About
Who are we?
We’re a collective of students and recent graduates with interests or experience in various fields, including natural resources, renewable energy, medical care, food systems and more.
What do we do?
We publish weekly articles that address:
A problem or problems – What’s the issue, and why does it matter?
The Solution – How is the organisation helping to solve it?
The Impact – What results have they achieved so far?
The Lessons – What can we learn from their approach?
We keep it clear, concise, and evidence-based and always provide links to where you can learn more about the problem, the solution or the organisation.
Solutions Journalism
Conventional journalism tends to focus on what is wrong with the world. While it is important to know and understand the problems that we face, being constantly bombarded with doom and gloom can leave readers feeling powerless.
Solutions journalism takes a different approach. Instead of just focusing on the problems, it focuses on both the problems and the solutions.
By showing presenting people with not just the problem, but also the solution, solutions journalism gives people hope and agency. Research by the Institute for Applied Positive Research (2017) found that:
“solutions-oriented reporting made people feel less anxious, more energized and more connected to the community. Audiences also reported more willingness to talk about the issues, collaborate with others, and hold officials in positions of power accountable for change…”
To learn more about solutions journalism and its positive effects, check out the work being done by the Solutions Journalism Network, an organisation whose approach has greatly inspired our own.
Learn more:
Our Organisation-focused Approach
What makes Mangrove Report’s solutions journalism unique is our organisation-centred approach. Our articles focus on specific organisations that are helping to solve important social and environmental problems (more on how we identify problems below). Our definition of “organisations” is broad – it includes companies, non-profits, startups, publications and more.
But why focus exclusively on organisations?
We don’t want people to just read an article and forget about it. We want them to be able to take immediate and concrete steps. Our organisation-centred approach makes this possible. If they are interested in or inspired by an organisation, readers can take action – donate, volunteer, invest, apply for a job… whatever!
Ultimately, we want our articles to be not just informative, but actionable.
Our Framework for Identifying Problems
Finding organisations is easy. Finding impact-driven organisations that are helping to solve urgent social and environmental problems? That’s a little more challenging. So, how do we go about doing this?
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) are a clear and straightforward framework for identifying and categorising global problems. We use the UNSDG framework to select the organisations that we write about.
Using the UNSDG framework comes with a few important benefits. For a start, it is widely known and used in both public and private sectors around the world. But, from our point of view, it also means that we can identify and cover organisations that are helping to solve multiple problems at once. The more UNSDGs that an organisation addresses the better!
Learn more:
Deeper and Broarder Objectives
At one level, our articles focus on specific problems. At a deeper level, however, the broader Mangrove Report project hopes to bring to light the interconnected nature of these problems.
Individual issues like climate change, inequality and the mental health crisis are not isolated or distinct – they inform and influence each other and overlap in significant ways.
By covering organisations that are helping to solve a wide range of individual problems, Mangrove Report endeavours to shed light on the ways in which they are connected.
A useful resource for understanding the principles and ideals that we follow and adhere to is the work of the Consilience Project. Two papers in particular, “Development in Progress” and “Technology is Not Values Neutral” offer some really useful frameworks for understanding and navigating our complex and interconnected modern world.
Learn more:
