As a Knight International Development Fellow, Joachim Buwembo has helped form a network of journalists across Africa who cover climate change. His participants now are part of the Baobab Coalition, a cross-border network of journalists reporting on climate change adaptation and sharing resources. The 20-nation initiative was launched as part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Africa Adaptation Program.

Over the years, journalists of color have had few opportunities to work as foreign correspondents. That’s especially the case in today’s media environment, with sharp cutbacks by many news outlets in their international coverage. At the same time, communities of color rarely receive coverage of global issues that directly affect their lives, from the migration of jobs overseas to wars fought by minorities serving in the U.S. military.

Harry Surjadi has recruited and trained more than 150 citizen journalists living in the most-remote areas of Borneo to send news reports via text messaging using the FrontlineSMS system to Ruai TV, a station in the provincial capital. The service also allows subscribers from mainstream media, the government, and activist organizations to receive the news reports.

Sponsored by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, this program was designed to boost the capacity and motivation of journalists in the Caucasus region to report on conservation of biological diversity. The program was tailored to address the key issues facing each country, such as better management of protected areas, increasing the number and size of protected areas, controls on damaging activities, and other conservation issues of public interest.

Air pollution has a heavy impact on the Hispanic, Asian, African-American, and other minority communities in California. Our 2008 workshop, the third in a series, focused on pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.

Joachim Buwembo helped to create Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First), now a financially vibrant weekly publication focusing on agriculture issues. The eight-page supplement is published in English and Kiswahili by the Guardian Newspapers, the country’s top independent newspaper group.

Since it began, the supplement has featured more than 200 stories. Some reports led to new bank loans for farmers to buy imported tractors that lay idle as well as to increased government investment in dairy equipment and irrigation.