Initiative
Rainforest Investigations Network
The Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) harnesses investigative reporting and cross-border collaboration to expose the intersection of climate change, corruption, and governance in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia.
READ THE REPORTING | HOW IT WORKS | JOIN THE NETWORK | IMPACT | RESOURCES
HOW IT WORKS
Each year of the initiative, the Pulitzer Center puts out a call for applications to dedicate a whole year to investigating deforestation in the world’s three main tropical rainforest regions. In its first year, RIN selected 13 Fellows from 10 countries. In the second year, the group expanded to 19 Fellows from 12 countries. In the third year, RIN selected 13 Fellows from 9 countries. Currently, we are supporting 9 Fellows from 6 countries.
The Fellows are assisted by the RIN data and research team to apply innovative investigation techniques, such as the exploration of large amounts of documents and geospatial analysis. And with the support of the Pulitzer Center’s education team, the network will share investigation findings at schools and universities.
JOIN THE NETWORK
When we open the call for applications, we encourage experienced investigative journalists in each of the tropical rainforest regions as well as journalists based at major global media outlets to apply. The full-time, year-long fellowships will cover the reporter’s salary and provide additional support for the media outlet that employs the journalist (if on staff), or that agrees to host the Fellow (if a freelancer). They will receive training and data, communication, research, and coordination support from the Pulitzer Center. They will work closely with their co-Fellows worldwide, benefiting from one another’s skills and diverse perspectives.
Applications are now open for the 2025 RIN fellowship. Apply by 11:59pm EST on December 31, 2024.
"Because of this Fellowship, I learned what companies are actually doing inside the biggest forest in Cameroon. I learned how to extract data from reports and use it in the investigation together with fieldwork. Every comment I received from the editors and RIN team gave me strength to do the investigation."
JOSIANE KOUAGHEU
2022 RIN Fellow (Cameroon)
"The RIN community has been incredibly supportive of all the work I've done, both with being incredibly inspirational in their own work, sharing information that they got themselves through their own sources, and giving advice. And supporting me through hard patches of the reporting process."
MANUELA ANDREONI
2021 RIN Fellow (Brazil)
IMPACT
RIN is driven by making impact. Journalists, outlets, and topics are selected based on the potential to publish stories that will have an impact. The Pulitzer Center’s Communications and Outreach teams work together with the RIN Fellows to expand their audience and promote the stories. RIN has also appeared in prestigious journalistic blogs such as GIJN and The Reuters Institute. Click here to learn more about how the Pulitzer Center defines impact.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT
Smells Like Deforestation (Cheiro de Desmatamento)
In the face of questions and the evidence presented in a RIN-supported investigation, Nestlé announced that its Vital Proteins brand would no longer do business with suppliers from the Amazon region.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT
New AI Platform Monitors Mining in the Amazon Rainforest
Mining, one of the main causes of the degradation of rivers and forests in the Amazon, can now be monitored remotely by journalists, scientists, and other concerned citizens.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT IMPACT
Making Impact and Publishing Data: Our RIN Fellow Investigated Indigenous Land Rights in Malaysia
A few days after Malaysian journalist Yao-Hua Law published “Deforestation Adds to Decades of Indigenous Land Rights Struggle in Malaysia,” the Orang Asli Indigenous community at the center of the story took action to stop the logging of their land.
RESOURCES
Do you want to report on rainforests but don’t know where to start? We believe in radical sharing of methodologies and lessons learned from the projects we support so they may serve as valuable resources and blueprints for other newsrooms, universities, and civil society organizations pursuing similar projects. Click the Toolkits and Tips tab below to view the full set of resources, or view our featured resources below.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
Rainforest Reporting Toolkit
We have prepared a Rainforest Toolkit that can be useful in your reporting and investigations. The information is sorted by themes of interest, including geolocation and archiving.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
Amazon Mining Watch Expands Use of AI To Monitor Illegal Gold Mining
The Pulitzer Center has been working in alliance with a multidisciplinary group of organizations to monitor the advance of gold mining in the Amazon rainforest. We have significantly updated the Amazon Mining Watch platform, initially launched in 2022, which brings together an artificial intelligence model to detect open-pit mines in the nine countries of the Amazon region.
CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT RESOURCE
Investigating Rainforest Destruction: Finding Illegal Airstrips with the Help of Machine Learning
From Freedom of Information requests to using AI to analyze satellite imagery, the reporters got their hands on previously unseen data that sheds light on the corruption and systems behind the destruction of the world’s biggest rainforests.
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