The Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Deforestation Inc. investigation has been awarded one of many high environmental journalism prizes, and was credited by judges as having “re-energized the worldwide debate about greenwashing and deforestation.”
Deforestation Inc. introduced collectively reporters from 28 international locations to uncover how a frivolously regulated sustainability trade overlooks forest destruction and human rights violations when granting environmental certifications.
Combining on-the-ground reporting with an evaluation of leaked paperwork, court docket filings, audit experiences and extra, journalists discovered a whole bunch of firms that have been licensed as “sustainable” and later accused of environmental crimes and different wrongdoing.
The annual John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism was established in 1993 to acknowledge tales that make an “distinctive contribution to the general public’s understanding of environmental points.” Deforestation Inc. was introduced because the winner of the 2024 prize final week.
Judges labeled the ICIJ investigation an “spectacular journalistic feat” that traversed the globe to exhibit each the depth and breadth of the problem.
“Tales typically hop between geographies, demonstrating the worldwide nature of the trade, whereas offering readers with an up-close view of the deforestation problem from a brand new lens,” judges wrote. “Importantly, the venture gives an exemplary mannequin for international collaboration in environmental reporting.”
Finalists for the 2024 Oakes Award included Reuters for its investigation into bat-borne pathogens, and the Marshall Mission for an investigation into the affect of local weather change on a “ghost lake” that threatens to flood two Californian prisons.
The winner and finalists obtain prizes of $5000 and $1,500 respectively, which can be awarded at a ceremony at Columbia Journalism Faculty in September.
