Dear Friends and supporters,

Welcome to Green Echoes, a newsletter from the Environmental Reporting Collective that highlights key investigative stories, data sources, funding, reporting and training opportunities and our projects from across Asia. If you have questions, ideas or suggestions, reach me by responding to this email.

This week’s best reporting from across Asia

In this story for Mongabay, John Cannon investigates how women in Papua New Guinea are facing increased domestic violence, and the connection between this and the expansion of logging and agribusiness. Women there are, like in many parts of Asia, traditionally stewards of the land, but have been sidelined on discussions about development.

For The Third Pole, Zofeen T. Ebrahim writes about how the critically important ecological and human habitat of the Indus river delta is being lost to the sea due to dam construction and water mismanagement upstream. If action is not taken, experts are concerned about not only massive environmental devastation, but large-scale migration of people to cities.

Meanwhile, in China, Bloomberg reports that 19 emergency workers have died fighting blazes in Sichuan province. The fires are being blamed on "abnormal weather conditions." Coming so soon after massive forest fires burned hundreds of thousands of hectares in Brazil, Australia, and Indonesia, it's worth wondering if climate change is a factor in all these events.

And in this visual story for Southeast Asia Globe, Andrew Haffner investigates the impacts to the environment and human health of antibiotic over-prescribing. It’s led to drugs streaming into Southeast Asian waterways.

Opportunities

No new opportunities this week, but some reminders, as there are several deadlines approaching.

Internews Rapid Response Fund is open to many categories, but grassroots and community-based media outlets are particularly encouraged to apply (Deadline May 28.)

The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund is accepting submissions for its 2020 Awards in International Journalism (Deadline May 31).

Money Trail is accepting grant applications for projects that investigate cross-border illicit financial flows, tax abuse, money laundering and corruption in Africa, Asia and Europe (Deadline June 15).

And we are still looking for pitches from experienced reporters stories on how media companies are reporting the environment. We want to know how they did the story, how it could be replicated elsewhere, and what they plan to do next. More details here (rolling deadline).

If you’d like to highlight a funding opportunity, let me know by responding to this email.  

Data and other resources

As some regions began to emerge from Covid-19 lockdowns, the space to investigate its impacts is opening. Here are some resources to get you started.

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime has released an entire issue of their #CovidCrimeWatch newsletter focused entirely on environmental crime and the illicit wildlife trade, with links to several model stories and resources.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the Global Investigative Journalism Network's COVID-19 Resources page. It includes links to their coverage guide in 13 languages (including Chinese, Bangla, Japanese, and Vietnamese), videos of completed webinars, and data sources. 

Guidehouse has just released a short report on Green Crime – illegal activity that involves the environment, biodiversity, or natural resources. It's an industry that they estimate is worth an astounding $250 billion a year. 

Also be sure to read the latest bulletin from TRAFFIC. It includes a guide on how to use their Wildlife Trade Portal tool, a piece on enhancing wildlife law enforcement, and stories on investigating the trade in glass eels, sharks, and other wildlife species. 

Datacamp has made all their courses, tracks, skills assessments, and other learning materials free to everyone through May 22. 

Is there a new data source you’d like us to highlight? Let me know by responding to this email.

Events and Trainings

Rachel Blundy from AFP's fact checking team is hosting a free webinar entitled Fact Check:Debunking misinformation in Asia (May 21).

Also on May 21, GIJN is hosting a webinar entitled: Investigating the Pandemic: Tracking Medicine, Masks and other Supplies. RSVP here.

On May 27, the U.S.-based Society for Environmental Journalists is hosting a webinar for tips on understanding and covering complex emergencies. Register here.  

And for your calendar - the Centre for Investigative Journalism is holding their summer conference, online, from July 6-11. Talks are free, while courses require paid registration. See the schedule and details here.

Are you hosting an event you want to feature here? Let me know. 

Stay safe and healthy,

Nithin Coca