Out of 13 finalists for the African Climate Change and Environmental Reporting (ACCER), competition, Cameroonian-born Elias Ntungwe Ngalame was the best in the print category of the first-ever journalism awards on climate change in Africa.
His work on "Community Radio Helps Cameroonians Track Climate Change » showed the importance of community radio stations in educating grassroots communities on climate change issues. For this, Elias Ntungwe took home a prize of 1,000 US Dollars (approximately FCFA 493.505) and an all-sponsored trip to Warsaw, Poland in November 2013 to cover the COP 19 International Climate Change Conference.
He was followed by Danstan Kaunda, a Zambian reporting from Zanzibar while the third prize went to Mwadalitso Mwando of Zimbabwe. Their articles were selected from 147 entries in different publications, all communicating issues related to climate change on the African continent.
The prize award ceremony at a gala evening in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday, June 5, 2013, was organised by the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, Agenda Kenya and other partners. The Yaounde Bureau Chief of Eden newspaper, whose winning article was published by Thomson Reuters where he writes as well, was also elected Coordinator for Central Africa of the newly created Pan-African Media Alliance for Climate Change, with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya under PACJA.
