Mongabay launched an Indigenous Desk to expand independent environmental journalism that centers diverse Indigenous perspectives and sources worldwide.
The desk engages Indigenous peoples as both journalists and primary sources, addressing long-standing gaps in the news industry.
The Indigenous Desk’s reporting has already contributed to real-world outcomes, including exposing exploitation, supporting community action, and informing official investigations relating to Indigenous communities.
The Indigenous Desk strengthens Mongabay’s long-term capacity to report with depth, continuity and impact on issues affecting Indigenous peoples and their lands.

Indigenous peoples play a critical role in protecting nature and stemming biodiversity loss worldwide, yet their perspectives and knowledge remain underrepresented in national and international media coverage of environmental issues. While this gap is evident in environmental reporting, it reflects a broader structural issue across mainstream media and society at large.

In response, Mongabay established an Indigenous Desk to expand journalism that centers diverse Indigenous perspectives. The desk addresses long-standing shortcomings in environmental reporting by engaging Indigenous peoples as both sources and journalists, producing original coverage on, with and for Indigenous communities worldwide.

Representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous Peoples from West Papua visit the Supreme Court building in traditional dress, where they will hold prayers, rituals, as well as perform traditional dances. They also bring a piece of their customary land as a symbol to be handed over to the Supreme Court. Their demonstration will call on the Supreme Court to revoke the permits of two palm oil companies in Boven Digoel and Sorong which threaten customary forests, which in total cover more than half of Jakarta province. Papuan students and other civil society groups will also be present to support the struggle of the Awyu and Moi peoples. Image courtesy of © Jurnasyanto Sukarno / Greenpeace.

“Our goal is to ensure Indigenous people are included as primary sources of information in Mongabay’s reporting and to open space to work with Indigenous journalists and outlets,” says Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s executive editor and VP of programs. “This is our approach to ensuring Mongabay is relevant to a growing audience of Indigenous people.”

An important facet of the desk is its commitment to moving beyond superficial and simplified portrayals of Indigenous peoples and their priorities. The desk makes a concerted effort to include diverse Indigenous perspectives for depth, continuity and impact. This also addresses a consistent challenge Indigenous peoples face in conservation and science: their persistent underrepresentation in mainstream media narratives.

The Indigenous Campaign project started at the Terra Livre camp, a mass mobilization event advocating for Indigenous rights that takes place in Brasília every year. The 2022 event saw more than 7,000 Indigenous people gather from all over Brazil. Image courtesy of Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil.

“Bringing forward diverse Indigenous voices doesn’t only help drive underreported stories and investigations that fill knowledge gaps and improve transparency,” says Latoya Abulu, Mongabay’s senior editor for the Indigenous Desk. “Through balanced, accurate, and independent journalism, it also provides content relevant to Indigenous communities as an intended audience and delivers news that inspires effective action.”

Without including these voices, Abulu says, journalists are unable to push the boundaries of knowledge, and readers are unable to get a full understanding of environmental challenges.

Mongabay senior editor Latoya Abulu, left, interviewing former Colombian environment minister Lena Estrada during the 2025 U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Estrada is the first Indigenous person to hold the position. Image courtesy of Latoya Abulu. — Mongabay senior editor Latoya Abulu, left, interviewing former Colombian environment minister Lena Estrada during the 2025 U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Estrada is the first Indigenous person to hold the position. Image courtesy of Wilder García Gómez..

At a global level, this lack of Indigenous representation in the media reflects broader marginalization in governance. Indigenous peoples are among those most affected by biodiversity loss, climate change impacts and pollution, yet their rights and territories are frequently sidelined in international responses to these crises. Despite growing recognition of Indigenous stewardship in conservation and science, these communities continue to face significant barriers to sustaining their livelihoods and contributing fully to conservation initiatives.

“Respecting the rights and territories of Indigenous communities worldwide is of central importance for any international effort to alleviate a planetary emergency,” Shubert says. “This fact is evident in the science and the lived experience of Indigenous peoples that Mongabay relies upon to create its journalism.”

Impact

Mongabay investigation exposes fraud aimed at exploiting Indigenous communities across Latin America

Indigenous community overlooking the Peruvian side of the Yavarí River. The Matsés are one of the communities targeted by the fraudulent finance scheme exposed by Mongabay. Image by Florence Goupil for Mongabay.

An investigation published in early 2024 revealed that several companies with no experience in sustainable finance projects had persuaded Indigenous communities across Latin America to hand over the economic rights to their forests for decades, by falsely claiming the schemes were endorsed by United Nations agencies.

Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were promised jobs and local development projects in exchange for placing more than 9.5 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of forests into the “ecosystem marketplace.” According to community sources, the claims of U.N. backing were the main selling point for their agreement to commodify the ecosystem services that their forests provide, like carbon sequestration.

But Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès found that all three U.N. entities cited by the companies denied any involvement.

Mongabay’s findings didn’t just expose misconduct; they also informed community-level action. In Peru, the Matsés community terminated its agreement with the company after learning of the fraudulent claims. In March 2024, a spokesperson for the community’s new directive team confirmed this decision with Mongabay and shared that their next step will be to annul the contract with the company.

In a related development, Conservation International also ended its memorandum of understanding with the same company regarding the creation of a private conservation area in the Matsés Native Community, stating via email that the decision followed the findings reported in Mongabay’s investigation.

