Palm oil and its unknown environmental consequences in Brazil
The report investigates the palm oil industry in the Brazilian Amazon and uncovers environmental and social issues, including biodiversity loss, poisoning of Indigenous communities, and water pollution. Federal prosecutors are acting based on these findings, and the investigation has received recognition in journalism awards for its reporting on the impacts of palm oil production in the region. For the full article click .
Karla Mendes
Karla Mendes is an award-winning Brazilian journalist working as a Rio de Janeiro-based for Mongabay and a fellow of the Pulitzer Center's . Mendes is the to the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ); she was also nominated SEJ's Second Vice President and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair. Mendes has won several national and international awards. In 2023, she was a winner of the with distinction for her 鈥減owerful work covering the continued encroachment of global corporations into Indigenous Amazon lands鈥 and 2nd place in the . In previous years, Mendes won and the , among others. Prior to that, she was a business reporter for 14 years in Rio, Madrid, Bras铆lia, and Belo Horizonte, including with newspapers O Globo, O Estado de S. Paulo, Expansi贸n, and news agency S&P Global Market Intelligence. Mendes has a master's degree in investigative and data journalism from the University of King's College, Canada, and an MBA in finance from S茫o Paulo's Funda莽茫o Instituto de Administra莽茫o.
Creative team:
- Manager: Cristian Canto,
- Artists : students from Dise帽o Teatral, Artes - Universidad de Chile: Carla Jes煤s Alc谩ntara Basoalto, Sebasti谩n Barbe Rojas, Valeska Cartagena, Anette Ignacia Cerda Tamayo, Juan Jos茅 Alexander Contreras Mu帽oz, Victor Salvador Antu Gonz谩lez Ancamil, Amaranta Paz Gonz谩lez Urriola, Diego Antonio Huenchuleo Violdo, Catrian Ochoa Marchant, Victoria Nicolasa Orellana Stevenson, Alondra Estephania Salamanca Cerda.
- Coordinator: Katiuska Valenzuela (Program Chair), and Amanda Bazaes (School Assistant).
"Environmental crimes in the supermarket" (Delitos medioambientales en el supermercado)
An art installation by the students of Dise帽o Teatral at University of Chile
The installation presents a desolate landscape in which plastic elements, recognizable within the context of a supermarket, are congregated to represent the vulnerability driven by the unbridled consumption of palm oil to the environment.
In the work we find a flow of plastic objects that flow into the river, where we see how the surface layer of consumerism is revealed through vibrant colors that accuse the product and the plastic.
This seeks to show the repercussions of this lifestyle, especially through products derived from palm oil, whose overproduction and exploitation is invisibilized by the spheres of power.
This visual narrative suggests a direct connection between consumerist greed and environmental degradation. The heart of the installation presents the Amazon as a supermarket that is transformed into a garbage dump, illustrating the usurpation of territory and the continuous conquest to the detriment of minorities made invisible by progress. It directly evidences a conflict between an entity that promotes the consumption of palm oil (involving producers, distributors, consumers and other world powers) and the consequences suffered by the native indigenous peoples in the ecosystem they inhabit. The installation also invites us to reflect on the collective responsibility and ethical implications of our consumption choices in an interconnected world.
How do we influence this pollution? How aware do we want to be of this damage?"
An initiative by The Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists in cooperation with The Future School.
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