About the Free Journalism Seminar

On 21–23 September 2021, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) hosted a digital conference on the Amazon rainforest as a climate tipping point and how science, knowledge, and action could help prevent disaster.

Journalists connected with scientists, Indigenous and local leaders, and experts for insights and story development with the Mongabay Latam bureau. The seminar is available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

About this session

During the first part of this session, “Global Forest Watch and how to monitor real-time deforestation,” hear insights from Ruth Nogueron, Researcher at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Learn how Global Forest Watch works and how to use data correctly. Global Forest Watch is an open-source web application to monitor global forests in near real-time. We covered what a deforestation alert is; how to search for recent alerts; and how to study deforested areas, from analyzing long-term data to using the data correctly in a publication. 

In the second part of this session, “Crime maps: emblematic deforestation cases,” Alexa Vélez, General Editor at Mongabay Latam, presented two investigative reports. The first report, Crime Mapping, addresses recent deforestation in Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. The problems detected in these areas include the invasion of territories, the introduction of illicit crops, illegal logging, and threats against Indigenous leaders and to protected areas. The second report, Mennonites in Peru, tells the story of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. We also explored how to develop a story using a deforestation alert, the challenges that arise when covering deforestation in the Amazon and the sources available to journalists.