
Articles by Karla Mendes
Karla Mendes is an award-winning Brazilian journalist working as a Rio de
Janeiro-based Contributing Editor for Mongabay. 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.


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

New film reveals at-risk ‘uncontacted’ Awá tribe in Brazilian Amazon

Deforestation drops in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, but risks remain: experts

Experts deny alleged manipulation of Amazon satellite deforestation data

Brazil’s Congress reverses Bolsonaro, restores Funai’s land demarcation powers

‘Resisting to exist’: Indigenous women unite against Brazil’s far-right president

China, EU, US trading with Brazilian firms fined for Amazon deforestation: report

Brazil Supreme Court land demarcation decision sparks indigenous protest
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Deforestation on the rise as poverty soars in Nigeria
- Refuge of endangered ‘African unicorn’ threatened by mining, poaching, deforestation
- Endangered chimps ‘on the brink’ as Nigerian reserve is razed for agriculture, timber

Oceans
- Easing of crackdown sees Vietnam boats encroach into Indonesian waters
- Indonesia cancels fisheries infrastructure projects in Maluku region amid lack of funds
- Murky provenance of a Chinese fleet clouds Madagascar shrimp fishery
- What’s popping? Humpbacks off South Africa, new acoustic study finds

Amazon Conservation
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Ecuador’s Pastaza province, Indigenous groups collaborate on forest conservation
- ‘Giving up’: Amazon is losing its resilience under human pressure, study shows
- Pharmaceutical water pollution detected deep in the Brazilian Amazon

Land rights and extractives
- Open-pit mining ban lifted in Philippine province, clearing way for copper project
- Ousted anti-mining mayor heads back to Philippine city hall after landslide win
- Thai gold mine blamed for sickening local villagers is set to reopen
- “Indigenous people are fighting to protect a natural equilibrium”: Q&A with Patricia Gualinga

Endangered Environmentalists
- Citizen participation: a key achievement at the first COP to the Escazú Agreement
- “We are on the front line”: Q&A with Indigenous land defender Adiela Jineth Mera Paz
- Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee
- Amazon mining threatens dozens of uncontacted Indigenous groups, study shows

Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time

Conservation Effectiveness
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
