Project
Countdown Natur
RiffReporter
Project
Countdown Natur
RiffReporter
Profile
Organisation/Company
RiffReporter
Project name
Countdown Natur
Project period
01.05.2020 – 31.12.2022
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RiffReporter (“ReefReporter”) is a novel project for lively quality journalism and has already won the Grimme Online Award and the #Netzwende Prize. On www.riffreporter.de, readers will find a wide variety of well researched journalism on scientific, societal, cultural, environmental and technological topics, written by professional freelance authors who work for major newspapers, magazines and broadcasting companies.
RiffReporter gives citizens and institutions an opportunity to provide targeted, direct support for expert authors, relevant topics and important investigative journalism through sponsorship and subscriptions. RiffReporter is growing organically, with each new project adding another layer to a “coral reef of journalism” which is characterised by diversity, depth and cooperation. The reef already contains numerous exciting projects.
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"Countdown Natur"
The rich diversity of life on Earth is under threat. In 2022, representatives of 190 states met at a United Nations conference to determine new global environmental protection goals for the year 2030. The outcome is uncertain: previous goals have not been achieved, so will these fare any better? Do society as a whole and representatives of policymakers and industry have enough information? What role does Germany play in the UN Conference known as “COP15”?
Despite its huge significance, the matter is largely ignored by the media, so the RiffReporter cooperative and science journalists have joined forces to set up the project “Countdown Natur”, which offers comprehensive coverage of matters related to biodiversity. The Hering-Stiftung Natur and Mensch funds the research and publication of a substantial number of contributions which aim to offer positive solutions – scenarios for the successive development of effective biodiversity protection.
Project goals
- Reporting should ensure that environmental protection and biodiversity are given the prominent platform required to raise collective awareness of them.
- The political process related to the COP 15 conference is accompanied in a way which provides the best possible education.
- The public should be informed about the importance of biodiversity and what individuals can do in support of biodiversity.
- The highly diverse topic should be presented in an understandable, accessible and tangible way.
- An international teams of researchers will report globally and nationally on problems and solutions across the biodiversity spectrum.
Project status
Projekt Riffreporter Dezember 2022
UN Conference COP 15 in Montreal hailed as a success: https://www.riffreporter.de/de/umwelt/biodiversitaet-cop15-montreal-abkommen-inhalte-was-steht-drin-naturschutz
Thomas Krumenacker was on the spot on behalf of Countdown Natur: https://www.riffreporter.de/de/umwelt/biodiversitaet-cop15-naturschutz-montreal-wissenschaft-ipbes-sandra-diaz
Projekt Riffreporter November 2022
Climate summit COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh – With its “Biodiversity Day”, the climate summit COP27 backs a global environmental protection agreement. The objectives of the Paris Agreement of 2015 cannot be achieved without environmental protection.
Projekt Riffreporter Oktober 2022
Since summer 2022, other media have at last thankfully also discovered the major issue of biodiversity and the imminent UN Conference COP15. In part, this can be directly attributed to the influence of Countdown Natur – as mentioned in an editorial comment in the reputable German newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on 30.09.2022. We also know that other media are now using “Countdown Natur” as a source for their own reporting. Since its inception, Countdown Natur’s has developed a clear profile as the biodiversity project in the field of German-language journalism. Its output rivals that of the only other comparable project worldwide – the Guardian’s “Age of extinction” – whose resources are many times larger.
Projekt Riffreporter Oktober 2022
Scientific topics – for example, an interview with renowned climate researcher Hans-Otto Pörtner and an up-to-the-minute report on the latest information about the extent of the species crisis and, as an absolute highlight, Joachim Budde’s thoroughly researched résumé of what has (and hasn’t) happened in the fields of research and politics in the five years since the publication of the world-famous “Krefeld Study”. One of the most significant current environmental disasters of the summer, the mass die-off of millions of fish in the River Oder as a combined result of excess warmth, toxins and the invasion of a non-indigenous type of algae, was also comprehensively covered. One of the contributions providing background and context was an interview with the Klement Tockner, Director-General of the Frankfurter Senckenberg-Gesellschaft, who is a limnologist by profession.
Projekt Riffreporter Juni 2022
Countdown Natur was able to report exclusively in advance on core developments in the two-year wrangling about where and when the World Biodiversity Summit would be staged – on 14.06., no other German-speaking media (or international media, for that matter) broke the news that the event had been postponed again and that China was no longer insisting on Kunming as the venue. There were also exclusive statements by CBD Executive Secretary Mrema and German ministers Lemke and Schulze. The decision that the Summit would take place in Canada in December was finally announced on 20.06. (which was otherwise only reported by the Guardian at the same time as Countdown Natur).