Reporting spurs official action in support of Peruvian Indigenous forest defenders

While waiting for official rights to its lands, the community of Santa Rosillo in Yanayacu is losing its forests. Image courtesy of the Santa Rosillo community patrol.

In September 2022, Mongabay Latam reported on the challenges faced by the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu Indigenous community in the San Martín region of Peru, which was experiencing threats, violence and deforestation driven by people from outside the community.

Mongabay Latam’s reporting contributed to increased attention from Peru’s Ministry of the Environment and its Public Prosecutor’s Office. Julio Guzmán, a prosecutor with the ministry, confirmed he had received a list of threatened environmental defenders from an adviser to then-Vice Minister Mariano Castro, including one of the cases the vice minister had requested Mongabay Latam to investigate. The prosecutor noted that he had sent information on the case of Kichwa Indigenous leader Quinto Inuma, featured in a Mongabay Latam article, to the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office (FEMA) in San Martín.

This referral initiated an official investigation into deforestation and its prevention. “What you do has an impact on what we do, because there are areas that we do not reach, it is impossible for us to have that level of depth in the information of many facts,” Guzmán told Mongabay Latam.

Exposing the impact of mining on Indigenous and local communities

Jonas Reis, an Indigenous man from Brazil, poses for a photo as he attends a protest during the fifth Presidential Summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, in Bogotá, Colombia, on Aug. 20, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fernando Vergara.

Mongabay closely tracks the social and ecological impacts of mining. In late 2023, Mongabay shed light on the devastating environmental and social impacts of illegal gold mining along the Cenepa River, which forms part of the border between Peru and Ecuador. We observed 70 sites of illegal gold mining but also learned of the plight of Indigenous Awajún communities, who were threatened with labor and sexual exploitation as a result of nonstop mining operations.

Following our coverage, Dante Sejekam, president of the Organization for the Development of the Cenepa Border Communities, contacted Mongabay to say that the army and police had informed him they would enter the area. He also shared that Mongabay Latam’s publication had been used in his meeting with the authorities. Since then, three raids in the area covered by Mongabay Latam successfully destroyed a substantial amount of mining equipment, curtailing the ongoing exploitation.

Additionally, Congresswoman Ruth Luque shared and commented on our story on her X account: “Story from @MongabayLatam details harsh reality in Cenepa Illegal mining destroys the lives of exploited indigenous women and girls. This dramatic situation is also experienced by indigenous people in the districts of Nieva and Río Santiago in Condorcanqui, in addition to AIDS.”

Report drives scrutiny of planned hydropower project in Nepal opposed by Indigenous communities, wins award

A yak pasture in the Lungbasamba landscape. Image courtesy of Chyamtang-Kathmandu Welfare Society.

In August 2024, Mongabay published an investigation into the Chhujung Khola hydropower project in eastern Nepal, where Indigenous Bhote Singsa communities alleged violations of their rights in the Lungbasamba biocultural heritage landscape.

The report verified most of the communities’ claims and confirmed the presence of forged signatures on documents, a lack of proper consultation, and numerous errors in the environmental impact assessment, like incorrect species names and land measurements. The assessment also failed to mention the presence of important wildlife, including red pandas and snow leopards.

Mongabay also found that the actual footprint of the project was 90 times larger than officially stated. Despite these findings, construction proceeded in secret, including nighttime road-building and bulldozing of ancestral pasturelands essential for nomadic yak herders.

However, the company director refuted the allegations and evidence.

Following publication, in September 2024, more than 30 organizations signed a joint statement against the project, referencing Mongabay’s coverage. In June 2025, the story won first place in the 2025 Indigenous Media Awards for Best International Indigenous Coverage.

Reporting spurs reversal of controversial carbon credit project in Borneo

A proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) in the forests along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay.

In Malaysian Borneo, staff features writer John Cannon exposed a secret, 100-year deal between the Sabah state government and foreign companies intent on selling carbon credits to polluting industries, based on the conservation of 2 million hectares of rainforest (nearly 5 million acres). This potential agreement was discussed without meaningful consultation with civil society and Indigenous communities, who might have lost access to these forests they depend upon.

Cannon’s 2021 article went global, highlighting the impact of sustained reporting on specific topics like carbon offsets, and the importance of ongoing engagement with local communities. Local leader Cynthia Ong said Mongabay breaking the initial story “made all the difference” and led to other national and international outlets taking up the story.

Once the secret deal was out in the public domain, Sabah officials at the COP26 climate meetings in Glasgow — where they were attempting to sell carbon offsets linked to the potential project — were prevented from doing so. Then, Indigenous leader Adrian Lasimbang sued the Sabah government for trying to sell rights to the forests to a foreign company.

Mongabay’s sustained reporting “helped a lot to raise awareness of facts that are not covered by the local press in Sabah, which is controlled by the government,” he said.

In February 2022, the deal was declared illegal. Although efforts were made to revive it, sustained civil society advocacy continued. As of mid-2024, “the land deal is now cancelled. We have heard from official channels that it is pretty much dead,” Ong said. “We would not have had the win we had with that scam without Mongabay.”

Mongabay’s nonprofit journalism is made possible through reader and donor support. Independent reporting on Indigenous perspectives on the environment requires time, resources and collaboration across regions. If you’d like to help sustain this work, contact David Martin, Mongabay’s director of philanthropy, at [email protected].

Banner image: Indigenous peoples of the Bolivian Amazon celebrate the creation of the Loma Santa Indigenous Conservation Area. Image courtesy of ORÉ.