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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/information-ecosystem/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on information ecosystem</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/information-ecosystem/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How underinvesting in information threatens our collective well-being</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 14:21:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. Yet, it often overlooks the very social foundation those solutions stand on: a shared, reliable information environment. Today, that foundation is cracking. This fragility extends beyond the spread of falsehoods. It appears as indifference to accuracy, fatigue from complexity, and a growing difficulty in judging what deserves attention. In many places, facts still exist, but they travel poorly. They arrive late and out of context, their credibility stripped away before they even reach the public. The result is not always disagreement; more often it is disengagement. For donors concerned with climate change, biodiversity loss, public health, or democratic governance, this crumbling foundation puts even the best-funded programs at risk—a blind spot many donors haven&#8217;t yet addressed. Programs may be well designed and generously funded, yet fail to gain traction because the informational terrain beneath them has shifted. Projects that rely on public oversight, regulatory follow-through, or market response depend on the availability of trusted, usable information. Environmental harm offers a clear illustration. Deforestation, overfishing, and illegal mining tend to accelerate where monitoring is weak and scrutiny sporadic. This is not because laws do not exist, but because violations go unrecorded or unnoticed. When documentation does&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What is lost when environmental coverage is cut</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/what-is-lost-when-environmental-coverage-is-cut/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/what-is-lost-when-environmental-coverage-is-cut/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 17:37:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06173251/AP26035580889465-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313895</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, information ecosystem, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Word that the Washington Post would be cutting roughly one-third of its staff spread quickly this week. Among those affected were at least a dozen reporters, editors, and visual journalists covering climate and the environment. The cuts will materially reduce the Post’s climate coverage. They come just over three years after the paper significantly expanded [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Word that the Washington Post would be cutting roughly one-third of its staff spread quickly this week. Among those affected were at least a dozen reporters, editors, and visual journalists covering climate and the environment. The cuts will materially reduce the Post’s climate coverage. They come just over three years after the paper significantly expanded that desk, nearly tripling its size and describing climate change as “perhaps the century’s biggest story.” At the time, then–executive editor Sally Buzbee framed the investment not as a specialty beat, but as a recognition that climate touches nearly every domain the newsroom covers. What has changed is not the scale of the problem, but the political, economic, and institutional context in which it is reported. The layoffs were first reported by the New York Times as part of a broader retrenchment that will see more than 300 journalists lose their jobs. After the cuts, the Post’s climate desk is expected to retain only a handful of reporters. This is not simply a story about one newsroom. It reflects a wider weakening of the institutions responsible for producing and maintaining a shared factual record, particularly on subjects that are politically contested and structurally complex. Under ordinary conditions, information performs an underappreciated coordinating function. It allows people to orient themselves, to understand what is happening, and to trace responsibility across systems that are otherwise hard to see. When it works, it often recedes into the background. Its absence becomes evident only when facts arrive late, circulate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/what-is-lost-when-environmental-coverage-is-cut/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313895</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On Mongabay’s legacy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/on-mongabays-legacy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/on-mongabays-legacy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 19:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/28194253/01-ca_redwoods_16883x-26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313466</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, information ecosystem, Journalism, and Mongabay.org]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I am often asked what Mongabay’s legacy is, or what it might turn out to be. The question usually comes with an assumption that a quarter-century of publishing should yield a tidy answer. It does not. Mongabay did not begin with a theory of media change, nor with an ambition to redefine environmental journalism. It [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I am often asked what Mongabay’s legacy is, or what it might turn out to be. The question usually comes with an assumption that a quarter-century of publishing should yield a tidy answer. It does not. Mongabay did not begin with a theory of media change, nor with an ambition to redefine environmental journalism. It began with a website, a fascination with tropical forests, and a sense that large parts of the world’s environmental story were being poorly covered or not covered at all. Environmental journalism long predates Mongabay. It has roots in natural history writing, investigative reporting, and advocacy journalism, each with its own traditions and strengths. Mongabay did not invent the field. What it did do, gradually and sometimes unintentionally, was to occupy a space that many larger outlets were leaving behind: sustained, detailed reporting on ecosystems and communities far from centers of power, produced with the assumption that these places mattered in their own right. For much of its existence, Mongabay has focused on what happens at the margins of global attention. Tropical forests, coral reefs, small island fisheries, Indigenous territories, and remote mining frontiers rarely compete well with elections, wars, or financial crises. Yet these places often sit at the center of planetary risk. Covering them well requires time, local knowledge, and a tolerance for stories that do not resolve neatly. Baobab tree in Western Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler. One element of Mongabay’s legacy lies in persistence. Many news organizations cover environmental issues episodically,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/on-mongabays-legacy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/on-mongabays-legacy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313466</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 