Hello, it’s Amazon Underworld (again) — for those who don’t know us yet, we are an alliance of investigative journalists bringing together six media outlets across the same number of Amazon countries. Our aim is to cover organized crime, illicit economies and their consequences for the environment and Amazon populations on a cross-border level, using data journalism to quantify their presence and impact, and narrative storytelling to explain all the complexities, foster engaging journalism and create deeper understanding for very multi-layered issues.

We feel the need to re-introduce ourselves as much time has passed since our initial launch in 2023. Though we never expected to become the platform that we are today, the enthusiasm of our collaborators and the impact of our first publications brought us to a position where we could secure backing for a more structural approach, with frequent publications, more emphasis on audiovisual elements, and a strong focus on advocacy. 

In our formula, we know that journalistic publications are just part of our story. The global interest in better understanding the impacts of crime on Amazon communities, and how illicit economies are obstacles to conservation and climate mitigation, are issues that should and do interest those outside of the Amazon region — which in the end, as a climate regulator and the most biodiverse place on earth, serves as an ecological backbone of planetary survival.

Unfortunately, we see how crime has begun to take over, govern, dictate access, and has become a main impediment to the Amazon’s survival. Through journalism and investigative reports we can generate the attention needed for the Amazon, demand action, and look for new angles to prevent the short attention cycle from being completely taken over by quickly escalating global geopolitical tensions.

In the end, we cover biodiversity and Amazon populations, but always through the lens of crime—be it white collar, environmental crimes, or, for example, the prison system and drug policy. We aim to do this critically to also understand how public policies create or diminish harmful behavior, understanding why local populations often have no other escape route than to partake in what intuitively seems wrong.

In our holistic approach, we combine methodologies, but also feel the need to interact with those who are perceived to belong to criminal networks or are active in illicit economies, oftentimes including people who are Amazonian. Understanding what moves them and how their economies work from the inside enables us to better grasp the root causes, prevent stigmatization and the criminalization of populations, to come up with more empathetic reporting and also generate tangible policy solutions — especially when we work on bigger investigative reports and advocacy campaigns, which is our other pillar of work.

We are proud of our team of journalists, researchers, advocates, editors, visual storytellers and those who are streamlining complicated processes across borders and cultures.

Today, after months of work, we present you our new website, and soon our new interactive crime presence map, but expect innovative stories and in-depth research, brought to you in the most attractive formats.