The Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF), launched in September 2018, represents a major investment in international environmental and climate reporting. Through the Pulitzer Center, the RJF will support nearly 200 original reporting projects over five years, along with annual regional conferences designed to raise the level of reporting on global tropical rainforest issues like deforestation and climate change–leading to stories that make a difference. The RJF will support and build capacity for local and regional reporters based in the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, as well as international reporters working in those regions. The RJF is supported by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI). For more information about the RJF, please see our announcement and update.
To apply for a Rainforest Journalism Fund reporting grant, please visit the RJF Grants page.
Applications for regional projects are independently reviewed by Advisory Committees, composed of experienced journalists, and are expected to propose projects related to tropical rainforests in each region.
To learn more about RJF's three focus regions and Advisory Committees and view the regional reporting projects supported by the Rainforest Journalism Fund, please visit the following pages:
For more information about international RJF projects, please visit the International RJF page.
To see the stories and projects supported by the RJF and also by the Rockefeller Foundation, Omidyar Network, MacArthur Foundation, and individual donors, please see the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforests Issue Page.
Since childhood, Lilia Isolina Java Tapayuri has been drawn to the Amazon river fauna. This draw has marked her profoundly, both spirituality and professionally.
For José Gregorio, an indigenous man from the Colombian Amazon region, training young people to fight for the conservation of the rainforests in his community is part of a global struggle to mitigate the climate catastrophe currently unfolding.
For Lilia Isolina Java Tapayuri, protecting the Amazon pink river dolphin is sacred. This is the tenth and final "Rainforest Defenders" story, which follows leaders fighting for nature preservation.
Several companies hold concessions that threaten the tropical rainforest of Siberut Island.
The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Siberut Island is the smallest and most endemic area in the world with 20 endemic animals including four endemic primates.
Damage to Tabora forests threatens to dry up Lake Tanganyika.
A project in the Brazilian state of Pará is bringing residents and researchers together to both create a fire warning and prediction system and transition away from the use of fire for farming.
Traditional peoples in the Amazon have been using ancestral fire management methods for agriculture for centuries while preserving biodiversity. The climate crisis has made these practices harder. A new project in western Pará aims for a more efficient system.
While the Amazon draws the attention of the world to fires and deforestation, not many people discuss the death of the pollinators, brought on by the widespread planting of soy crops and the excessive use of pesticides.
The struggles of the João do Mel honey farm in western Pará are a case study for the threat that encroaching soy production presents to the Amazon forest.
Increased human activities in Urambo and Kaliua districts in Tabora Region have contributed to the loss of what used to be dense miombo forests, thus accelerating the decline in the amount of rainfall compared to the past.
Tempo’s collaboration with Mongabay Indonesia, Betahita, Malaysiakini and Auriga Nusantara found traces of the involvement of a number of forestry and oil palm plantation companies in the big forest fire in 2019.
Woodlands comprise almost 90% of Tanzania's forests. In Miombo, tobacco farming impacts these landscapes and nearby communities.
This project will investigate whether local communities understand the importance of peatlands and what they are doing to protect these resources.
COVID-19 has seized on the historical vulnerability of Quilombola populations on the lower Tocantins River in the Brazilian state of Pará.
A look at Amazonian fires and deforestation during the dry season and the possible consequences for the health of the Amazonian population over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The construction of a mining road in Hutan Harapan is a conspiracy between Peter Sondakh, owner Rajawali Group and the government. Road construction causes deforestation.
This project will focus on Nkamou in Congo-Brazzaville's Pool Department as a case study of deforestation in this part of the country.
The fires that destroyed 1.53 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests and land in 2019 were triggered by the expansion of forest product and oil palm plantations and industrial activity.
In Cameroon, industrial corporations which specialized in either rubber or sugar cane exploitation have destroyed hundreds of hectares of forests, leading to the expulsion of Indigenous populations.
Adiela, a Siona Indigenous leader, follows the spiritual guidance of her elders and clears landmines from her ancestral territory in the Colombian Amazon, in hope that her people may some day return.
A growing population, high demand for arable land, the need for wood for heating, and traditional medicine sources are all threatening the forests of Southern Burundi.
This multi-media project focuses on the evolution of mining in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Amazon, using geolocation to identify mining sites and environmental impact.
Redwood is in high demand in China and at risk of extinction.
What happens when the world’s most populous country has an appetite for beef and soy produced in Brazil? How China helps fuel the deforestation of the Amazon.
Eliza Barclay explains how the Vox reporting team focuses on key superpowers of three tree species in three rainforests to convey their unique ecological roles and the urgency of protecting the them.
Multilingual site supports all five languages spoken in rainforest regions.
The project focuses on three climate superheroes under threat of deforestation.
A project considered strategic by the Brazilian government underestimates socio-environmental impacts in one of the most threatened regions of the Amazon.
Pablo Albarenga was named the Photographer of the Year and winner of the Latin America Professional Award in the Sony World Photography Awards 2020.
Pulitzer Center invites environmental journalists to apply to the first Congo Basin RJF Convening
The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce, as part of the Rainforest Journalism Fund, that we are now accepting applications from journalists working in Southeast Asia interested in taking a Hostile Environment/First Aid Training (HEFAT) course. The deadline for applications is February 10, 2020.
After a successful year of supporting rainforest journalism in the Amazon, the Rainforest Journalism Fund is expanding its global reach.
We have to decolonize ourselves: Eliane Brum, a Brazilian member of the Amazon Advisory Committee, addressing the first convening of the Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF).
Pulitzer Center founder and Executive Director Jon Sawyer reflects on the Rainforest Journalism Fund's first convening, which brought together 80 journalists who have reported from across the Amazon basin.
Spearheaded by a coalition of Latin American journalists, the project helped shape the backdrop for a New Yorker piece on a court victory for an Ecuadorian indigenous group.
The Pulitzer Center is pleased to announce the launch of the Rainforest Journalism Fund, a five-year, $5.5 million initiative focused on raising public awareness of the pressing environmental issues facing the world’s tropical forests.
In this lesson, students will hear from a journalist who uses writing skills to describe under-reported place, and practice the same skills in original writing.
In this lesson, students will analyze how photojournalists tell under-reported stories using photography and apply tips for doing so themselves from Pulitzer Center-supported journalists.
As students across the world learn remotely, Pulitzer Center is committed to supporting educators with engaging resources that are online and easily printable.
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