Dear friends and supporters,

Welcome to Green Echoes, a newsletter from the Environmental Reporting Collective that highlights key investigative stories, data sources, funding, reporting and training opportunities and our projects from across Asia.

Q&A with Lulu Ning Hui, senior journalist and editor for Initium Media

An English translation of her in-depth feature on Chinese seafarers who fish on the high seas in the southwest Atlantic has just been translated and re-published by Chinarrative. It’s a great story, with personal perspectives and visual details that are rarely seen in fisheries reporting. In fact, Lulu boarded a Chinese fishing vessel drifting off the coast of Argentina, and interviewed Chinese shipping companies and local environmental NGOs, connecting fishermen, subsidies, transshipment, and other problems in the high sea fisheries.

Xu Jiaming, who manages 绿色回声, our Chinese-language newsletter, interviewed Lulu earlier this year, and we’ve translated the interview for you below.

Jiaming: How are these reports done involving multiple countries, NGOs and multiple industry insiders? Are there any good tools, techniques, and strategies worth sharing? What challenges did you encounter and how to overcome them?

Lulu Ning Hui: The opportunity for this came from my previous reporting on a Chinese investment in Madagascar's fishing sector (see an English version here: Madagascar rocked by fishing deal that never was). Greenpeace invited me to go to sea with them. Their research ship often invites scientists, reporters and even opinion leaders or celebrities to participate in research activities. This time, there were also reporters from several other countries invited. We boarded Greenpeace’s ship “Esperanza” and came to the fishing grounds on the high sea outside the EEZ of Argentina.

When we met the Chinese fishing ship in the story, we first communicated by radio and then we were allowed to board. In fact, the interview time on the ship was only about half an hour. It was limited by the field and we could not stay long, but it was very important to see their work and living conditions, to listen to their stories, to get to know the sea in their eyes, their direct feelings.

Of course, they work on ocean fishing ships, and some have worked for decades or a lifetime. However, in my writing, I very much avoid using them simply as a "lead" to the most pressing issues in the sector. I hope that the details I gave in the text could make you "see" them as well -- see the faces involved, see why they are at this place, see their individual drive. Are they to blame? Where should we point our fingers? It may be a very micro perspective but also a real layer. I always wish it could help us to learn complex and huge issues.

I don’t want to use the voices of people I met to illustrate an existing opinion or to prove a point. I want to add in complications rather than simply it. Everyone has their own starting point, limitations, and reasons, and my interview or my attempt to understand is the same; what I want to do is to show readers as much as possible within my own limitations.

The interview process on the high seas was not easy. For me, seasickness is a big challenge. Right after I got off the Chinese fishing ship, I had a strong reaction. It is difficult for people living on land to experience the hardship and pressure of fishermen in the distant water. It is nearly impossible to really put anyone in their shoes. We pay too little attention to the ocean and the people floating in the ocean.

The charm of on-site interviews lies in “chance”. You can't "plan" the interview. The last ship of the article, including the Chinese businessman who was doing the shipping agency business in Uruguay, ran into it accidentally.

As for tools. A database that tracks various endangered organisms called the Red List is very useful. It helps me to understand why this sea area has become a famous fishing ground. Though it was only a small detail in the article, I like this kind of research. Ocean fishery is a field of great concern, but it is also an area where data transparency is very low. Because of this, any data, sources, analysis paths, and conclusions used in various documents need to be carefully considered.

The Ecuador story is done with another journalist, Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, working for China Dialogue from Colombia. We did the interviews together and wrote our stories separately, with a grant from the Pulitzer Center Rainforest News Fund. The lead for this story comes from many years ago, from a conversation I had with environmental lawyer Zhang Jingjing.

The two mining areas we went both reflect the complex context in mining. The conflicts between the indigenous communities and the government as well as the foreign companies are not unique to the arrival of Chinese. In one of the mining areas, although the villagers of course knew that the company is from China, they have only “imagined” China and Chinese people. I was the first Chinese they had ever met. But then, in another mining site, we interviewed a Chinese manager on community relations, specialised in dealing with people from the region. Each case has its unique details to tell, sometimes it may not fit in the shared image of “China’s foreign investment” as a whole, sometimes the lessons are more universal. I hope the story shows how the tensions in these two mines evolved over time.

