Letters to the Future

In this series, Letters to the Future, the 2025 cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows share their views on environmental journalism, conservation and the future for their generation, amid multiple planetary crises. Each commentary is a personal reflection, based on individual fellows’ experiences in their home communities and the insights gained through the past six months of the fellowship. The series spans the Global South — Malaysia, India, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo — showcasing a broad diversity of ideas and the common ground these young environmental journalists share as they embark on their careers.

Volunteers clean up plastic and other waste materials on a beach on the Arabian Sea coast on World Environment Day in Mumbai. Environmental crises are lived experiences for young generations today — including journalists. Image by AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File.

Early-career journalists join the next wave of environmental reporting (commentary)

Shradha Triveni 7 Nov 2025

A man wearing a face mask reads newspaper outside a shopping mall in downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in January 2021. Malaysian authorities imposed tighter restrictions on movement to try to halt the spread of COVID-19. Image by AP Photo/Vincent Thian.

Strong ethics set journalists apart in a changing information landscape (commentary)

Lee Kwai Han 7 Nov 2025

The uncertain future of DRC’s traditional medicine, a heritage to save (commentary)

Blaise Kasereka Makuta 6 Nov 2025

Colombian climate activist Sofía Gutiérrez on stage after a march through the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, host city of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit. Image by AP Photo/Jon Super.

Journalism is failing to report on environmental leaders’ fights (commentary)

Manuel Fonseca 5 Nov 2025

Youth, hope & the role of environmental journalism in building a better future (commentary)

Fernanda Biasoli 4 Nov 2025

A shepherd watches livestock near Khi Solar One, a solar thermal plant that converts the sun's light energy into electricity, outside Upington, South Africa. Solar offers vast untapped potential in Africa. Image by AP Photo/Themba Hadebe.

At COP30, Africa can lead the way to a sustainable future — but will it? (commentary)

Samuel Ogunsona 3 Nov 2025

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Letters to the Future

Natural forests, like this one in Indonesia, contain hundreds of native species that all contribute to the ecosystem services they provide. Protecting standing forests is quicker and cheaper than replanting lost ones. Many forests can regenerate on their own with a little assistance, but where tree planting is needed, it must aim to restore natural diversity and support local communities. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

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Trawlers docked outside Sihanoukville. Screenshot from ‘Illegal fishing and land grabs push Cambodian coastal communities to the brink’ by Andy Ball / Mongabay.

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Brazil is the largest eucalyptus producer in the world. Eucalyptus production has been linked to several social and environmental violations such as land grabbing, human right abuses, and environmental harm from use of pesticides to biodiversity loss. Image © Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace.

Where cars go to die: an auto graveyard.

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