'Unsustainable', a Transnational Law Institute project in partnership with Sumaúma, has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2025 Gabriel Garcia Marques Foundation Gabo Prize.
The Gabo is the leading prize for investigative journalism in Ibero-America, awarded every year since 1995 by the Gabo Foundation, created on the same year by Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Márquez.
The project 'Unsustainable', a partnership between the Transnational Law Institute (TLI) at The Dickson Poon School of Law and the trilingual digital platform Sumaúma: Journalism from the Center of the World, based in the Amazon forest, in Brazil, has been shortlisted as one of fifty finalists out of 2,135 nominations, and as one of just ten in the 'coverage' category (the other four categories are text, sound, photography and image). The winners of the prize will be announced in the gala evening on 26 July, in Bogota, Colombia.
The project 'Unsustainable' was conceived jointly by Professor Octávio Ferraz, Director of the Transnational Law Institute, and Eliane Brum, award winning Brazilian journalist and writer, author of the acclaimed book Banzeiro Okotó: The Amazon as the Centre of the World (Indigo, 2023). The project benefits from the complementary expertise in human rights and environmental law from the TLI and Sumaúma's environmental data journalism to investigate and produce cutting edge knowledge on the role of corporations in the alarming destruction of the Amazon forest, the largest rainforest on the planet.
I welcome the shortlisting for the Gabo Prize as an important recognition, not only of the excellence of the work being produced, but also of the innovative interdisciplinary methodology that the project employs. Working closely together with leading data and investigative journalists in all stages of the process, from the identification of the subject, the initial research, the planning and implementation of fieldwork and the organisation of the data collected has enhanced significantly the efficiency and quality of the investigation.
Professor Octávio Ferraz, Director of the Transational Law Institute
The recognition of one of the most important journalism awards in the world points to two major successes of the Insustentáveis project. The first is the urgency of identifying, investigating and denouncing the leading role of large transnational corporations in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in a time of climate emergency, compromising the quality of life on Earth for all humanity. The other success is the valuable partnership between a journalism platform based in the Amazon and a center of excellence like the Transnational Law Institute, combining knowledge to strengthen both journalism and academic production. In these critical times we are living in, it is more necessary than ever to join forces and dare to form new alliances.
Eliane Brum, journalist, writer, and documentarist
Started in October 2023, the project has generated five investigations, producing original data on the environmental harm caused by iron ore, gold and aluminium mining, and soy production, all under the auspices of giant transnational corporations. There are four other investigations underway to be finalised and published in 2025, and a map of environmental harm to be released at the end of the project.
As well as the investigative journalistic pieces published on the project's website, an academic monograph will be published by Professor Octávio Ferraz in 2028 with in-depth analysis of the wealth of data collected during the project (provisional title: Anatomy of an Ecocide).
The project aims to raise awareness and enhance corporate accountability for environmental harm and human rights violations in the Amazon. As one of the most biodiverse hotspots and important 'carbon sinks' in the planet, losing the Amazon would exacerbate the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. As recent scientific studies have warned, we may be approaching a tipping point of destruction - a point after which the forest will lose its ability to restore itself.
