Mongabay Journalists Win Top International Honors for Environmental Investigations in 2025

December 31, 2025 – General – 

In 2025, environmental news organisation Mongabay achieved significant recognition for its investigative journalism that exposed serious environmental crimes and threats to Indigenous rights across Latin America and beyond. The awards underscore the continuing impact of independent environmental reporting on public awareness, policymaking, and legal accountability in underreported regions of the world.

At the centre of Mongabay’s success was the work of Karla Mendes, who received the prestigious John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism for her three-part investigation into illegal cattle ranching in Brazil’s Arariboia Indigenous Territory. Mendes’s reporting, titled “Revealed: Illegal Cattle Ranching Booms in Arariboia Territory During Deadly Year for Indigenous Guajajara,” documented a surge in unregulated ranching operations that coincided with escalating violence against the Guajajara people. Her stories not only brought global attention to environmental and human rights abuses in the Amazon but also informed federal prosecutors, who are using the findings as part of a murder trial involving the death of a forest guardian.

Another Mongabay contributor, Gloria Pallares, was honoured in the Innovation & Investigative Journalism category at the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Awards for her exposé of fraudulent schemes in which organisations falsely claimed United Nations support to persuade Indigenous communities to relinquish economic rights to their forests. Her work also earned an honorable mention from the Trace Prize, further recognising excellence in accountability reporting.

In addition to these individual accolades, Mongabay journalists, including Mendes, Philip Jacobson, and Fernanda Wenzel, secured second place in national reporting from the Rio Grande do Sul Press Association, highlighting the breadth and quality of the newsroom’s investigative output. The organisation’s award-winning work extended beyond written stories to include multimedia investigations and digital storytelling projects, reflecting a strategic commitment to innovative reporting formats that engage diverse audiences.

The 2025 awards reaffirm Mongabay’s role in spotlighting environmental degradation, corruption, and violations of Indigenous rights at a time when such issues are frequently marginalised in mainstream media coverage. By combining rigorous field reporting, data analysis, and visual storytelling, Mongabay journalists not only documented ecological harm but also helped catalyse legal scrutiny and advocacy efforts on behalf of affected communities, illustrating the profound societal impact of environmental journalism in an era of global ecological crises.

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

Mongabay’s investigative reporting won top environmental journalism awards in 2025