Background & format

Video is a powerful medium for engaging digital audiences around the world on critical climate and environmental issues. Mongabay’s Global team is accepting pitches on video content, from short-form (~60-90 seconds) to long (3-20 minutes). 

Our longer-form formats include character-led features, investigative and non-fiction narratives, explainers, hosted videos, profiles, and more. 

Our short form formats include news coverage, new scientific research, hosted videos, and more. We’re always looking for new formats and ideas, so please feel free to pitch widely. 

For a sense of the types of videos that Mongabay publishes, please refer to our YouTube channel. We will also be updating this page regularly with call-outs for specific formats and reporting topics, so watch this space, or subscribe to the Mongabay Video newsletter. 

Suggested story topics and guidelines

What we accept: 

• • We occasionally accept finished work, but we’re more liable to accept and commission productions in their early stages (i.e. in the pitch and research, or pre-production, stage). 
  • The ideal proposal would be a pitch with a production plan in mind. 
  • Pitches should be sent in English. However, the final video can be in a language besides English. We regularly publish videos in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer, and more.

Who can apply: Experienced video journalists, producers, DPs, editors, animators, etc.

Topics and formats of interest: 

Formats of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• • Features: Stories from Nature’s frontlines. Witness the voices and knowledge of communities directly impacted by environmental change—and how they’re fighting for a better future.
  • Explainers: We clarify some of the most urgent, intriguing, and important issues in climate, environment, and biodiversity. 
  • Short-form videos: 60-90 second explainers, hosted selfies from the field, research coverage, and more.  
  • Chasing Deforestation: Using satellite data and on-the-ground reporting, our journalists investigate illegal deforestation in the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Topics and regions of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• • Solutions Stories 
  • Global Fisheries 
  • Oceans 
  • IPLCs 
  • IPLCs and Conservation 
  • The Amazon 
  • Africa Forests 
  • Africa Food Systems 

Guidelines: 

• • Please expect Mongabay Video’s input for editorial consistency and visual style before publication of the completed video. 
  • The completed video has to adhere to Mongabay’s editorial and ethics guidelines.

How to submit your video pitch 

To send us a video pitch, please be prepared to also share your resume/portfolio along with three samples of your work. The pitch should be no more than 500 words and include a title for the project. Viable pitches will clearly explain the narrative (including potential characters) in detail, and your approach to covering it.