When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until the story was reported. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. The example illustrates a quiet but potent truth: journalism is not a substitute for policy or enforcement, yet it supplies the conditions those actions require—credible information, in time, in public. It can convert private harm into shared knowledge, and shared knowledge into collective pressure. For philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, supporting journalism may seem peripheral compared with protecting land, funding clean technology, or refor

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