AGENCIES
The digital medium Mongabay has been awarded the 5th Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication from the BBVA Foundation for “its outstanding track record in communicating about the conservation of nature and biodiversity, especially in the countries of the Global South, through the contribution of more than 800 journalists, scientists and collaborators in more than 80 countries and in 6 languages,” according to the jury.
Founded in 1999 by American journalist Rhett A. Butler, who is currently its executive director, this non-profit environmental information website publishes its articles and reports in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hindi and Indonesian, with a special focus on the tropical regions of the planet particularly rich in biodiversity in Asia and Latin America.
Throughout its history of more than two decades, Mongabay has opened offices in Indonesia, India, Brazil and Peru, and will soon open its first newsroom in Africa.
“We focus on areas where we can have a high impact. The tropics are the places richest in biodiversity and also the most threatened, so they are the ones with the most to lose,” said Butler, in an interview given shortly after learning of the award decision, as reported this Wednesday by the BBVA Foundation.
The jury highlighted that Mongabay "manages to establish the connection between science and journalism through the dissemination of research on environmental protection with the dissemination of studies with maximum accessibility criteria", a formula that has allowed "to publicize specific situations or "serious environmental problems suffered by communities usually neglected by conventional information flows."
The Biophilia Award, endowed with 100,000 euros, was created in 2019 by the BBVA Foundation to recognize the work of professionals and organizations from anywhere on the planet that contribute exceptionally to improving public understanding and awareness of environmental challenges.
The jury was chaired by Miguel B. Araújo, Research Professor at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC).
