The Narwhal is making waves in Canada for environmental journalism

In this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Emma Gilchrist, co-founder of award-winning Canadian non-profit news channel The Narwhal, speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about their successes covering the top environmental news in the wildlife-rich country.
Gilchrist discusses what’s special about Canada’s natural heritage, the state of environmental reporting there, how she sees The Narwhal filling in the gaps in historically neglected stories and viewpoints, and why something as universally valued as nature can still be a polarizing topic are.
She also describes a legal battle involving her organization that could have significant implications for press freedom in Canada.

The Narwhal is an award-winning nonprofit environmental news organization based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was co-founded in 2018 by podcast guest Emma Gilchrist, who joins the show to discuss the range of environmental issues they cover and how they represent Indigenous views and topics from a ‘storytelling versus story taking’ point of view.

Her news organization recently highlighted one of the potentially most significant efforts for press freedom in Canada when it made the decision to charge the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for arresting and detaining their journalist Amber Bracken, who was covering protests against the construction of a gas pipeline. through the land of the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation in 2021.

Gilchrist speaks about the success of The Narwhal’s reader-supported nonprofit model and their hopes for the future during the latest episode of the Mongabay Newscast with co-host Rachel Donald.

Listen:

“We saw this huge void and just stepped into it with The Narwhal. We really wanted to create a brand that was beautiful, that drew people to our shared love of the natural world. That’s something that people in Canada are almost universally proud of (and) so we really wanted to tap into that shared value,” says Gilchrist.

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Banner image: Narwhals near the water surface. Image by Проектный офис Нарвал via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Rachel Donald is a climate corruption reporter and the creator of Planet: crucial, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis. Her final thoughts can be found at 𝕏 through @Crisisreports and at Bluesky via @racheldonald.bsky.social.

Mike DiGirolamo is a host and associate producer for Mongabay, based in Sydney. He is co-host and editor of the Mongabay Newscast. Find him LinkedIn, Blue sky And Instagram.

Related literature:

The Indigenous financing model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada

Boreal forests, Nature conservation, Environmental journalism, Featured, Freedom of information, Interviews with environmental journalists, Journalism, Law enforcement, Natural resources, Oil, Podcast, Politics, Temperate forests

British Columbia, Canada

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