Deadline: December 20, 2020
Applications are open for the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Fellowship 2020. The fellowship is a major new initiative that seeks to harness investigative reporting and cross-border collaboration to tackle stories at the intersection of climate change, corruption, and governance in the world’s three main tropical rainforest regions: Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia.
Few stories are more urgent—and global—than the destruction of the planet’s tropical rainforests. The Pulitzer Center’s RIN seeks to create an ecosystem of collaboration among journalists to follow the money and the many illegal practices and legal loopholes that enable industrial-scale deforestation.
The investigative fellows will work on individual and collaborative reporting projects to systematically probe the drivers of deforestation across the three regions, from money flows to land-grabbing activities and human rights violations.
Benefits
- The opportunity to work on impactful investigations that are time-consuming and costly.
- A global network of top-notch investigative reporters who will aid your investigations and complement your skills.
- Access to data and documents as well as the opportunity to sharpen your data skills with support from the Pulitzer Center’s tech team.
- The opportunity to work on stories that transcend your country and region and can achieve true global impact.
- A community of like-minded colleagues that will continue beyond your fellowship.
- The possibility of renewing your fellowship for an additional one or two years based on performance.
- Salaries commensurate with experience.
Eligibility
- Open to experienced investigative journalists with a proven track record based in the Amazon (three fellowships), Congo Basin (three fellowships), and Southeast Asia (three fellowships) regions. An additional fellowship will go to a journalist working at a global media outlet.
- Reporters based in countries neighboring the three main tropical rainforest regions—Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asia—may also apply but will need to focus their reporting during the fellowship on deforestation/supply chain stories related to these regions.
- Staff or freelance journalists working on a wide range of platforms including print, radio, video, and multimedia. Freelance reporters will need to have the support of a local newsroom that agrees to host them and publish the work they produce during the fellowship.
- Team players with the experience and/or ability to work collaboratively across newsrooms and borders.
- Reporters with a deep understanding of the scientific, environmental, social, legal, political, and commercial forces at play in deforestation and forest degradation around the world—and why this issue matters to the global well-being.
- Reporters willing to participate in outreach activities related to their investigations, such as events at schools and universities.
Application
To apply, you will be asked to provide:
- A statement of purpose: How this fellowship fits in your career path and why you are best positioned to be a Rainforest Investigations Network fellow. You may also include how collaboration with journalists from other regions can benefit your investigations or how you might be able to assist them. (500 words)
- An investigative project proposal describing the most ambitious rainforest reporting you seek to pursue during your fellowship. (500 words)
- Three examples (links) of your most impactful investigations published in the past three years.
- A letter of support from your media employer or a newsroom that has agreed to host you as a Rainforest Investigations Network fellow and publish your work.
- Three professional references: These can be either contact information or letters of recommendation.
- A copy of your resume or curriculum vitae.
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
