(From the Biodiversity Reporting Award partners)
Tbilisi, Georgia - Reporters for ArmeniaNow.com shared the top two prizes and one honorable mention in the first contest for reporting on biodiversity in the Caucasus region.
Marianna Grigoryan and Arpi Harutyunyan tied for first prize in the contest, which included entries from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the North Caucasus region of Russia. Both write for the ArmeniaNow.com, a news weekly published on the Internet.
Third Prize went to Tea Topuria of the Georgian newspaper Rezonansi. The winners received award certificates and cash prizes at the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel.
"These reporters are leading the way toward better coverage of the environment and wildlife conservation," said Rob Taylor, program director for the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). "We are very pleased to see rising interest in this important subject," added Gesine Dornblueth, lead trainer in the Caucasus program.
ICFJ organized the contest, training programs and field trips for journalists in 2007 in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russian journalists also participated in training and the contest.
Grigoryan’s and Harutynyan’s winning entries were both on the recent decision made by the Armenian Ministry of Environment to authorize copper mining to the detriment of forests and villages in northern Armenia and the concerned reaction among environmentalists and NGOs. Topuria’s story explored the growth of bird-watching in Georgia as a lure to foreign tourists.
Judges gave honorable mention awards to Lema Turpalov, editor of the Groznenskii Rabochi in Grozny, Chechnya, Russian Federation; Gayane Mirzoyan of the Armenian newspaper Novoe Vremia and Gayane Mkrtchyan of ArmeniaNow.com.
The contest was sponsored by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, a joint venture of the World Bank, the Global Environment Facilty, the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Conservation International and the governments of Japan and France.