Rainforest Defenders | Second Season
Since its launch in April 2019, Rainforest Defenders has been portraying the Amazon’s youth-led struggles. In an era of global concern about the Amazon, Rainforest Defenders has shed light on the under-reported human aspect of the world’s largest jungle, amplifying voices that weren’t being heard before while sharing an important message: we need to look beyond the huge tree wall and tackle the Amazon as a whole.
Destroying the Amazon is destroying its people, hence the concept of ecocide.
But addressing such complexity and diversity of struggles in the Amazon, with its 6.7 million km2 –more than half the size of Europe– demands spending time with different realities and areas. Rainforest Defenders has visited Ecuador, Colombia, and, more extensively, Brazil. The priority has been to bring the abstract issue of climate emergency to a personal dimension. To portray, jointly with the communities, the concerns, projects, dreams, and emotions of the young people on the ground with a message that is close to them, a message of struggle, resistance, and hope.
The Rainforest Defenders series, published internationally by El País and other reputable media, has had a huge impact, and in January 2021 received a Gabo Award, the most prestigious journalism recognition in Iberoamerica.
