From June 15 to 17, 2026, Environmental Defenders (ED) hosted a residential training and mentorship workshop on environmental reporting, biodiversity, and pandemics, bringing together reporters from more than 10 media houses across the Mahagi territory. Of the 26 participants, at least three were women. The workshop was held in strict compliance with public health protocols and standard operating procedures for Ebola prevention, and organizers chose a residential format specifically to limit participants’ movement and reduce their exposure amid the sweeping waves of the disease in the region.
The training was organized in collaboration with the Mahagi section of the National Union of the Congolese Press (UNPC). Its purpose was to equip local journalists and their newsrooms with rigorous skills to produce environmental journalism that connects the protection of Ituri’s forests and Congo Basin biodiversity with community rights and global health security, while helping mobilize communities against epidemics such as Ebola and other zoonotic diseases.
The stakes are considerable. The Congo Basin, of which Ituri is an integral part, holds the second-largest tropical rainforest on the planet and stands as Africa’s most effective natural barrier against climate change. It’s home to thousands of endemic plant and animal species, yet mining, logging, and unsustainable agriculture are steadily taking their toll. The journalists covering this territory are among the few able to warn the public before more is lost.
The workshop opened with a ceremony presided over by Colonel Disanoa Lalua Jacques, the military administrator of the Mahagi territory, who urged participants to turn their microphones and pens into levers for change. He reminded the media professionals of their responsibility to inform, protect, and awaken civic consciousness in the face of the region’s alarming biodiversity loss, rapid deforestation, and mounting health risks.
Samuel Warom Jariekong’a, Communications Director of Environmental Defenders, followed with a broader argument. No nature conservation policy can succeed, he said, without the support of a strong, courageous, and independent press. He also redefined the scope of environmental work for the room, insisting that defending nature today is no longer confined to protecting forests and wildlife but is now inseparable from human rights, social justice, and the health of local communities.
Over the three days, the program moved through four thematic modules: the fundamentals of environmental journalism, the ecological and climate realities of Ituri, the “One Health” approach to pandemic coverage, and the tools of fact-checking, crisis sensitivity, and conflict-sensitive reporting. Sessions combined scientific theory, journalistic ethics, and hands-on field techniques, led by a team of facilitators that included an ED consultant and Désiré Uwekmeno, president of the UNPC Mahagi section; journalists Jacques Unyutha of Radio Colombe and Olivier Bernirwoth; environmental engineer and University of Lake Albert (UNILAC) professor Jacques Arua; and Dr. Aubain Luambo, an epidemiologist at the Mahagi Referral Health Centre.
One of the workshop’s most revealing exercises sent journalists into groups by radio station and chiefdom to diagnose the ecological pressures on their doorsteps. The results revealed a territory under strain. In the Wagongo chiefdom, Radio Terra FM flagged the destruction of buffer zones and fish spawning grounds and the felling of ancestral trees. In Panduru, Radio Mont Akara pointed to reckless timber and fuelwood cutting, sand extraction, and unmanaged household waste. Radio Nyarambe FM described land-use conflicts between farmers and authorities in Anghal, while in the ALUR Djuganda chiefdom, Radio de Djalasiga painted a bleak picture of artisanal gold mining polluting waterways and swallowing farmland and forest. Only the Djukoth chiefdom, covered by Radio RADID, reported a relatively stable situation.
On the second day, journalist Jacques Unyutha walked participants through the concrete manifestations of climate change already visible in Mahagi: chronic rainfall irregularity, recurring floods, rising temperatures, and the disruption of agricultural calendars. Group analysis found that staple crops such as bananas and cassava, cash crops like cotton, and both livestock and fisheries were bearing the heaviest burden, driving down yields and pushing up market prices. Engineer Jacques Arua then grounded the discussion in the science of meteorology and climatology and later hosted the cohort at UNILAC’s meteorological station to show how field data can help anticipate both health and environmental risks.
The One Health approach and a warning
A central lesson of the workshop was the “One Health” approach, which holds that human health is inseparable from the health of animals and the wider environment. Co-led by Désiré Uwekmeno and Dr. Aubain Luambo, the session drew a direct line between the deforestation and habitat destruction the journalists had documented and the emergence of health crises such as Ebola and Mpox.
“If we kill the environment, the environment kills us too.”
— Dr. Aubain Luambo, epidemiologist, Mahagi Referral Health Centre
Dr. Luambo delivered detailed scientific guidance on the outbreak now confronting the province. The current crisis is driven by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, one of the types that have historically struck the DRC, and, unlike the Zaire strain, it has no approved vaccine, forcing health services to rely on symptomatic treatment. With an incubation period of 2 to 21 days, he stressed, vigilance must be absolute. He noted that the epidemic began in Mongbwalu, a major artisanal mining zone, which is a clear example of the link between deforestation, disturbed habitats, and the spillover of disease that the workshop set out to explain.
He also cautioned journalists against letting statistics blunt the human reality of the emergency, even though the Bundibugyo strain is less lethal than the Zaire strain.
“For a family that loses its members, the lethality rate is always 100%. Every human life cut short is an absolute tragedy.”
— Dr. Aubain Luambo
The warning lands against sobering numbers. The Ebola epidemic was declared on May 15, 2026, and on May 17 the World Health Organization designated it a public health emergency of international concern. By June 22, the DRC Health Ministry had confirmed more than 1,000 cases, making it the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record, and on July 4 authorities reported 33 new confirmed cases, including six deaths, across Ituri and North Kivu. Several health workers are among the dead.
