Our Meticulous Look at Forests

Country:

Congo (drc) United states Iraq South africa

Author:

Gustavo Faleiros
Pulitzer Center Staff

Nine Fellows Start the Fifth Year of the Rainforest Investigations Network

The fate of the forests of the Amazon, the Congo, and Southeast Asia has occupied the hearts and minds of researchers, journalists, communities, and ordinary people around the world for decades. Concerned—at the very least, intrigued—we continue to seek answers to the challenge of how to live in harmony with the life that exists in these forests.

But this interest doesn't always take into account the economic centrality that these regions occupy in our lives. We depend on the forests for food, comfort, and prosperity. Global production chains—such as soy, meat, palm oil, and rare minerals—have deep roots in tropical rainforests, affecting biodiversity and Indigenous communities.

In the year of COP30 in Belém, Brazil—the first United Nations climate change conference to be held in the Amazon—it is likely that the significance of protecting the forest will finally get the attention it deserves.

That's why we're so proud to announce another cohort of investigative journalists for our Rainforest Investigations Network [RIN]. Nine Fellows will immerse themselves over the next 12 months in topics such as the impacts of public policies that encourage the sustainable use of natural resources or, on the contrary, turbocharge the destruction of native forests.

The complexity and interdependence of these rainforest ecosystems and other landscapes, including urban ones, are becoming increasingly evident and vital. For this reason, as we reach the fifth year of RIN, we continue to invest in training journalists in how to use environmental data, such as satellite images, and explore follow-the-money and corporate investigation techniques.

When the Pulitzer Center started creating its rainforest program in 2019 with the essential support of the Norwegian government's International Climate and Forest Initiative [NICFI], one of the goals was to create an active community of rainforest reporters. Today, with more than 60 Fellows and 300 grantees supported, we know that we have eyes everywhere to keep the future of forests well-monitored.

Click here to meet the new Fellows of the Rainforest Investigations Network.

Best,

Impact

In the past few weeks, Pulitzer Center grantees were recently celebrated for their reporting on topics ranging from human rights in wartime to the expanding world of artificial intelligence.

Season 3 of the podcast series In the Dark, hosted by grantee Madeleine Baran, received an Overseas Press Club Award for best radio, audio, or podcast coverage of international affairs. The podcast investigates a lack of accountability for a U.S. attack in Haditha, Iraq, that killed 24 civilians.
"Women’s Agency in the DRC War," by grantee Sophie Neiman for the New Internationalist, has been shortlisted for an Amnesty International Media Award in the new-journalist category. The story profiles the stories of women in wartime and the difficult choices they must make.
Audio journalist Jennifer Strong’s podcast, The Race to Superintelligence, has been shortlisted for a New York Festivals Radio Award in the podcast category. The podcast explains what artificial intelligence is, and explores the possibilities for an AI-driven future.