Deadline: November 24, 2025
Applications are open for EJN Media Grants to Support Coverage of Countries’ Progress Toward the 30×30 Marine Conservation Target 2026. EJN is offering media grants to newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries, with particular focus on Ghana, Mexico, and the Philippines, to support in-depth and enterprise reporting projects, initiatives to train journalists and other activities designed to increase media coverage and the capacity of journalists to report on 30×30 marine conservation targets.
Oveview
In December 2022, more than 190 countries committed to achieve ‘30×30’ under target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework. This target calls for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, by the year 2030.
Creating marine protected areas (MPAs) and other area-based conservation measures (OECMs) with strong rules and enforcement are among the most effective ways to conserve marine biodiversity. Yet summits since 2022 have made it clear the world is not on track to meet this target. In fact, so far countries have only fully or highly protected 2.9% of our oceans, far from 30%.
News organizations and journalists, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, often lack the resources, knowledge, or capacity to report relevant and high-quality ocean-related information. Many journalists themselves may not be familiar with ocean issues, 30×30 or MPAs.
To fill this gap, EJN is offering media grants to newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries. Applications from Ghana, Mexico, and the Philippines will be prioritized. These grants will support in-depth reporting projects and training of journalists, with the aim to increase the quality and quantity of coverage about progress toward the 30×30 target and the challenges and solutions to reaching this goal.
Grant
- They anticipate supporting five organizations with grants of $10,000 USD each. One grant will be given for each focus country—Ghana, Mexico and the Philippines—and two grants to applicants from any eligible country.
Eligibility
- Newsrooms and media organizations in coastal countries are eligible to apply. Because 30×30 refers to marine conservation, they will not accept applications from countries with a freshwater coast; only coastal countries with a marine border will be considered. In particular, they encourage those from Ghana, Mexico, and the Philippines to apply.
- Civil society organizations, academic institutions, NGOs or environmental groups are not eligible for this opportunity. Applications with a focus on advocacy and/or political campaigning will not be considered.
- For the purposes of this grant opportunity, they will only be accepting applications in English and Spanish. Unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to consider applications in other languages at this time. Applicants must either have a working understanding of English or Spanish or have a translator available to assist with communication with Internews staff. Projects may, however, produce content in any language best suited for their audience.
- Former EJN grantees are eligible to apply. They will take the performance of former grantees into consideration during the selection. Organizations with an existing EJN grant are not eligible.
- 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.
Judging Criteria
All applications they 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.
Application
For more information, visit EJN Media Grants.
