Jaspreet Kindra

Jaspreet Kindra began her career in India – Bhopal, the provincial capital of Madhya Pradesh, where her first editor was passionate about environmental reporting and encouraged her to write articles focusing on environmental issues.

In 1991 she moved to Delhi and joined the editorial team of an evening paper published by the Hindustan Times. Here she gathered a wealth of experience as a journalist covering issues that ranged from the environment, to HIV/AIDS.

When her family moved to South Africa she began her career again and worked her way from a community newspaper in Durban to South Africa’s leading daily publication “The Mail and Guardian”, where her first assignment was to cover the African National Congress. She now lives in Johannesburg and couldn’t imagine doing anything other than what she is doing right now. Jaspreet talked via e-mail with capitaleritrea.

Q: Congratulations, you won the Earth Journalism Awards in Copenhagen with a series you wrote for IRIN South Africa. What is your job at IRIN?
A: Thank you. I am IRIN’s focal point for climate change and food security coverage. I write about these issues from a global and regional perspective – from the field and the desk on policy.

Q: Did you ever imagine you’d be winning a journalism award with a series about climate change in Eritrea?
A: No I did not. I heard about the award many months after the Eritrea trip and wasn’t even going to enter it. However, only after IRIN’s marketing person insisted that I should participate I applied minutes ahead of the closing time on the last day.

Q: How many online votes did you get out of the total and does the award come with a monetary incentive?
A: I actually have no idea about the number of votes I got in the end. The award did not come with any monetary incentive.

Q: You said you chose Eritrea because it is a very under-reported country. Are there any other reasons?
A: I liked the fact that Eritrea’s environment officials were so proactive and I was amazed to discover that Eritrea was already tapping wind power. I was curious – wanted to find out what this country with very little financial resources had managed to do.

Q: How would you describe Eritrea?
A: Eritreans are some of the most warm, friendly and resilient people I have ever come across. It is a tough terrain with some tough people. I also discovered how beautiful the Red Sea coastline is – it has a tremendous potential as a tourist destination – the untouched unspoilt beaches…though it was incredibly hot.

Q: “Reaping the wind” is the winning story in your series. Personally, what is your favourite story in the series?
A: I like all of them enormously. But I guess `Reaping the wind’ and `Water on their minds’ because I got to visit those areas I wrote about.

Q: What was your experience with the local fishermen at the Red Sea coast line?
A: Wonderful people! Very resilient and extremely hospitable. The fishermen were very open and shared their lives without any prompting. I am really grateful to them for sharing their lives with me. I think sleeping out in the open on the cots close to the sea was probably one of the highlights of my trip. It gave me a sense of their relationship with the sea and comprehend what one of the fishermen said: “The sea is everything to us”. And the food was great by the way.

Q: You mentioned that it’s only the National Fisheries Corporation that buys the fish at very low rate or else in the bigger markets of Yemen. What changes do you think would the wind turbines bring to the livelihoods of the Afar tribe in the area unless there are other market opportunities?
A: From what I understand from the fishermen, if they had access to cold storage facilities– they could access markets in other towns and even the capital, Asmara. At the moment they have to get rid of their catch at the nearest market. The fact that they are unable to access bigger markets also acts as a disincentive to catch bigger loads of fish.

Q: You also stated that ‘’Eritrea could sustainably harvest around 70,000 metric tonnes of fish annually, but the current catch is around 13,000 tonnes, according to the government’s environment department.’’ What are the measurements for this figures to be sustainable?
A: These are figures I sourced from the government. I assume they would have taken all the sustainability indicators into account to come up with the figure.

Q: What are the goals of the award and what would one expect after this – is there possibility where the international body could put some efforts to help the society to develop what they already have started?
A: I hope the award by highlighting certain stories – well, speaking for the adaptation award – I hope the Eritrean story will inspire other LDCs/ communities to become proactive about their future living with an even more erratic climate.

Q: What are your future plans?
A: I hope to continue to highlight efforts being made by small and poor countries in dealing with the impact of climate change and food insecurity.

Q: Do you plan to return to Eritrea one day?
A: I hope I do one day to be able to see the impact of the projects I had seen.