Rainforest Journalism Fund Introduces ‘Rainforest Reporter’ Series

The Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF) is launching Rainforest Reporter, a new social media sequence showcasing outstanding tales and journalists—RJF grantees and Rainforest Investigations Network Fellows—who noted them. It aims to showcase the tale behind the tale: what motivated the journalists to report on it, what procedures they utilised, and how they did it.

In fact, Rainforest Reporter will job interview journalists with knowledge in a multitude of techniques, this kind of as info journalism, images, multimedia, investigative journalism, and collaborative journalism. By way of this series, we’ll find out how the journalists increase consciousness about rainforest challenges all-around the entire world. 

The series was released on March 21 to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of Forests

Diego Cazar Baquero – Data Journalism

The RJF staff to start with invited Diego Cazar Baquero, a journalist from Ecuador. He worked on the Map of Death task alongside his other colleagues. Working with equally data evaluation and extended-variety reporting, the workforce investigated how extractive industrial pursuits this kind of as mining and making oil displaced vulnerable Amazonian populations, specially, Indigenous communities in Ecuador this sort of as the Amazonian Kichwas and the Siekopai Nation. The group used cartographic journalism to exhibit how government-approved extractivist locations on maps “erased” the issues of Indigenous communities residing in the identical spots. Over-all, Baquero’s most important takeaway is to “interpret information in a human way” though conceptualizing the larger image.

Sarita Reed – Photojournalism

Journalist Sarita Reed presented her tips on photojournalism. Reed and her colleague Ning Hui labored together on Gold in the Sea: Brazil’s Booming Fish Bladder Trade task. The job traces the rapid-paced fish maw trade from northern Brazil’s coastline to China and its environmental destructive impacts. Reed’s shots narrate the distinctive methods in manufacturing fish maw and illustrate the perspectives of these concerned in the trade. In typical, she sees photojournalism as a indicates to check out distinctive angles of a story, which “brings men and women closer to the issue.”

Fábio Zuker – Multimedia Journalism

Highlighting a multimedia presentation in reporting, the RJF team interviewed anthropologist and journalist Fábio Zuker on his challenge titled COVID-19, Fake Information, and Misinformation Between Indigenous Peoples of the Upper Xingu. Using his anthropological instruction, Zuker paid near attention to the nuanced sorts of COVID-19 misinformation obstacles. He collaborated with Indigenous filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro to have an understanding of how federal government misinformation impacted community communities in the Upper Xingu area. In phrases of tips, Zuker prompt using multimedia tales as a way “to present what people’s lives are like” and how they cultivate a cultural feeling of belonging. 

Bagja Hidayat – Investigative Journalism

Tempo journalist Bagja Hidayat and his team furnished tips on investigative journalism and discussed his project Forests at the Crossroads. The task uncovered significant-scale deforestation throughout four Indonesian provinces, incorporating up to 1.5 million hectares of land thanks to numerous actions, these types of as nickel mining and industrial agriculture. In reality, one of the project’s articles investigated how electric car production led to accelerated deforestation in Indonesia. In general, Hidayat advised journalists to spouse with neighborhood reporters in contextualizing stories and to “always verify the points, the knowledge, and the documents.”

Rosie Pioth – Collaborative Journalism

Journalist Rosie Pioth presented her suggestions on facilitating collaborative journalism and talked about her challenge The Outcomes of Deforestation on Indigenous Peoples in Central Africa. The job focuses on logging implications this kind of as the deterioration of Indigenous communities’ way of life in the Congo and Cameroon. In normal, Pioth’s main takeaways contain picking staff users wisely centered on how “everyone ought to be conscious of their get the job done pace and what they can convey to the desk.” 

Translation of graphic

Title: The Implications of Deforestation on the Indigenous Peoples of Congo, Cameroon and Central African Republic.

Quote: “Here, people live largely from the forest and agriculture. But now, the circumstance has changed and the implications are felt.”

Bottom title: Suggestions for Collaboration in the Rainforest.

Estimate: “Collaboration is important. But in purchase for it to do the job, every person have to know what their activity is and execute it in a clear way.”

Strategies: 1) Be patient with the rhythm of each individual although respecting the deadline. 2) Collaboration with journalists must be decided on with objective. 3) Stay genuine to your eyesight.

 

These are a couple of the a lot of inspiring grantees we interviewed. The Rainforest Reporter sequence will go on to spotlight devoted reporters who winner underreported problems and revolutionary methods. Abide by the Rainforest Reporter collection on our regional RJF Twitter and Amazon Twitter accounts.