21:56:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18201846/brunei_251114145219_0263z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311674</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, and Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Health, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, Journalism, Planetary Health, Remote Sensing, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation is relearning how to talk about itself. This shift may signal something deeper than messaging: a recalibration of what persuades people to care, to fund, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation is relearning how to talk about itself. This shift may signal something deeper than messaging: a recalibration of what persuades people to care, to fund, and to act, especially as the world edges toward 2030 amid ecological strain, political volatility, and thinning public trust. A few months ago, I put out an invitation to the conservation sector: share how you are navigating this moment, which many have described as a period of crisis. That invitation resurfaced recently when Crystal DiMiceli referenced it during a fireside chat with me at the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders’ 20th anniversary event in Washington, D.C. DiMiceli asked what lessons are emerging so far. One of the most consistent responses has centered on communication: “Less crisis, more agency.” Not because the crisis has abated, but because alarm on its own no longer mobilizes as reliably as it once did. If anything, it exhausts. Years of grim headlines have revealed an uncomfortable truth: when people are offered only catastrophe, many disengage. They stop reading, stop caring, and, in some cases, stop believing that anything meaningful can still be done. What seems to be gaining ground instead is a focus on success—often partial, sometimes fragile, but demonstrable. Not triumphalism, but optimism grounded in evidence. Conservation framed as something people actively do, rather than something that merely happens to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311674</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The value of journalism in the AI era</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-value-of-journalism-in-the-ai-era/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-value-of-journalism-in-the-ai-era/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 23:25:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18231736/genAI-brunei_251114145219_0263x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311684</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Environment, Green, information ecosystem, Journalism, Mongabay.org, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The arrival of generative artificial intelligence has unsettled journalism in familiar ways. Traffic models look fragile. Copyright is contested. The marginal cost of producing words has collapsed. It is tempting to conclude that news is becoming less valuable just as machines become more fluent. So far for Mongabay, the opposite is happening. AI systems are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The arrival of generative artificial intelligence has unsettled journalism in familiar ways. Traffic models look fragile. Copyright is contested. The marginal cost of producing words has collapsed. It is tempting to conclude that news is becoming less valuable just as machines become more fluent. So far for Mongabay, the opposite is happening. AI systems are adept at rearranging existing information. They summarize, paraphrase, and answer questions at speed. What they cannot do is observe the world directly, make accountable judgments, or create new facts. Those limits are not incidental. They are built in. And they place journalism in a more central position than before. This has become clearer to me in an unexpected way. At Mongabay, a nonprofit newsroom focused on environmental reporting, we chose not to block generative AI systems from accessing our work. Many publishers have done the opposite, citing copyright concerns, energy use, or fear of disintermediation. Those concerns are understandable, especially for commercial outlets whose business models rely on restricting access. But as a nonprofit focused on impact, our calculus is different. We already allow other outlets to republish our reporting as part of our impact strategy. If AI tools were going to answer questions about forests, fisheries, conservation, or biodiversity, it seemed better that those answers be informed by reported journalism than by thinner sources. I assumed this would reduce traffic. If people could get what they needed from an AI interface, why would they click through? That is not what happened. According to our&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-value-of-journalism-in-the-ai-era/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311684</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 23:40:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/20222757/ca_20251019_231241427z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, Journalism, Mongabay.org, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other beats into environmental reporting—the gap between curiosity and capability can be decisive. Bridging it is not charity; it is strategy. When newsrooms shrink, environmental coverage is often the first to go. Science desks are absorbed, travel budgets vanish, and reporters who once covered courts or crime are suddenly asked to decipher climate policy. Many bring deep investigative instincts, but not the technical literacy to interpret satellite data, read environmental and social impact assessments, or distinguish credible science from spin. Without support, their reporting risks being shallow or silenced. With it, they can become powerful chroniclers of how environmental change reshapes lives and economies. This is where structured opportunities—paid fellowships, editorial mentorship, and global professional networks—matter. Programs such as Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship, which has supported about 40 early-career journalists since 2022, show how targeted investment can transform both journalism and environmental governance. The idea is simple: pair local knowledge and experience with professional guidance, and the result is sharper, more trusted storytelling. Mongabay Latam&#8217;s program for Indigenous communicators in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first cohort included two Shuar reporters and one Kichwa reporter. Fellows from Indonesia to Nigeria have uncovered illegal mining,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why independent journalism is a strategic investment for philanthropy (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2025 21:06:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/26204649/philanthropy-should-fund-journalism-v2-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is not a substitute for policy or enforcement, yet it supplies the conditions those actions require, credible information delivered in time and in public. It can convert private harm into shared knowledge, and shared knowledge into collective pressure. For philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, supporting journalism may seem peripheral compared with protecting land, funding clean technology, or reforming supply chains. In practice, it is a high-leverage