The training did more than transfer theory. Environmental Defenders used the workshop to embed a live crisis-communication response into the territory’s media landscape. Since the outbreak was declared, ED and Radio Terra FM have produced awareness spots, educational songs, and specialized programs; made Ebola messaging a mandatory segment across all of Terra FM’s schedules; and, by June, printed more than 70,000 posters in local languages for distribution to the most remote communities.
To extend that reach, Warom Jariekong’a announced that ED had signed a partnership with 15 key radio stations across Ituri province, including 8 in Mahagi’s territory, committing the network to broadcast a series of 10 Ebola awareness spots at an intensive rate of 360 broadcasts per month. He also appealed to health experts to engage more readily with local radio, deploring the reluctance of some professionals to accept interview invitations at a moment when reliable scientific voices are most needed.
Participants studied ED’s landmark 2022 report, “Last Line of Defense,” as an investigative roadmap, using its case study of the Kibali River Basin to show how migration to mining towns, the influx of displaced people, and cross-border food exports have pushed the region into chronic food insecurity, classified as IPC Phase 3 in the Watsa territory, and reduced fallow periods to a critical 3.3 years, too short for the forest to regenerate.
The training was set out to close A newsroom gaps
The workshop responded to a real deficit. Journalists and media workers across Ituri Province face persistent obstacles in producing content on biodiversity, climate, and the environment, from the difficulty of conducting field research and interviews to the near impossibility of reaching sources and specialists who can speak with authority on biodiversity loss, deforestation, tropical forest conservation, and species extinction risk. That gap makes it particularly challenging for newsrooms to produce reporting that addresses these issues at the local, regional, and national levels.
Many outlets are also poorly equipped for the task. Newsrooms in the region lack the technical tools and equipment that environmental reporting demands, and training, where it exists, is usually designed for reporters outside local radio, broadcast, or online outlets. As a result, many stations, particularly in the Mahagi territory, have had limited capacity to gather, verify, produce, and broadcast stories on biodiversity, climate, and deforestation. The ED workshop set out to begin closing that gap.
Lessons Learned by the Journalists
By the close of the third day, organizers said, the 26 participants had gained practical command of investigative tools tied to One health, political ecology, and conflict-sensitive journalism, along with the ability to cross-reference scientific data, verify testimony, and deconstruct the rumors that have become one of the greatest obstacles to fighting Ebola in Ituri.
The enthusiasm was audible in the participants’ own words. Johny Unencan of Radio Nyarambe FM called the three days a precious opportunity for professional refinement that would sharpen his weekly program. Sephora Ucamgiu of Radio Colombe pledged, on behalf of her fellow women journalists, to apply the concepts immediately in defense of ecosystems and future life. Gustave Ucakire Nikuma, representing Radio Japidi, captured the mood of the cohort.
“Truly, thank you very much to Environmental Defenders for this training. Today, we have become true defenders of the environment, and we are going to raise awareness in our communities with great strength.”
— Gustave Ucakire Nikuma, Radio Japidi
Désiré Uwekmeno, speaking for the corporation, announced that journalists intended to form an official group of “Pro-Environment Journalists” and would submit a formal proposal to ED seeking its support. He closed with a call for vigilance that summed up the week’s dual purpose.
“Let us all be actors of change in our society, starting with our radio stations, our professional environment. Protect yourselves and protect your families against the Ebola virus disease.”
— Désiré Uwekmeno, president, UNPC Mahagi section
Participants also used the workshop to press for change in their profession. They unanimously called for a standing network of environmental journalists in Mahagi, independent of individual newsrooms, and for certificates recognizing the skills they had acquired. Several testified to working without formal contracts or regular pay, a precarity that pushes some reporters to depend on the transport allowances of the very people they interview, a practice known locally as “coupage” that erodes editorial independence. They urged ED and its partners to address this structural vulnerability in their future support for the local press.
Why This Training Matters for Mahagi
Mahagi lies in the northeastern DRC on the Lendu Plateau, an Alliance for Zero Extinction site and recognized Key Biodiversity Area on the western shore of Lake Albert. Part of the Albertine Rift, the plateau’s mosaic of montane forests, gallery forests, and grassy savannas shelters restricted-range birds found almost nowhere else, among them the Lendu Flycatcher, Chapin’s Apalis, Prigogine’s Greenbul, and Bedford’s Paradise-flycatcher. Across the territory, slash-and-burn agriculture, rising demand for charcoal, and small-scale logging are steadily eroding this ecological wealth, while overlapping gold-mining concessions threaten still more forest loss. Well-organized poachers, some of them heavily armed, target okapi, chimpanzees, and other wildlife for bushmeat, compromising the ecosystem of the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest.
ED sees journalists and media professionals as catalysts for change, able to empower Indigenous and local communities that have relied on these lands for generations; hold the governments accountable for protecting the fragile balance of the Albertine Rift and Congo Basin; and draw global solidarity toward preserving an ecosystem vital to mitigating climate change. ED is an environmental conservation and human rights organization that protects biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It works across Uganda and the DRC in landscapes that connect ecosystems and communities, including Murchison-Semliki, the Lendu Plateau, Bili-Uélé, Kolwezi-Katanga, and Ituri-Epulu-Aru. Through its community media program, it trains journalists on environmental reporting and pandemics and public health and produces programming that turns local audiences into agents of change. In Mahagi this June 2026, that mission took the shape of 26 reporters who left better prepared to protect their forests and their neighbors’ lives.
Photo credits: Environmental Defenders