The Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF), launched in September 2018, represents a major investment in international environmental and climate reporting. Through the Pulitzer Center, the RJF will support nearly 200 original reporting projects over five years, along with annual regional conferences designed to raise the level of reporting on global tropical rainforest issues like deforestation and climate change–leading to stories that make a difference. The RJF will support and build capacity for local and regional reporters based in the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia, as well as international reporters working in those regions. The RJF is supported by the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI). For more information about the RJF, please see our announcement and update.
To apply for a Rainforest Journalism Fund reporting grant, please visit the RJF Grants page.
Applications for regional projects are independently reviewed by Advisory Committees, composed of experienced journalists, and are expected to propose projects related to tropical rainforests in each region.
To learn more about RJF's three focus regions and Advisory Committees and view the regional reporting projects supported by the Rainforest Journalism Fund, please visit the following pages:
For more information about international RJF projects, please visit the International RJF page.
To see the stories and projects supported by the RJF and also by the Rockefeller Foundation, Omidyar Network, MacArthur Foundation, and individual donors, please see the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforests Issue Page.
Indonesia and the Philippines account for most of the world’s coconut production. But as the palm oil industry expands, helped by generous government subsidies, coconut farmers struggle to adapt.
For Lilia Isolina Java Tapayuri, protecting the pink dolphin is sacred. This is the tenth story in the 'Rainforest Defenders' series, which presents leaders who fight for the conservation of the forests.
Mining companies plan to solve a transport bottleneck with a new road that opens up tiger habitat and risks illegal logging.
Since childhood, Lilia Isolina Java Tapayuri has been drawn to the Amazon river fauna. This draw has marked her profoundly, both spirituality and professionally.
For José Gregorio, an indigenous man from the Colombian Amazon region, training young people to fight for the conservation of the rainforests in his community is part of a global struggle to mitigate the climate catastrophe currently unfolding.
For Lilia Isolina Java Tapayuri, protecting the Amazon pink river dolphin is sacred. This is the tenth and final "Rainforest Defenders" story, which follows leaders fighting for nature preservation.
Several companies hold concessions that threaten the tropical rainforest of Siberut Island.
The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Siberut Island is the smallest and most endemic area in the world with 20 endemic animals including four endemic primates.
Damage to Tabora forests threatens to dry up Lake Tanganyika.
A project in the Brazilian state of Pará is bringing residents and researchers together to both create a fire warning and prediction system and transition away from the use of fire for farming.
Traditional peoples in the Amazon have been using ancestral fire management methods for agriculture for centuries while preserving biodiversity. The climate crisis has made these practices harder. A new project in western Pará aims for a more efficient system.
While the Amazon draws the attention of the world to fires and deforestation, not many people discuss the death of the pollinators, brought on by the widespread planting of soy crops and the excessive use of pesticides.
Catholic missionaries first arrived in the Amazon five centuries ago. Who are they and what are they doing now?
This year the Brazilian government has authorized the use of 325 pesticides. In Lucas do Rio Verde in the Amazon state of Mato Grosso, the terrible effects of one of these pesticides, Paraquat, was accidentally sprayed over the population back in 2006, can still be seen. It resulted in high cancer rates and the extinction of bees. Will it happen again?
Investigating the impacts of the global coconut boom on Southeast Asian rainforests and livelihoods.
Three Rainforest Defender Series stories of resistance and innovation in the Achuar Territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
This project analyzes how the fire in the Amazon rainforest impacted the triple frontier between Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru.
By land and air, a photo essay that shows fire in the heart of the Amazon.
How do the end of programs such as Bolsa Verde, along with the austerity of the Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro governments, affect riverside communities and accelerate deforestation in the Amazon?
Bolsonaro plans to build a road and a hydroelectric dam in Calha Norte do Pará, the most preserved area of the Brazilian Amazon, the largest corridor of tropical forest in the world.
Thirty years ago, leaders of rubbertappers and Indigenous peoples joined forces to demand the demarcation of Indigenous areas. Where are these leaders now?
Demand for tropical timber is stripping Solomon Islands of its trees with grave repercussions for the country's future.
It is the women who maintain indigenous culture and now they are also uniting to protect their lands. Together they resist and demand "Demarcation Now."
With a sign that reads "Chimán, Mojeño, Yuracaré and Movima Indigenous Territory," the eviction of loggers from the Bolivian Chimán Forest has finally begun.
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