With great pleasure, Earth Journalism Network (EJN) announces the availability of a new fellowship for journalists who wish to cover the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in October and November of 2024.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a groundbreaking international agreement that was created during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. The first global biodiversity agreement ever, it establishes guidelines that assist nations in governing in accordance with its three goals: the preservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its elements, and the just and equitable distribution of benefits resulting from the use of biodiversity and related traditional knowledge.[HB2] [JD1]

At the CBD COP15 in 2022, thirty years later, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), dubbed nature's counterpart to the Paris Agreement, came into effect. This agreement includes 23 targets to be met by 2030 in an effort to slow down and lessen the swift and catastrophic loss of biodiversity. 196 nations have approved it.

The first meeting since the GBF's founding, the CBD COP16, is scheduled for October–November 2024 in Cali, Colombia. As such, it is imperative that we take a moment to evaluate the status of global biodiversity financing, the progress made by nations towards achieving each target, and the obstacles that still need to be overcome.

It will need quick, quantifiable, and tangible action to achieve the Framework's objectives in order to fulfil the rapidly approaching 2030 deadline. Since 1970, the average global decline in wildlife populations has been 69%, and by 2030, over a million animal and plant species face extinction.

In order to guarantee comprehensive and varied coverage of this COP across the globe, especially in nations significantly impacted by its conclusions, the Earth Journalism Network is initiating a new fellowship programme for journalists who wish to cover the event and attend. The purpose of this opportunity is to provide journalists from low- and middle-income nations with the means to cover the discussions and guarantee that important choices, findings, and outcomes are available to audiences outside of conference rooms.

The fellowship will bolster and enhance journalists' coverage of biodiversity-related topics and highlight the pervasive, disastrous, and frequently unreported effects of biodiversity loss.