Mongabay journalists win prestigious awards for exposing environmental crime and indigenous rights violations

Environmental news organization Mongabay earned multiple international journalism awards in 2025 for groundbreaking investigative reporting that exposed environmental crimes, corruption, and human rights abuses across Latin America. The recognition highlights the critical role of environmental journalism in uncovering stories from remote regions where nature and Indigenous communities face mounting threats.

Mongabay’s Karla Mendes received the top honor in the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism for her explosive three-part investigation revealing illegal cattle ranching in Brazil’s Arariboia Indigenous Territory. Her report, “Revealed: Illegal Cattle Ranching Booms in Arariboia Territory During Deadly Year for Indigenous Guajajara,” exposed direct links between the cattle industry and escalating violence against the Indigenous Guajajara people in the Brazilian Amazon. The investigation’s impact extends beyond journalism—federal prosecutors announced they will use Mendes’s findings as evidence in the murder trial of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a forest guardian allegedly killed by loggers in 2019.

Contributor Gloria Pallares also earned recognition, winning the Innovation & Investigative Journalism category of the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award and receiving an honorable mention from the Trace Prize. Her investigation uncovered fraudulent schemes where organizations falsely claimed UN backing to convince Indigenous groups to surrender economic rights to their forests for decades. Additionally, Mendes, Philip Jacobson, and Fernanda Wenzel received second place for national reporting from the Rio Grande do Sul Press Association, further cementing Mongabay’s reputation for fearless environmental journalism in underreported regions.