WRITING STORIES that MATTER

NADIAH ROSLI 37 Project Director, Internews & Freelance Journalist

As a child, Nadiah Rosli read Scott O’Dell’s Island of Blue Dolphins and was immediately entranced by how the stranded young protagonist survived alone, living off the island’s resources and in harmony with its wildlife. This led her to National Geographic’s vivid coverage of the natural world and eventually set her down the path of conservation volunteerism and environmental journalism, a rare beat in local mainstream media.

As her newsroom’s de facto environmental writer, she dug deep for stories that took her from the Royal Belum State Park to interviews with environmental advocate and actor Mel Gibson. This year, she was part of an exclusive cohort reporting from the frontlines of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, translating ambitions and implications into layman’s speak for the public.

“I’m particularly interested in how communities and culture intersect with science and conservation,” she says. “An interdisciplinary approach is important because things don’t happen in a vacuum; economies, politics, science and culture all interconnect and you need to make people see how these things impact them. You can’t separate the science from the conversation, but there needs to be a human connection in all stories because these are our stories too.”

“WE HA VE REDUCED WA S TA G E TO THE BARE MINIMUM WHILE PRODUCING VERY HIGH YIELD” SHAWN NG