Jiaming: Are there plans to do follow-up reporting? Or suggestions to other colleagues interested in fishery and overfishing?

Lulu: I hope so. This report touched on key issues of high sea fisheries, including subsidies, labor rights, overfishing, etc. I’d hope to dive in deeper in the future.

I think there are a few points that reporters could pay attention to: First, the situation of fishermen, young people who are now unwilling to go to sea, how fishing villages and ports are facing transformation. China has also promised to stabilise the number of ocean fishing vessels at 3,000. What is the impact of this on people? Second, there is the issue of offshore fishery subsidies; where does the money come from, where it is spent, and are there any reforms? Third, in international negotiations on high seas resources, not only fisheries, but also mining, genetics, etc., what kind of role is China playing?

Jiaming: Do you have any advice for other journalists, especially to Chinese reporters, looking to embark on a similar cross-border investigation?

Lulu: When encountering topics that require cross-border to complete, cooperation is a natural thing. In my case, what I call “China outside China” has been my long-term focus. This connection may be investment, culture, and politics. There may be some major trends, or simply about the path of ordinary people now abroad. In the past few years, I have been tracking these trends, including these two sets of reports we talked about today.

In fact, environmental issues are not my only focus, but when we look at China’s influence in the world, the environmental impact in various fields is a very important part of it. It’s also because they tend to be more obvious and draw attention. I also try to focus on stories with less media exposure or I would look into projects before the damage is done -- how are they approved to begin with.

Opportunities and clues generated from long-term attention. Of course, the platform is also very important. My newsroom is willing to give me time to follow on these stories and I’m very grateful. For funding, I follow the International Journalists Network, Global Investigative Journalism Network, among other platforms; there are funding opportunities.

What’s equally, if not more important is cross-border cooperations with other journalists. When it works out well, there’s always very warm trust and shared respect among journalists involved. It’s essential.

We live in a media world that's packed with sharply divided opinions and people who are willing to defend their own point of view at all cost, immediately. The patience to details of a story, to the ranges of “facts” and to how we could achieve “truth” is limited, I’d say. Surely I can't change that. But as a reporter, the only thing I could control is how I enter a subject and then how I write this story -- and in the process, see the emotions yet be critical, without jumping to any quick judgement. Maybe, this is my only agency as a journalist and a storyteller.

The best reporting from across Asia

In South Asia, air pollution is worsening both due to the lessening of Covid-19 restrictions, but also the advent of winter. In this in-depth piece, Soumya Sarkar, Zofeen Ebrahim and Ramesh Bhushal use data to explore the potential public health risks of air pollution and the pandemic for The Third Pole. 

In Indonesia, a recently passed deregulation law could harm small fishers and coastal communities - which number more than 800,000 fishers across the archipelago, reports Basten Gokkon for Mongabay.

For Oxpeckers, Yuexuan Chen reports on traditional Chinese medicine, speaking to qualified practitioners about why they are against the use of wildlife based medicines, the impact of COVID-19, and how the industry is perceived in western media.

Data, Resources and Training

Data Inspiration: Forest, peat, and brush fires have been a big story in 2020. If you’re looking for data on current fires, or potential future hot spots, check out NASA’s Global Fire WEather Database (GFWED), which integrates different weather factors influencing the likelihood of a fire starting and spreading.

Opportunities: Solutions Journalism Network has launched a Talent Network aimed at connecting freelance journalists to editors. Learn more and sign up here. 

Also - the Earth Journalism Network is looking for regional researchers in at least six countries, mostly in South and Southeast. Learn more and apply here (Deadline October 20).

Several interesting upcoming webinars: First, one tomorrow, October 21, on The Outlook for Biodiversity at a Global and Local Level. Then, another one on October 22 entitled State of Play: Green Recovery and Sustainable Reporting

That’s all for this week. Anything we missed or that you’d like to see here? Want to pitch us a story? Please respond and let me know.

Stay safe and healthy,

Nithin Coca