Meet the Journalist: Yasmin Bendaas

Pulitzer Center Grantee Yasmin Bendaas discusses her reporting in Algeria—a 2012 project on the disappearing tradition of facial tattoos among the indigenous Chaouia and a current project on the effect of climate change on the livelihood of sheepherders in the Aurès Mountain region of Algeria, a semi-arid region of mountains and valleys in the northeast part of the country. She​ ​explores the detrimental impact of climate change in North Africa​ ​and its ​threatening effects to the financial sustainability of small-scale shepherding.​ ​A longer cycle of​ ​droughts, elevated temperatures, and decreased rainfall have made sheepherding in Algerian society extremely difficult. As these conditions continue, many shepherds are slowly coming to terms with how the​​se​ ​environmental changes have altered their way of life and work​ ​for generations to come.