First Prize

Category: Excellence in Environmental Journalism

Authors: Ruth Maclean (Senegal), Caleb Kabanda (DRC)

What Do the Protectors of Congo’s Peatlands Get in Return?

The original publication is available via the following link:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/21/headway/peatlands-congo-climate-change.html 

February 27, 2022

New York Times

THE OLD MAN WAS FURIOUS.
“They threatened me with a gun,” he said, shaking his walking stick at anyone who would listen.
“They wanted to shoot me!” Leaning heavily on that stick, with its perfect kink in the middle, Joseph Bonkile Engobo, 84 years old and hunched, moved with surprising speed past the raffia houses and earthen church of Lokolama, and into the enveloping forest. Two colleagues and I accompanied Mr. Engobo, a traditional chief known to all as Papa Joseph, to the scene of the alleged crime. Read more