Who We Are

Varadouro – journalism for the Amazon

We are a non-profit journalism organization based in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest that produces content to defend our forest and our traditional peoples – including Indigenous groups, rubber tappers and ribeirinhos (people who live beside rivers). We are based in the city of Rio Branco, state of Acre, located on the border with Peru and Bolívia.

In the ’70s and ’80s, Varadouro: A Newspaper from the Jungle played a key role in exposing injustice against forest peoples, but it ceased publication in 1981. In 2023, we revived Varadouro, this time as an online news source, to continue with that mission at a time when environmental reporting is more important than ever in our territory.

Our vision is to produce journalism from Amazônia, for the Amazônia and together with our communities. We want to dialogue with local populations about the climate crisis, deforestation, infrastructure projects and how all of these questions impact our lives in Amazônia.

And the most important point: We want to give visibility and a voice to the needs of forest peoples. We work to put our local communities at the center of debates about Amazon conservation and to show that they are the most important voice in discussions about how to avoid our climate’s collapse.

Producing critical, independent, pluralistic journalism that respects diversity is a major challenge within the social and political context of the Amazônia. This objective has only become harder over the years as politicians in the region have exerted more and more influence over local media.

We do not receive financial support from corporations or politicians and understand that our independence from these groups is essential to the credibility of our mission.

We want to create impact. We can create change.

Our History

In the ’70s and ’80s, thousands of Indigenous people and rubber tappers were expelled from their homes, and the forest they relied on and defended was transformed into farm land and cattle ranches. Varadouro was the only local source of information about these conflicts. The paper documented the fight of famous rubber tapper leader Chico Mendes–who himself was a reader of Varadouro–and the struggles of all rubber tappers to defend the forest.

When Mendes was murdered by a cattle rancher in 1989, it did not originally make the news in Acre or anywhere in Brazil. The first outlet to mention it was The New York Times, in a piece called “Brazil Burns the Future.”

And now, in this new age of communication, we want to write a new history in Brazilian Amazônia. We are journalists from Amazônia who see what is happening firsthand and we understand the necessity of producing journalism that fights for the preservation of our forest and the protection of our traditional communities.

With this mission guiding us, we want to bring back the spirit of Varadouro, now in an online edition. From the forests and frontiers of Amazônia, we want to tell the story of our region, and also start new dialogues about Amazônia and climate change.

We believe that our work with journalism can change and build a new reality for Amazônia and the world.

If you believe in our work, you can help us.

You can reach us at contato@ovaradouro.com.br