanish-language office, Mongabay-Latam. Each cohort will consist of three fellows per office.
The fellows will gain valuable experience working with a range of editors in our international journalistic environment, develop their environmental reporting skills, and create a portfolio of original publications that will help them progress in their journalistic careers.
About Y. Eva Tan
Eva is passionate about equality for all human beings, and the conservation of habitats, not only for fauna but also for flora. She is particularly sensitive to creating opportunities for everyone, regardless of national origin, ethnicity or ability.
Logistics
The scholarship will run twice a year: 1 April to 30 September and 1 October to 31 March.
The application window for the April-September cohort will run from 15 December to 10 February. The application window for the October-March cohort will run from 15 June to 10 August.
Each grantee will receive $500 USD per month for the duration of the six-month grant, or $3,000 USD in total. During this period, the fellows will work directly with the fellowship editor to produce six stories. Fellows will have opportunities to collaborate with various Mongabay editors, including those who specialise in different areas.
Each fellow is expected to commit 10 hours per week. Each scholarship holder is expected to produce an average of one story per month over the course of the scholarship, to be published on the Mongabay website.
The work is remote - Mongabay does not have an office and cannot support work visas.
Eligibility
Applicants must be from a lower-middle to upper-middle income tropical country, as classified by the World Bank. "High-income" tropical countries, such as Singapore and Australia, are excluded from the scholarship. A list of eligible countries can be found here.
Candidates must be aspiring environmental journalists with an early career.
Candidates must be able to work remotely and commit to 10 hours a week.
There is no education requirement to apply for the programme. The scholarship is not linked to any university.
All application materials must be submitted in the appropriate language (English for the English-language programme and Spanish for the Spanish-language programme).
All materials must adhere to the guidelines below; submissions that do not follow the guidelines will be disqualified.
We are currently only accepting fellows for our English- and Spanish-speaking global offices. Our ambition is to eventually expand this programme to other Mongabay offices, including Indonesia, India, Brazil and French-speaking tropical countries, but we don't currently have a timeline for this expansion.
Desired Experience and Qualifications / Judging Criteria
Basic understanding and interest in reporting and writing news stories;
Demonstrated interest in conservation issues;
Demonstrated interest in environmental journalism as a career;
Proven communication skills;
Ability to fulfil all the requirements of the grant and reporting plans.
Application requirements
Apply online here for the English-language programme.
Apply online here for the Spanish language programme.
CV (1-2 pages maximum)
Cover letter (1 page maximum) introducing yourself and responding:
What are your professional goals, and how does environmental journalism fit in?
Why should Mongabay select you for this scholarship?
A writing sample in a journalistic style (published or unpublished) related to conservation or other environmental issues.
Selection process
Selections will be made by an internal Mongabay team, and applicants will receive notification of the status of their applications at least three weeks before the start of the cohort. Applications will be reviewed as they arrive, so please submit your application as soon as possible.
For questions about the scholarship programme in Mongabay's global English office, please contact Karen Coates at karen@mongabay.com. For the Mongabay Latam Spanish office, please contact Dora Montero at dora@mongabay.com.
