
Articles by Karla Mendes
Karla Mendes is an award-winning Brazilian journalist working as a Rio de
Janeiro-based Investigative and Feature Reporter for Mongabay and a fellow of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Rainforest Investigations Network. She has been working as a correspondent for international outlets since 2015 and she specialized in covering environmental, land and property rights issues since 2017. She worked as a land and property rights correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation between August 2017 and December 2018. Prior to that, Karla was a business reporter for over 10 years in Rio, Madrid, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte, including with newspapers O Globo, O Estado de S. Paulo, Expansión and news agency S&P Global Market Intelligence. Karla has a Master in Investigative and Data Journalism from the University of King’s College, Canada, and an MBA in finance from São Paulo’s Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA). She is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Image by Fábio Nascimento.


Violence escalates in Amazonian communities’ land conflict with Brazil palm oil firm

RSPO suspension of Brazil palm oil exporter tied to Mongabay land-grabbing report

‘If Brazil starts with us, why did we arrive last?’: Q&A with Indigenous lawmaker Célia Xakriabá

Joenia Wapichana: ‘I want to see the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol territories free of invasions’

Sonia Guajajara: Turnaround from jail threats to Minister of Indigenous Peoples

Murders of 2 Pataxó leaders prompt Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to launch crisis office

For Indigenous Brazilians, capital attack was ‘scenario of war’ akin to deforestation

‘Funai is ours’: Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency is reclaimed under Lula

President Lula’s first pro-environment acts protect Indigenous people and the Amazon

Video: In Brazil’s Amazon, Quilombolas fight major palm oil firm for access to cemeteries

Video: Stolen Quilombola cemeteries in the Amazon, and the probe that revealed it all

Major Brazil palm oil exporter accused of fraud, land-grabbing over Quilombola cemeteries

Despite 11% drop in 2022, Amazon deforestation rate has soared under Bolsonaro

Brazil’s biggest elected Indigenous caucus to face tough 2023 Congress

In Brazil, a heavily fined firm is also accused of waging a ‘palm oil war’ on communities

Mongabay probe key as Brazil court rules on palm oil pesticide contamination

The Fixers: Top U.S. flooring retailers linked to Brazilian firm probed for corruption

Indigenous Brazilians demand justice as 4 killed in escalating violence

Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial

The war on journalists and environmental defenders in the Amazon continues (commentary)

‘I am Indigenous, not pardo’: Push for self-declaration in Brazil’s census

In Rio de Janeiro, Indigenous people fight to undo centuries of erasure

‘We are made invisible’: Brazil’s Indigenous on prejudice in the city

Brazil prosecutors cite Mongabay probe in new legal battle against palm oil firms

Déjà vu as palm oil industry brings deforestation, pollution to Amazon

‘Guardian of the Forest’ ambushed and murdered in Brazilian Amazon

Brazilian Amazon fires scientifically linked to 2019 deforestation: report

Germany cuts $39.5 million in environmental funding to Brazil

Future of Amazon deforestation data in doubt as research head sacked
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Forest behind bars: Logging network operating out of Cambodian prison in the Cardamoms
- Indigenous communities in Argentina’s Chaco fear another heavy fire season in 2023
- As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
- In a Bolivian protected area torn up for gold, focus is on limiting damage

Oceans
- As one Indian Ocean tuna stock faces collapse, nations scramble to save others
- Conservationists aim to save critically endangered European eels on Italy’s Po River
- Expedition to Pacific ecosystems hopes to learn from their resilience
- Illegal trawling ravages Tunisian seagrass meadows crucial for fish

Amazon Conservation
- World Bank: Brazil faces $317 billion in annual losses to Amazon deforestation
- A Twitter bot tracks meat production in the Brazilian Amazon
- Second chance for Lula as controversial Amazon dam goes up for renewal
- Logging permit threatens Quilombola bioeconomic ‘paradise’ in the Amazon

Land rights and extractives
- Dams and plantations upend livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo River Valley
- Fish deaths near Rio Tinto mine in Madagascar dredge up community grievances
- Award-winning, Indigenous peace park dragged into fierce conflict in Myanmar
- Logging permit threatens Quilombola bioeconomic ‘paradise’ in the Amazon

Endangered Environmentalists
- Indigenous chief shot in head in Brazil’s ‘palm oil war’ region; crisis group launched
- ‘You don’t kill people to protect forests’: New Thai parks chief raises alarm
- Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy

Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’

Conservation Effectiveness
- Study shows Kenyan elephant shrew may be adapting to human disturbance, drought
- Saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: Japan sets historic example
- From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia
- For key Bangladesh wetland, bid for Ramsar status is no guarantee of protection

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
- Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams
