The director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of the Environment, María Artola, and the director of the EFE Foundation, Paloma Rupérez, have signed a collaboration agreement under which ten scholarships for regional environmental journalism are announced. The objective of this initiative launched by both entities is to promote the specialization of young journalists in environmental information in the autonomous community.

This one-year agreement will allow ten young students in the final year of journalism or recent graduates to start their professional career by providing specialized information in the autonomous community.

The EFE delegation in Galicia, with two scholarships as promoter of the initiative, together with the autonomous communities of Extremadura, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, will welcome the ten selected candidates in this first call, who will receive a scholarship endowed with 900 euros per month.

Previously, those selected must pass a theoretical-practical course in which experts in ecology and sustainable development, together with the best professionals in Spanish environmental journalism, will transmit some of the keys to this informative specialty.

With the I Regional Scholarships for Specialization in Environmental Journalism, the Biodiversity Foundation and the EFE Foundation intend to contribute to filling a gap in the field of journalism specialized in the environment, contributing to train rigorous professionals, capable of providing the keys to an increasingly complex field of information. The aim is to promote the exercise of environmental communication in the field of regional journalism, considered the closest to citizens, since more and better information will result in greater awareness in society.

A jury will select the candidates from the different universities of Information Sciences in the State. The deadline for submitting applications opens today, June 5, on the occasion of the commemoration of World Environment Day, and ends on July 16.

The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of the Environment is a non-profit foundational organization whose activity is carried out in the field of conservation, study and sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as international development cooperation. The EFE Foundation has been contributing for years to the training and specialization of new journalists and for more than 15 years EFE has been committed to specialized environmental information with a Science and Environment section in its national newsroom.

Those interested in obtaining more information can consult the bases of this call on the website http://www.fundacionefe.es/.