Environmental Defenders (ED) has launched environmental journalism grants for journalists in Uganda and the DR Congo. The grants will help reporters uncover environmental injustices. They will also amplify the voices of frontline environmental and human rights defenders.
ED will award $500 grants to 20 journalists, 10 in Uganda and 10 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Grantees will use the funds to investigate and publish or broadcast in-depth stories on environmental and human rights issues.
Update: This call for applications is now closed. Read the closing announcement.
The initiative supports civic space, environmental accountability, and the right to information. This matters most in biodiversity-rich areas threatened by industry, extraction, and shrinking press freedom.
A history of advocacy and protection
Environmental Defenders is a pillar of environmental protection and social justice in the Albertine region and the Congo Basin. We protect biodiversity and defend the rights of Indigenous peoples and forest communities. Moreover, we work in some of Africa’s most sensitive and politically difficult landscapes.
From the Murchison-Semliki landscape in Uganda to the Virunga, Ituri, and Epulu-Aru landscapes in eastern DRC, we support grassroots conservation, legal empowerment, environmental education, and community-led restoration. We also give legal, technical, and security support to defenders. These include women environmental human rights defenders (WEHRDs), Indigenous leaders, and journalists who face surveillance, intimidation, and violence.
Why environmental journalism grants matter
“At a time when forests are disappearing, land rights are being violated, and environmental human rights defenders are being silenced, journalism is one of the few remaining tools of resistance and truth-telling. Our journalism grant program is not just about stories. It is about justice, accountability, and the power of the public to demand change.” — Samuel Jaryekonga Warom, Communications Director, Environmental Defenders
Environmental journalists expose illegal logging, land grabs, water pollution, biodiversity loss, and abuses linked to oil, mining, and agribusiness. However, in Uganda and the DRC, rural journalists often lack the money, skills, and protection to investigate safely. These environmental journalism grants fill that gap.
Uganda: a landscape of opportunity and risk
Uganda’s Albertine region is known worldwide for its ecological value. Districts such as Nwoya, Nebbi, Zombo, Pakwach, Buliisa, Hoima, Kikuube, Kagadi, Masindi, and Ntoroko host key ecosystems, including the Ramsar site in Murchison Falls National Park.
Commercial oil was found beneath Lake Albert. Since then, new infrastructure, including the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and the Tilenga and Kingfisher projects, has begun to degrade the landscape. As a result, communities that once lived from fishing, farming, and forests now face displacement, pollution, and insecure land rights. Commercial farms and private conservancies have also pushed traditional landowners aside.
Environmental Defenders helps these communities map customary land, replant forests, monitor biodiversity, and speak up. Through our community radio, Terra FM, we broadcast human rights and environmental programs in local languages. Still, much of what happens in Uganda’s oil zones and the DRC’s mining areas stays hidden. These grants aim to bring those stories to light.
In Uganda, we invite pitches on oil and gas impacts, land grabs, displacement, forest loss, biodiversity, and the rights of fishers, women, and Indigenous communities. Print, TV, radio, and online media are all eligible.
DR Congo: forests under siege
Across the border in eastern DRC, the situation is just as urgent. The Ituri-Epulu-Aru landscape is one of the most intact and biologically rich forests in the Congo Basin. It is home to forest elephants, okapis, chimpanzees, and the Indigenous Mbuti and Efe peoples.
Illegal gold mining, logging, poaching, land grabs, armed conflict, and state neglect now threaten these forests. Mining pollutes water, disrupts livelihoods, and speeds up deforestation. Poaching networks, some linked to militias, are wiping out endangered species and terrorizing rangers. Meanwhile, Indigenous land defenders face harassment, prison, and even murder.
Environmental Defenders has long supported community forests, legal aid, ranger and paralegal training, and documentation of abuses in eastern DRC. We work with the DRC Ministry of Environment, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), civil society, and local actors.
In the DRC, the grants support stories on illegal mining, environmental crime, abuses in protected areas, threats to forest communities, and criminal exploitation of resources. Journalists may apply in French or English. Formats include written reports, radio features, videos, and multimedia.
Environmental journalism grants: details and application process
Journalists in online, print, TV, and radio media can apply, as can other media workers who cover conservation and human rights. We welcome both early-career and experienced journalists. Freelancers and staff of international, national, local, and community media are eligible. In particular, we encourage women, rural, forest-based, Indigenous, and young journalists to apply.
Applicants must show past environmental or human rights reporting. They must submit a sample story and a recommendation letter from their media house or editor. Each grantee will receive editorial mentoring, logistical support, and, if needed, physical and digital security advice.
Deadlines, budgets, and credits
Grants will be paid in July. All stories must be published by October 16, 2025.
Applicants should submit a detailed budget in Word, PDF, or Excel. It should cover reporting costs such as travel and lodging. If another donor is also funding the story, applicants must state what share they are asking from Environmental Defenders.
Published stories must carry this credit: “This article was produced with support from the Environmental Defenders Community Media program.” Grantees may publish first in their own media and then share copies with us.
Applicants must not use AI tools to write proposals. We may disqualify any application that contains AI-generated text presented as the applicant’s own work.
How applications are judged
A panel of ED staff and outside journalism experts will judge the applications. First, it will interview shortlisted applicants about their story ideas and budgets. Then it will meet again to choose the grantees.
Applications were due by midnight on June 10, 2025. Applicants sent them to warom@watetezi.org, with a copy to team@watetezi.org. Stories could be in French or English.
Download the call
A commitment to truth and justice
This initiative shows that journalism and environmental protection are deeply linked. As the climate crisis grows and extractive projects push deeper into remote areas, factual and fearless reporting matters more than ever.
“We believe that journalism is a form of environmental defense. By supporting these storytellers, we are helping communities speak out, assert their rights, and resist destruction. We hope this program will serve as a model for how media, civil society, and conservation efforts can come together to protect our planet.” — Sarah Lonyo, Program Officer, Environmental Defenders
We welcome partnerships with media organizations, funders, and conservation groups. In a time of crisis, stories can inspire action, and we are making sure they are told clearly and courageously. See how we have trained journalists in Mahagi.