Environmental news site wins prestigious award for exposing amazon drug crime network that threatens indigenous communities

Mongabay Latam, a leading environmental journalism outlet, has been honored with the Global Shining Light Award for Large Newsrooms at the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s conference in Kuala Lumpur. The award recognizes exceptional investigative reporting conducted under genuine threat—and in this case, the dangers were very real.

The award-winning investigation exposed a sprawling network of illegal drug trafficking operations deep in Peru’s Amazon rainforest, where organized crime has infiltrated Indigenous territories with deadly consequences. Over the course of a year, Mongabay Latam’s journalists courageously ventured into some of the Amazon’s most dangerous regions, where reporters rarely dare to go and where wrong turns can lead to fatal encounters with drug cartel operatives.

Through extensive fieldwork, information requests, and interviews with more than 60 sources, the team documented 67 clandestine airstrips carved into remote forests across three Peruvian regions: Ucayali, Huánuco, and Pasco. Alarmingly, 30 of these illegal runways were found within Indigenous territories, highlighting how drug trafficking is devastating both the environment and Indigenous communities who depend on these forests for survival.

The investigation reveals a tragic human cost: 15 Indigenous leaders have been murdered in recent years for resisting criminal encroachment on their lands, while dozens more live under constant threat. This groundbreaking reporting not only exposed the scope of environmental crime in the Amazon but also provided evidence detailed enough to influence policy decisions—a rare achievement in environmental journalism that operates in such perilous conditions.