When Mongabay Latam launched in 2016, the aim was to establish a sustained environmental news service for Spanish-speaking Latin America. Over the decade that followed, its staff and contributors built a daily news service covering forests, oceans, wildlife, science, Indigenous rights, environmental crime and the people responding to ecological change. They also formed more than 90 partnerships with national newspapers, regional publications and independent media, allowing stories to reach audiences beyond Mongabay’s own platforms. In 2025, Mongabay Latam established the Puma Network, or Journalists United for the Environment in English, to support collaboration among reporters across the region.
To mark its tenth anniversary, Mongabay Latam hosted PUMA FEST with Fundación Gabo ahead of the 14th Gabo Festival in Bogotá. Holding PUMA FEST immediately before Latin America’s largest journalism-focused gathering enabled participants to attend both events and maximize opportunities for learning, exchange and networking. Around 700 people registered for PUMA FEST and around 400 attended in person, including journalists, editors, Indigenous communicators, students, scientists and other specialists from at least 13 countries. It also included 43 speakers who discussed the increase in environmental crime, investigative priorities in the region, the use of artificial intelligence and satellite technology in journalism, and safety protocols for journalists.
The response to the inaugural PUMA FEST was strong. Sessions were full, discussions continued outside the meeting rooms, and participants arrived with a clear appetite for deeper reporting, new methods and greater collaboration across borders. The turnout confirmed strong demand for a regional space dedicated specifically to environmental journalism, its challenges and investigative priorities.
Impact
One of the clearest outcomes was the opportunity for journalists to build professional connections. A dedicated networking session brought 132 journalists into direct conversation with representatives of 11 media and environmental organizations offering opportunities for work, funding, training and collaboration.
PUMA FEST also created space for Indigenous journalists and communicators to help shape discussions about environmental communication. Twenty-three Indigenous journalists attended, including eight from Bolivia, nine from Ecuador and six from Peru. Mongabay developed an agenda aligned with their interests and featured Indigenous people as presenters. The participants were also part of a longer-term effort through which Mongabay Latam has been training Indigenous journalists and communicators from these three countries.
The program included the workshop “From the Community to the Algorithm,” in which three Indigenous journalists and influencers shared their experiences communicating complex issues through social media. Attendees said their participation and the panels on Indigenous issues significantly enriched the agenda.
These initiatives are part of Mongabay Latam’s broader contribution to the region’s information ecosystem. The newsroom produces journalism while also helping reporters develop skills in investigations, satellite analysis, data reporting, multimedia production and cross-border collaboration. Its editorial direction, reporting relationships and institutional knowledge have been built in Latin America by journalists from the region.
PUMA FEST showed how widely that work is valued. The strong response also demonstrated sufficient interest for Mongabay to consider holding another PUMA FEST in the future, underscoring the value of sustained investment in environmental journalism and in the relationships, skills and collaboration that help it grow across the region.
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Banner image: Ten years after Mongabay Latam began publishing, the community that developed around its environmental journalism came together in Bogotá, Colombia, for PUMA FEST.