ELC Helps Train Nile River Basin Journalists on the Rights of Nature
The Nile River Basin, the world’s longest river, stretches through 11 countries in Africa and supports millions of people. One of the world’s most biodiverse regions, it is severely threatened by climate change, which is causing increasing disasters and worsening water scarcity for the region’s fast-growing population. Destruction of wetlands, water and air pollution, deforestation, sand mining, and other issues also threaten the environment in the Nile Basin and contribute to destructive climate impacts. At the same time, there has been progress on some initiatives related to transboundary water management, reforestation, wetland regeneration, and sustainability, but these efforts require expanded awareness and support.
One of these initiatives is the global and local movement to establish the intrinsic Rights of Nature. Globally, there is a movement in the legal sector toward establishing the intrinsic rights of natural bodies, such as rivers and forests, so that legal systems can protect Nature for its own benefit to exist and thrive, and not only for the benefit of humans or corporations. This movement has begun to gain ground in some countries in the Nile Basin. In Uganda, for example, the National Environment Act of 2019 includes the clause, “Nature has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution,” and grants rights to Nature to sue on its own behalf. The Serengeti Park, including the transboundary Mara River ecosystem that stretches through Kenya and Tanzania, is also the subject of initiatives by local actors (NGOs and activists) to recognize their rights, an effort that is supported by Observatoire International des Droits de la Nature (International Observatory on the Rights of Nature, IORN).
Despite the increasing threats to transboundary water resources in the Nile Basin, the region’s media coverage on management of natural resources remains limited and lacks technical analysis of scientific findings related to the river or legal movements that impact its status. There is a gap between the data published by local researchers and its translation to general public knowledge through the media. Also, according to the 800+ journalists in the InfoNile Network, many media houses do not invest in science journalism due to the view that such stories do not attract audiences or advertisers. The journalists also lack skills in science and data journalism, as well as resources for in-depth stories. Research by both IHE-Delft and WJA-InfoNile has also found poor communication efforts on the side of the scientists. The public is thus left with limited awareness about the status and importance of conserving transboundary natural resources such as the Nile River and its ecosystems.
Training Program for InfoNile Journalists
With this background in mind, in the spring of 2024, Earth Law Center (ELC) entered into a year-long collaboration with water journalists from the InfoNile program. The training, hosted by InfoNile and cosponsored by ELC and IORN, included a five-day online training program for Nile River journalists, which was held March 18-21st, 2024, in conjunction with World Water Day (March 22nd), and which focused on the Legal Personhood of the Nile River.
Based on the strength of InfoNile’s journalist network and background in training journalists in water, environmental, and science and data journalism, 20 journalists from 11 countries along the Nile River were selected to enroll in the journalists’ certification training on Legal Personhood of the Nile River, with the goal of reporting impactful stories on the Rights of Nature.
A diverse group of journalists from print, online, TV, and radio platforms, as well as from media start-ups, participated in the training. Among the enrolled were seasoned journalists along with younger/early career journalists, with 50% of attendees being women. The journalists included reporters from rural areas as well as those based in the capital cities. The majority of those selected belong to InfoNile’s 800 member journalist network.
The first four days of training included:
an introduction to the concept of legal personhood for natural entities
background on the global movement for the Rights of Nature
advances on Rights of Nature at the international level
how the media is covering the movement
the role of youth activism in establishing the Rights of Nature
experiences from movements within Nigeria, Tanzania and the cross-boundary initiative to recognize the rights of the Nile Basin
the importance of the integration of the Rights of Nature in Africa
The topics were led by legal and policy experts on Rights of Nature from the UN Harmony with Nature Programme and affiliated NGOs, movement leaders within Africa, and Ministers of government.
On day five, InfoNile’s expertise in geo-journalism shined as its trainers led a session on story pitching, where the journalists focused on producing pitches for potential stories they would like to cover on Rights of Nature in their countries. As the journalists report their stories, the InfoNile editors will provide ongoing mentorship in water, science, and data journalism. The InfoNile data team will also work with each journalist individually to source, analyze, and visualize data for their stories. Each story will then be published in the journalists’ local media houses, with at least one data visualization or interactive map.
The stories will also be published on InfoNile in 5 languages depending on the region of the story: Arabic, Amharic, Swahili, French, and English. InfoNile will also endeavor to bring stories together with additional data visualizations and multimedia to produce a final in-depth multimedia report focused on current status, issues, and solutions around establishing the Rights of Nature in the Nile River basin, which will be published on partner websites and cross-published with InfoNile’s media partners.
ELC’s Myra L Jackson was a member of the core team that established the training proposal, with the editorial help of Marsha Moutrie. Myra also developed and presented a training session and supported the daily Q&A sessions during the weeklong training program.
ELC’s Irikefe V. Dafe, CEO/Founder of the River Ethiope Trust Foundation, shared his harrowing experiences shepherding the Rights of Nature Initiative in Nigeria and related how ELC helped him to protect the River Ethiope.
Objectives of the Program:
In training African journalists on the Rights of Nature, the aim is to educate and raise awareness within local communities. We believe increased knowledge on the topic will help establish an enabling environment in which Rights of Nature can be discussed as a non-market approach to restoring the health of the Nile River and it biodiversity, as well as highlight traditional lifeways of the region that are in harmony with Nature and strengthen the right to a healthy environment for all.
Our key objectives are:
To create and inspire a motivated, informed, engaged, and committed learning community of journalists in the Nile Basin promoting the Rights of Nature.
To support a group of journalists in the Nile Basin with skills, knowledge, networks, and resources to report impactful stories on the Rights of Nature in the Nile River Basin.
