DEADLINE: EJN Coastal Resilience Story Grants

Internews' Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is offering Coastal Resilience Story Grants of approximately $1,200 to journalists worldwide to support the production of in-depth stories that will call attention to coastal resiliency and solutions for coastal issues.

These journalists will receive support from journalist mentors and a coastal resilience expert to increase media coverage of this critical issue in their region.

We welcome solutions-oriented story ideas on the following topics:

• Under-reported nature-based solutions, including protection or maintenance of coastal ecosystems such as seagrass, kelp, dunes, marshes, barrier islands, reefs, oysters and more (we have supported many stories on mangroves, an important topic, but will be looking for story ideas on other coastal ecosystems)
• Strategies for beach stabilization and erosion prevention, and the impacts on local ecosystems
• Policy-based coastal management techniques, including disaster management and early-warning systems, coastal zoning, government adaptation plans and more
• Marine/coastal protected areas, including their long-term effectiveness and impact on Indigenous or local communities
• Coastal conservation finance, including insurance schemes, debt-for-nature swaps, the costs of nature-based versus concrete or “gray” solutions, finance for biodiversity and other initiatives to finance coastal solutions
• Blue carbon and the blue economy, including whether and how carbon offsets, tourism or other coastal blue economy initiatives can bring real solutions
• The relationship between biodiversity loss, climate change and coastal resilience, including changing fish migration routes and food insecurity
• Planned retreat, resettlement or relocation, including case studies on existing programs as well as investigations into coastal climate gentrification, cultural displacement and more
• Risk management, monitoring and evaluation and other evidence-based strategies for coastal communities to understand and track coastal resilience
• The intersections between public health and coastal resilience, including solutions for saltwater intrusion, the impacts of sea level rise on pollution and more.

All stories must have a solutions-focused angle; stories without this will not be considered.

Proposals that focus on topics or stories that have not been widely covered are preferred. Issues that have already received a lot of media coverage or don't provide unique angles to environmental challenges are less likely to be selected.

Applicants can be from any country in the world; applicants from coastal countries reporting on their home communities are preferred.

Applications must be in English or Spanish. Deadline is February 6, 2023, 11:59 PM, (UTC -11).