Investigating environmental abuses in remote, vast areas like the Amazon rainforest presents a challenge for newsrooms. The limited access, the presence of organized crime, and budget constraints make it difficult to plan extensive reporting trips. But geolocation tools — often free, open-source applications like QGIS— can be a strategic ally to enable newsrooms to advance their coverage by crossing different databases in any territory.

In a recent hands-on workshop, Brazilian journalists Juliana Mori and Fabio Bispo from Report for the World newsroom partner InfoAmazonia, introduced core concepts and practices of geojournalism and shared concrete examples of how they are using its tools to detect oil and gas concessions in protected areas in the Amazon region, encouraging participants to look at the intersection of environmental journalism and geospatial analysis in their own countries.

By allowing readers to visualize these connections in a map, geospatial reporting can reveal patterns and conflicts that may otherwise go unnoticed.

“Overlaps between natural resource exploitation licenses and protected areas can be a great starting point for an environmental investigation,” Mori emphasized as she explained how InfoAmazonia has used geospatial data to map oil concessions encroaching on sensitive areas. Geojournalism, Mori explained, goes beyond traditional reporting methods by layering geographical data with investigative narratives, creating visuals that speak to the impacts of human activity on natural landscapes and enabling journalists to make connections between industrial projects and their environmental impacts.

As an example, she detailed a cross-regional investigation into Perenco, an Anglo-French oil company, revealing that two-thirds of its oil licenses overlapped with protected areas across multiple countries. The research highlighted significant environmental violations, including over 50 infractions in Peru, where local communities were largely unaware of the company’s detrimental activities. The investigation emphasized the importance of combining data analysis with on-the-ground reporting to uncover the true impact of corporate operations, as Mori described it, “Geo-journalism is storytelling with maps.”

Bispo, a recently graduated corps member of Report for the World who covers environmental policies, climate change and related topics, shared insights from his reporting on oil and gas investigations in the Amazon. Crossing data from official sources on oil concession and Indigenous territories, the stories shed light on government actions that auctioned off oil-rich land, underlining the conflicts that arise when protected areas are threatened by industrial interests. “During the COP28 in Dubai in 2023, we discovered Brazil’s plans to offer oil areas with impacts on indigenous lands and conservation units,” he said. Using geospatial analysis, he found that the government’s oil agency deliberately adjusted the area’s boundaries to avoid overlapping territories. However, this adjustment didn’t change the fact that these lands would still be affected, contrary to what the authorities claimed. “We used QGIS to perform an intersectional analysis, which helped us identify the specific areas impacted. At least 20 Indigenous lands and 15 conservation units are within the affected zone of the proposed projects,” Fabio explained, reminding the participants that geospatial data can offer insights into environmental impacts and help hold powerful institutions accountable.

For InfoAmazonia, geojournalism is part of a larger mission to empower journalists and communities across the Amazon. By making the connections between geography and industry clear, and sharing the lessons learned, they are helping journalists across the globe expose the environmental costs of resource exploitation.

To demonstrate the practical applications of these techniques, Mori and Bispo guided the participants in a step-by-step introduction to QGIS. Using real data, attendees learned how to upload, layer, and analyze information on industrial activity and environmental protections, seeing firsthand how these maps can reveal complex, layered insights.

“But how can we ensure the data is accurate?” some participants asked. Mori and Bispo encouraged them to look for reliable open-source databases and satellite imagery, and crowd-sourced data. Mori stressed that with tools like QGIS, journalists have new ways to independently investigate stories, bolstering traditional fieldwork with data-driven verification. Discrepancies between datasets can also be a red flag, prompting further investigation.

The workshop served as a reminder that learning and using new investigative tools is critical to keep up with global issues like climate change and deforestation. “Geojournalism can be a powerful tool for revealing the socio-environmental dynamics of a territory, connecting data, maps and local stories,” Juliana summarized as the workshop ended. “Sharing our investigative methods in the master class for Report for the World was an enriching experience, with debates that went beyond techniques and concepts, also addressing journalistic issues and the contexts of press freedom and transparency that a global network of journalists from different parts of the world makes possible.”

Key takeaways: 

• Geolocation tools can bolster traditional fieldwork, giving reporters an edge in verifying data and presenting a compelling visual narrative alongside their findings.
• QGIS offers a way to independently gather and examine data, allowing them to report on environmental issues without relying solely on official sources.
• Fact-checking data is crucial, as it is verifying the source and methodology behind the data. Discrepancies between datasets can also be a red flag, prompting further investigation.
• Complementary sources: news reports, social media data, and satellite imagery can provide valuable insights into recent developments on the ground.
• Transparency: Being transparent about the limitations of our methods is essential. Acknowledging in the story that geospatial analysis provides a starting point, that has to be followed by ground verification to obtain a complete picture.