For Isabel Esterman, journalism’s influence is often cumulative. It comes from staying with a subject long enough for the evidence to become harder to ignore. “It’s not one story,” she tells Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo, “but this collective body of reporting, and staying on it has been significant.”
That idea runs through her work at Mongabay, where she has been on staff since 2016 and now serves as managing editor for Southeast Asia. Much of the industry moves quickly from one subject to the next. Esterman has tended to stay put — to ask what happens if a newsroom keeps reporting after the first headlines fade.
The Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is one example. When Mongabay began sustained coverage, official estimates put the wild population above 100. Reporting led by the newsroom suggested something closer to 30. Over time, the official figures moved. The revision was grim, but useful. “Being able to have a more realistic figure to work with makes a big difference for conservation,” she says.
It was a similar story with a proposed carbon credit land deal in Malaysia. Mongabay did not arrive at the story cold. Years of reporting on land rights and Indigenous communities meant the newsroom heard early signals, then followed the issue closely. The deal stalled. If it proceeds, it will do so under heavier scrutiny.
Esterman’s role today is less about bylines than judgment. Much of her work involves assessing risk. Press freedoms across Southeast Asia have narrowed. Sources face retaliation. Reporters do too. “It’s a constant balancing act,” she says. “It’s rare that this isn’t a concern in a story.”
Those constraints shape what is published, and what is not. Some details are withheld to protect people or species. Some leads remain unprintable for legal reasons. What reaches readers is often a trimmed version of a much larger reporting effort.
Esterman places particular value on who tells the stories. She has pushed to make environmental journalism a viable career for reporters working in their own countries. “It’s valuable for global audiences to read stories about, say, the Philippines, written by Filipino reporters,” she says.
Her work also extends to Africa through Mongabay’s Apes Project, including reporting that reframed how trafficking is understood by examining demand for ritual use, not only meat or pets. The shift matters because it changes how solutions are designed.
Esterman tends to describe her career without flourish. Yet over time, certain patterns do emerge. She tends to favor reporting that remains in place after the initial interest fades. That, she suggests, is where journalism still has leverage.
This interview is part of Inside Mongabay, a series that looks at the people behind the reporting.
Banner image: Esterman in Ciwidey, West Java, Indonesia, in 2010. Image courtesy of Isabel Esterman.
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