Led by Environmental Unit Senior Manager Detty Saluling, the rainforest reporting team has extensive experience in environmental communications, data journalism, and more.
GUSTAVO FALEIROS
Director of Environmental Investigations Unit
Gustavo Faleiros is the Director of Environmental Investigations for the Pulitzer Center, where he coordinates the Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN). Based in São Paulo, Brazil, he is an environmental journalist and media trainer specializing in data-driven journalism. In 2012, he launched InfoAmazonia, a digital platform that uses satellite imagery and other publicly available data to report on the nine Amazon rainforest countries.
Before that, he was the editor of the Brazilian environmental news site O Eco. Faleiros began his career as a reporter for Valor Econômico, Brazil's leading financial newspaper, covering infrastructure and sanitation. He was also twice selected as a Knight International Journalism Fellow at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) due to his work to promote data literacy and geojournalism. Between 2014 and 2017, he worked with the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), where he led the Council of the Partners, the climate mentorship program, and activities in Africa and Latin America.
Faleiros earned a master's degree in Environment, Politics and Globalization from King's College London and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). He has also contributed to several publications such as Nature, Scientific American, The Guardian-UK, Revista Piauí and Folha de São Paulo.
DETTY SALULING
Senior Manager, Environmental Investigations Unit
Detty Saluling is the Manager of the Rainforest Journalism Fund initiative. Prior to joining the Pulitzer Center, Detty was the communication coordinator at RECOFTC, a non-profit organization supporting people and forest, where she managed communications and outreach and supported strategies and documentation with a team of communication officers in seven country offices in Asia-Pacific. She was the leader for the institution’s major events and engagements at regional and global levels to hold multistakeholder forums, bridge practice and policies dialogues, and highlight achievements of local champions.
Detty has extensive experiences working in social development, managing education and knowledge management initiatives in Southeast Asia. She led liaisons and collaborations with national governments, UN agencies, local community, international donors, civil society, academia, media and youth groups. Since 2018, Detty has been the leader of the Asia-Pacific Forest Communicators Network, which is part of the FAO-hosted Global Network.
Detty’s background is in development and international studies focusing on human rights, poverty and education. She is based in Bangkok, Thailand.
FERNANDA BUFFA
Program Coordinator, Environmental Investigations Unit
Fernanda Buffa (Fernanda Seavon) is a Brazilian journalist based in Prague, Czech Republic. She has a Master's degree in Journalism, Media, and Globalization and has collaborated with Al Jazeera, WIRED, The Intercept Brasil, Coda Story, and VICE. Before joining the Pulitzer Center as an Assistant at the Rainforest Journalism Fund, Fernanda also worked in communication at a UN Counter-Terrorism unit. Fernanda has a passion for journalism, poetry, photography, improv, and all things related to communication.
AUGUSTINE KASAMBULE
Congo Basin Coordinator, Environmental Investigations Unit
Augustine Kasambule is the Rainforest Journalism Fund Congo Basin Regional Coordinator at the Pulitzer Center. First point of contact with journalists, she leads the review process for funding candidates for the Rainforest Journalism Fund, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center team and the advisory committee.
Before joining the Rainforest Journalism Fund, Augustine worked as a communication officer in international organizations such as the International and Education Fund, Greenpeace Africa, World Fund for Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society.
Co-founder of the Réseau de Communicateurs pour l'Environnement in DR Congo and former journalist and presenter of environmental and socio-cultural programmes on Antenne A television, she has also produced documentaries on the environment.
Holding a bachelor's degree in biology and a member of environmental civil society, Augustine had also a teaching career.
In her professional career, she has worked with journalists, media organizations, civil society, government institutions, national and international non-governmental organizations as well as the local communities involved in the forest sector.
Aware of the climate change negative effects on the human life quality and the role that the media plays in raising public awareness, she decided to focus on environment.
Her motto: ''an objective reporting boosts self-esteem and prevents us from being discredited by the corporation and the public."
MADELEINE NGUENGA
Africa Editor and 2021-22 Rainforest Investigations Network Fellow
Madeleine Ngeunga is an investigative journalist from Cameroon. Her work focuses on forest management and policy, agribusiness and land grabbing, Indigenous rights, land-use conflict, climate change, and environmental justice issues in the Congo Basin region.
She works as an editor with InfoCongo and was a Global Forest Watch fellow in 2019, using data-driven stories to highlight the political, social, and environmental factors causing forest loss across Cameroon.
Ngeunga twice won awards for in-depth investigative reporting on forest governance and mining governance.
Her reports have appeared in such outlets as Thomson Reuters, Mongabay, Forest News-CIFOR, and Landscape News.
MASEERA KHAN
Intern, Environmental Investigations Unit
Maseera Khan is a journalist working at the intersections of environment, human rights, and gender. She has a master's degree in journalism and lives in Delhi.
Among the many forms of storytelling, she is passionate about visual and audio mediums. Her works have appeared in national media outlets in India.