Deadline: 18-Jan-23

The Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF) is launching the Dom Phillips Reporting Grant to fund ambitious, wide-reaching journalism projects that investigate the future of the Amazon and how to prevent its collapse.

The Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF) will support proposals that are original, thoroughly researched, ambitious, especially in terms of dissemination, and that are guaranteed to reach large audiences. The projects submitted must have a distribution plan in print, digital, audio, video, radio, or television media with wide national or international circulation and reach. Collaborations between mass media and journalists or local media in Amazonian countries will be particularly welcome. Letters of commitment signed by editors or directors of the media, expressing a clear commitment to publish the final product, are essential.

The Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF) Usually receive a large number of proposals about the Brazilian Amazon. Therefore, they would like to encourage people interested in submitting projects to also propose stories about Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, or Venezuela. They also welcome work that offers cross-cutting views, for example, from border areas, or from possible collaboration between Amazon countries and other nations of the world.

How to Save the Amazon was the title of the book that journalist Dom Phillips wanted to finish writing when he and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were assassinated on June 5, 2022, during a trip to the region. This special call, which they are launching six months after the crime, is an invitation to report as Phillips always wanted: on the ground, in conversation with the communities, seeking to show a wide audience possible ways to prevent the collapse of this crucial ecosystem and those who inhabit it.

Grant Information

• Selected proposals will receive the necessary funds to carry out their project. The first half of the grant will be disbursed once the project has been selected;
• The second half will only be disbursed once the project has been published, in compliance with the distribution plan foreseen in the contract. The project must be published by June 30, 2023. If this deadline is not met, the second disbursement will not be made.

Eligibility Criteria

• Proposals from journalists, writers, photographers, audio and radio producers, television and film producers;
• Staff journalists and freelance journalists of any nationality may also apply;
• They also welcome proposals from the press and from journalistic groups and collectives. In these cases, the team leader must be the one to send the application;
• Applications must be submitted in Spanish, Portuguese, or English.

For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.