investment that strengthens and multiplies the effectiveness of all the above. Environmental damage thrives in opacity—unrecorded deforestation, unverified carbon credits, unexamined subsidies. Independent reporting drags those risks into daylight, creating the accountability that allows other interventions to work. Consider the case of United Cacao in Peru. When the company raised $10 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund a “sustainable” cacao plantation, it presented itself as restoring the rainforest. A short series of investigative reports, supported by satellite imagery and local sources, revealed that more than 2,000 hectares of Amazonian forest had already been cleared. The reporting itself represented a modest portion of the newsroom’s overall budget, yet its consequences were vast. The Peruvian government revoked the permit; the company was later delisted, curtailing the planned expansion that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How journalism helps turn information into outcomes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-journalism-helps-turn-information-into-outcomes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-journalism-helps-turn-information-into-outcomes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 11:31:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09163018/peru_221816_25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305669</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Green, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by people in a position to act. The environment minister took notice, revoked the company’s permit, and the government moved to protect the forest at the community’s request. The victory wasn’t journalism’s alone. It belonged to village leaders who organized, the officials who acted, and the laws that allowed for course correction. Yet none of it would have happened, or not as quickly, had the facts not been gathered, verified and made public. This is how journalism drives impact at its best. It doesn’t draft statutes, deploy police or plant trees. It supplies the oxygen those actions require: credible information, in time, in public. Impact begins with agenda setting. Most decisions are made in the shadows of omission, not malice. Issues remain invisible because they’re technical, remote or inconvenient. Reporting shifts the spotlight. Consider the opaque 100-year carbon-credit deal quietly advanced in Sabah, Malaysia. Coverage exposed the terms, the intermediaries and the absence of meaningful consultation with Indigenous landholders. Once the arrangement was on the record, it was scrutinized in the courts and in the press, where it stalled, and then unraveled. The result owed much to civil society and the legal process. It also owed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-journalism-helps-turn-information-into-outcomes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305669</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental journalism as the link between local and global (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/environmental-journalism-as-the-link-between-local-and-global-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/environmental-journalism-as-the-link-between-local-and-global-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2024 12:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gustavo Faleiros]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/25114241/rainforest-rainbow-Sabah-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290749</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Governance, information ecosystem, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[December 2009, Copenhagen, three in the morning. Tired of waiting for any official announcement from the COP15 presidency, a journalist friend and I decided to sleep right there in the convention center. Me on the chair, him on the table! Like us, others were dozing off in the corners of the press room. It was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[December 2009, Copenhagen, three in the morning. Tired of waiting for any official announcement from the COP15 presidency, a journalist friend and I decided to sleep right there in the convention center. Me on the chair, him on the table! Like us, others were dozing off in the corners of the press room. It was the last 11 days of one of the UN&#8217;s most anticipated climate change summits. We were exhausted after so many press conferences, bombastic reports, leaked documents and promises packaged with pretty words from the climate jet set. All the problems were promised to be solved. But nothing came of it. No sooner had we fallen asleep than the closing plenary was announced. Red-eyed, we watched in disbelief as the negotiations collapsed. What a resounding failure! There was no agreement. The countries didn&#8217;t see eye to eye and the solution to the end of the world was postponed once again. Weeks of hard work ended with diplomats shrugging their shoulders and promising, perhaps, something for the following year. The opening session of COP15 may have been its most optimistic moment. Image by SustainUS via Wikimedia Commons. I felt silly about the whole thing. For our readers, we were there pulling all-nighters and tweeting like crazy (yes, Twitter was the platform of the moment), because it was all urgent and decisive. That failure cast doubt on the relevance of what I was doing as a journalist. It seemed to me that instead of chasing authorities in some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/environmental-journalism-as-the-link-between-local-and-global-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts highlight importance of ‘prebunking’ to combat climate disinformation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/experts-highlight-importance-of-prebunking-to-combat-climate-disinformation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/experts-highlight-importance-of-prebunking-to-combat-climate-disinformation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 May 2024 02:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Choki Wangmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/09164512/climate-protest-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281889</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now and Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bhutan, Global, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Environment, Ethics, Fellows, Global Warming, information ecosystem, Journalism, Mitigation, Politics, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the rapid expansion of digital and AI tools, climate disinformation has become a major challenge for journalists and media organizations across the world. However, climate disinformation researchers say that &#8220;prebunking&#8221; is one of the best ways to fight it. Prebunking is a vital method used by agencies to tackle false claims before the public [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the rapid expansion of digital and AI tools, climate disinformation has become a major challenge for journalists and media organizations across the world. However, climate disinformation researchers say that &#8220;prebunking&#8221; is one of the best ways to fight it. Prebunking is a vital method used by agencies to tackle false claims before the public encounters them, helping them spot and resist manipulation. Based on inoculation theory in