THE MIDWEEK SUN SCRIBE SELECTED FOR CONTINENTAL JOURNALISM PROGRAMME

The Midweek Sun reporter Keletso Thobega, has been selected for the Space for Giants African Conservation Journalism programme.

Thobega was selected alongside a few other journalists from the continent to undergo the year-long reporting programme. The Conservation Journalism Programme works with a small cohort of professional journalists in Africa to support them to deepen their understanding and passion for covering conservation stories, and widen the reach of their reporting in Africa and across the world. Space for Giants also believes that stories of African conservation for African audiences are best told by African reporters and that stories also deserve global attention, to bring more African voices to the debate about conservation priorities and strategies. The programme is already operating in Kenya and Uganda, with the support of USAID’s Vuka Now initiative, and is expanding to southern Africa, where the first installments will take place in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Space for Giants is an international conservation organisation with a mission to protect natural ecosystems on which Africa’s large wild animals depend, and ensure that they are valued by people so that they endure forever. Communication head Mike Planz said Space for Giants grew out of pioneering research in the early 2000s into how stakeholders encourage the co-existence of people and wildlife in modernising Africa. “We strive to protect the great wildlife landscapes that Africa’s remaining wildlife needs to survive and thrive. These landscapes give homes to giants, but they also bring value to people and nations; biodiversity, livelihoods and enterprise, new medicines, carbon storage, and even the very oxygen we breathe. “But they are under threat. Criminals kill endangered animals for tusks, horns, scales, and skins. Farmers needing more land to feed their families expand into wildlife habitat but when wild animals then damage their crops, they retaliate.”