‘A Myriad of Voices’ Tells of Restoring a Swamp in Crisis

A home in a stilt village in the swamp region of Colombia’s Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta. Photo: Samuel Ioannidis via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Inside Story: ‘A Myriad of Voices’ Tells of Restoring a Swamp in Crisis

The efforts of two local Colombian fishermen to restore a crucial mangrove swamp ecosystem was the heart of a prize-winning report by journalists Jacobo Patiño Giraldo and Daniel Zamora Quiroga for the news outlet Pesquisa Javeriana. The story, “The Ciénaga Reemerges From Its Seeds,” won Second Place for Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Small, in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 22nd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment (English version).

Judges praised the piece for its engaging storytelling, blending rigorous science with noninstitutional ways of knowing in the “astonishing narrative” of their two local guides: “The reporters provide primary source solutions journalism at its best."

SEJournal Online recently caught up with Patiño by email. Here is the conversation.

Jacobo Patiño Giraldo

SEJournal: How did you get your winning story idea?

Jacobo Patiño Giraldo: In our magazine, we were applying for a grant to get funding on a deforestation story. While brainstorming, we came up with the idea of covering mangroves. Then, because I had visited the mangrove nurseries in the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta in Colombia, I suggested we do a story on them.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting the story and how did you solve that challenge?

Patiño: Exposing all the different ecological and social factors that contributed to the current deterioration of the Ciénaga swamp ecosystem while doing justice to the mangrove farmers' stories in such limited space.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your reporting/findings?

Patiño: Both the overwhelming complexity of environmental issues and the unwavering determination of local communities to preserve their ways of life against all odds.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell the story and why?

Patiño: Firstly, we saw the opportunity to tell a compelling story, with a beautiful setting and inspiring characters. Then, due to our access to academic sources and data, we thought we could tackle the ecological crisis of the Ciénaga with the nuance it needed.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your story have disproportional impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

 

‘They were the main characters

in the article, and their voices

serve as the thread that binds

the whole thing together.’

          — Jacobo Patiño Giraldo

 

Patiño: Yes, it overwhelmingly affects the communities that live in stilt villages in the Ciénaga, who depend on fishing to survive. We based our research on the stories of two fishermen who took it upon themselves to restore the mangrove ecosystems that feed their people. They were the main characters in the article, and their voices serve as the thread that binds the whole thing together.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the story and why?

Patiño: With more time, it would have been nice to document more about the lifestyle of the people in the stilt villages, to show how they utilize the ecosystem and the potential consequences of losing it.

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your story?

Patiño: My partner, Daniel Zamora, taught me a lot about how to approach sources, the most pertinent questions to ask and how to tell a compelling story while weaving important facts within it. I also learned that solutions to environmental issues and the journalistic coverage of them must be holistic and consider a myriad of voices in different areas.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

Patiño: I contributed mainly by writing, so my best advice would be to read a lot of news, scientific papers and regular literature on the place where the project will take place, to enrich the text as much as possible while also giving relevant information. Also, talking with people and learning about their culture and way of life can give a writer a lot of tools to embellish their narrative.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prize-winning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

Patiño: We funded this project through a grant by the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development of about $1,200, divided between flights, accommodation, video production, food, a guide and paying the mangrove farmers for their time. We worked on this for about a month.

SEJournal: Is there anything else you would like to share about this story or environmental journalism that wasn’t captured above?

Patiño: I want to highlight that this was a collaborative effort between many members of the magazine, Pesquisa Javeriana, and without them, none of this would have been possible.

Jacobo Patiño Giraldo is a biologist and science communicator from Bogotá, Colombia. He is passionate about animals, their behavior and making science and environmental issues accessible to everyone through the power of communication. Currently, he works at Shots de Ciencia, an independent sci-comm project in social media.

---

* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 12. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.