psychology, prebunking builds mental defenses by revealing deceptive techniques in advance. Beth Goldberg, from Google&#8217;s Jigsaw division, told National Public Radio that she sees prebunking as a shield against manipulation through early awareness. This proactive approach is increasingly used in campaigns to encourage critical thinking and combat false information with accuracy. According to The Guardian reporter Dharna Noor, the stories intended to misinform often follow clear patterns, making it easier to predict the lies they might tell. She spoke at a recent press briefing on how to prebunk climate disinformation hosted by the global journalism collaboration, Covering Climate Now, and the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition. Citing an example of the war in Gaza, Noor said, the American Petroleum Institute launched a big ad campaign, claiming concerns about oil flow from the Middle East during the war. “By understanding these patterns, journalists can address industry tactics before they reach the public.” Prebunking stories often comes before there&#8217;s even a news event, she added. Journalists can prebunk stories, a preemptive strike against misinformation, instead of waiting for people to hear false claims. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/experts-highlight-importance-of-prebunking-to-combat-climate-disinformation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281889</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous reporters awarded for fight against fake news deep in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/indigenous-reporters-awarded-for-fight-against-fake-news-deep-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/indigenous-reporters-awarded-for-fight-against-fake-news-deep-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2022 13:54:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliana Ennes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/05134027/2-Marivelton-Barroso-and-Juliana-Radler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257993</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Freedom of Information, Indigenous Peoples, information ecosystem, Journalism, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s said that the Rio Negro is so long that it can take two months to row its entire length. The river starts out in Colombia, touches Venezuela, where it forms much of the border between the two countries, then dips down into Brazil and meanders through the state of Amazonas, unspooling like a black [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s said that the Rio Negro is so long that it can take two months to row its entire length. The river starts out in Colombia, touches Venezuela, where it forms much of the border between the two countries, then dips down into Brazil and meanders through the state of Amazonas, unspooling like a black ribbon 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) across the Amazon Rainforest before flowing into the mighty river of the same name. In a region this vast and remote, where getting around is slow and challenging, infrastructure is practically nonexistent, and cultures and languages are diverse, getting accurate information to local populations has historically been an arduous task. That’s what makes the efforts of Rede Wayuri, the Rio Negro Indigenous Communicators Network, so remarkable. Established in 2017, this grassroots news network fights fake news and brings local journalism to and from Indigenous populations along the Brazilian section of the Rio Negro. For its efforts, the network has been awarded the 2022 Rule of Law Award by Washington, D.C.-based civil society organization the World Justice Project (WJP). Rede Wayuri was selected for its “extraordinary achievements countering disinformation on COVID-19 and existential environmental threats in the most preserved but increasingly endangered region of the Brazilian Amazon,” according to a statement from the WJP, which advocates for advancing the rule of law worldwide. In the past two years, a lot of Rede Wayuri’s work has focused on combating misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. Anonymous messages shared on messaging platform WhatsApp tout&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/indigenous-reporters-awarded-for-fight-against-fake-news-deep-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257993</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Covering environmental defenders can put journalists in dangerous situations (insider)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/covering-environmental-defenders-can-put-journalists-in-dangerous-situations-insider/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/covering-environmental-defenders-can-put-journalists-in-dangerous-situations-insider/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2020 10:01:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Sax]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/01/15114753/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225276</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, information ecosystem, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, Journalism, Media, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In April at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, I was listening to a panel where Sônia Guajajara, the general coordinator of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), was speaking about the threats that indigenous people face — especially those fighting for their land in places like [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In April at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, I was listening to a panel where Sônia Guajajara, the general coordinator of the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), was speaking about the threats that indigenous people face — especially those fighting for their land in places like Brazil “Nobody can live in harmony and feel safe if you are being threatened daily,” she told the audience. “Nobody can live in peace if you are not considered a citizen in your own land.” As an environmental journalist who has reported on, researched, and worked with various indigenous and non-indigenous environmental defenders in Latin America, that line struck a chord. Environmental defenders, often indigenous, often located in isolated, environmentally complicated parts of the world, are increasingly being killed with impunity. The death of 26-year-old Paulo Paulino Guajajara was the last to rock headlines. In 2017, every week almost four environmental defenders were killed. And last year Latin America accounted for more than half of the environmental defenders killed around the world. Covering this beat is also becoming more dangerous. Over the last decade, environmental journalism has shot up in the ranks of the most dangerous types of journalism. According to an estimate by Poynter, 40 reporters around the world died between 2005 and September 2016 because of their environmental reporting — more than were killed covering the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which has been going on since 2001. For local reporters in countries where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/covering-environmental-defenders-can-put-journalists-in-dangerous-situations-insider/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225276</doi>				</item>
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