Mongabay reporter wins top anti-corruption journalism award

23 Dec 2025

Freelance journalist Glòria Pallarès has won the U.N.-linked Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award for her investigation into corrupt forest finance schemes published by Mongabay with support from the Pulitzer Center. The award ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 16, 2025.

The investigation exposed a scheme in which companies registered in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were using false claims of U.N. backing to win contracts with Indigenous communities, some lasting several decades. The contracts granted the companies economic rights to a total of more than 9.5 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of Indigenous forested land for periods of up to 99 years.

Freelance reporter Gloria Pallares won the 2025 Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award for her investigation into corrupt forest finance. The award ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 16. She is pictured at third from right alongside other winners and dignitaries. Image courtesy of the ACE Award.
Freelance reporter Gloria Pallares won the 2025 Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award for her investigation into corrupt forest finance. The award ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 16. She is pictured here (third from right) alongside other winners and dignitaries. Image courtesy of the ACE Award.

Impact

Following the publishing of Pallarès’ investigation, several Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama that were misled into handing over their rights to millions of hectares of forest were able to challenge or terminate their contracts. Agencies named as being supportive of the scheme including the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) sent cease and desist letters to the companies involved, which also led to actions like the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) suspending the Argentinian company.

Most notably, the Matsés people in Peru scrapped a contract that had granted a sketchy shell company, Get Life, economic rights over 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of their land, including areas that border the territories of isolated peoples.

Pallarès collected the ACE award – which goes through a three-tier independent selection process carried out in partnership with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime – at a ceremony on the sidelines of the international meeting of the U.N. Convention against Corruption (COSP-11) in Doha. She was one of three journalists to win in the Innovation & Investigative Journalism category.

In accepting the accolade, she addressed an audience of 600 ceremony attendees that included the heads of two UN agencies, international delegates to COSP-11, NGO leaders and other dignitaries.

“Environmental corruption is a vicious poison,” Pallarès said at the event. “It divides the communities that act as environmental stewards. It saps countries from much-needed resources. It breeds distrust and resentment towards authorities and governance systems.  It undermines trust in what could be real solutions for people and the planet.”

“But the reality is, individuals and entities engaged in corrupt practices do not fear the law; they fear exposure,” Pallarès added. “This is what drives my work and my contributions to Mongabay.”

Earlier in 2025, her report also received an honorable mention from the 2025 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Read her full investigation published by Mongabay, “False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous groups cede forest rights for sketchy finance,” here.

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Banner image: Freelance reporter Gloria Pallares won the 2025 Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award for her investigation into corrupt forest finance. The award ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 16. She is pictured at right with her editor, Mongabay’s Alexandra Popescu, at left.  Image courtesy of the ACE Award.