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.

In many, many ways, 2020 has been a trying year. In the midst of that, though, we saw burgeoning innovations. So to start this week's issue, I want to reflect on some of our accomplishments this year.

The Environmental Reporting Collective was founded

The idea was simple – take what we accomplished with The Pangolin Reports and support more collaborative journalism projects across Asia, and beyond. At the most basic, ERC is a venue to enable conversations among reporters, editors and supporters of journalism on the latest and best practices of environmental reporting.

Green Echoes launched

In order to enable conversations, this newsletter was launched, to provide curated information that is hopefully relevant to readers needs and interests. We highlighted the best reporting from across the region, key virtual events and trainings along with fellowship and funding opportunities. We even conducted interviews with investigative journalists from Cambodia, China and India, so that you could learn from your peers.

It seems we were filling a needed niche, as the newsletter's growth rate, engagement, and feedback exceeded our expectations.

Our Wildlife Conversation Series

In June and July, we hosted a four-part series on wildlife issues in Malaysia, introducing readers to the country's first captive born pangolin, and exploring topics around pangolin farming, indigenous hunting, and Chinese Traditional Medicine. Our goal was not to host a webinar or panel, but real conversations in an online room of like-minded people – part dinner party, part study group.

According to Elroi Yee, who co-organized the series, "feedback from the audience showed that the sessions were engaging and interactive... people especially loved hearing from those who worked on the ground."

The Pangolin Reports won some awards

The Pangolin Reports – our first project, which brought together more than 30 journalists and 14 newsrooms to conduct a groundbreaking, cross-border investigation – was recognized by two prestigious organizations.

First, in August, we won the Society of Publishers in Asia Excellence in Journalistic Innovation Award and Excellence in Reporting on the Environment Award.

Then, ONA picked us as their Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships. That one is especially meaningful because it recognized not just the reporting, but the power of bringing reporters, outlets, and editors from across borders.

Our partner journalists from the R.AGE team in Malaysia also won two Asian Media Awards for their investigations – supported by ERC – into local pangolin smuggling syndicates.

The best reporting of 2020 from across Asia

While the pandemic made in-person reporting – and collaboration – challenging, that did not stop many journalists and cross-border partnerships from continuing to shed lights on how supply chains, wildlife trafficking, corruption, and land issues impact the environmental across Asia.Here's a few of our favorite stories from 2020.

• Gecko Project and Mongabay's investigation into corruption and deforestation in the palm oil industry (see our Q&A with the editors of this investigation, in issue #11)

• Macaranga’s four-part series on what is driving forest loss in Peninsular Malaysia, published with support from the Pulitzer Center

• Tempo’s in-depth investigation into why the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry gave a construction permit to a tycoon-owned company to build a mining road through a forest in Sumatra that is the habitat for several endemic plant and animal species.

• This visual story in Southeast Asia Globe that investigated the impacts to the environment and human health of antibiotic over-prescribing across the region.

• Lulu Ning Hui’s in-depth feature on Chinese seafarers who fish on the high seas in the southwest Atlantic (also see our Q&A with her here).

• Southern Weekly’s report (in Chinese) on how wild plants were readily available for sale on several Chinese social media and web platforms, highlighting how the lack of a wild plant protection law leads to an almost complete lack of enforcement of this trade.

Data, Resources and Training

The 2021 Sigma #datajournalism Award is accepting submissions. The focus is data journalism work done around the world during the COVID19 pandemic. Deadline Feb 1, and details here.

Got an investigation idea for 2021? If it involved environmental crime, apply for a grant from GRID-Arendal, which is offering up to 2,300 Euros for investigative journalism projects focused on environmental crime in developing countries (Deadline Jan 22).

Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT has just released a new handbook on science editing, written by some of the wise widely celebrated editors and reporters working today.

The Google News Initiative has released an environmental journalist online training course – which includes guides on using their tools to do investigative research.

Save the dates for the Reuters Next conference, which will take place fully virtually from Jan 11-14, and focuses on re-imagining solutions to the challenges of the present.

And on a lighter note – don't get "ton" and "tonne" mixed up when estimating the illegal wildlife trade – according to this piece just published in Biological Conservation, it happens a lot more often than you'd think.

This is the last newsletter of the year. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the new year, including new collaborations, projects, and partners. Our goals remains the same – support collaborative journalism projects that start new conversations on how our societies impact our planet – and we have big plans to scale that up.

Get involved by

Joining our Slack, which has over 160 journalists, editors, and media professionals from around the world.

Sharing this newsletter with your colleagues

Share Green Echoes

Responding to me directly with ideas or thoughts on how we can empower and enhance your work.

Until then, wishing you a safe, healthy, and joyful New Year!

Nithin Coca