Select Writings

My reporting puts people, communities and their experiences first.

I seek out stories about environment or human rights issues, and where they intertwine, and try to put the people and communities most affected by these issues at the heart of the story.

In 2021, I received a grant from the local TOA-GK (Todos los Ojos en la Amazonia) for In-depth Journalism in the Amazon, and in 2018 was a recipient of the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund for environmental reporting.

Some select publications:

  • Escaping coronavirus in Ecuador’s Amazon (Al Jazeera’s The Take, Podcast)

    QUITO, ECUADOR – In May, Al Jazeera interviewed me for their podcast The Take about how indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon were forced to deal with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, lock down, environmental disasters, and oil spills in their communities all at once.  This is the podcast that resulted from that talk. (Photo Credit: Jeronimo…

  • ‘I’ll never be ready for this port,’ locals say of Colombia’s proposed project (Mongabay)

    ‘I’ll never be ready for this port,’ locals say of Colombia’s proposed project (Mongabay)

    TRIBUGÁ, COLOMBIA — Aida Leides Palacios Moreno strolls through the narrow dirt streets in the Colombian town of Tribugá surrounded by palm and plantain trees rustling in the seaside breeze. She’s trying to round up her neighbors for a meeting to discuss yet another ecotourism project. It’s a quiet morning in February. Most of the…

  • Coronavirus pandemic exposes inequality in Ecuador’s Guayaquil (Al Jazeera)

    Coronavirus pandemic exposes inequality in Ecuador’s Guayaquil (Al Jazeera)

    QUITO, ECUADOR – When Victoria Sanchez and her mother, Eufemia Nicolaza Sanches Pin, showed up at their local public hospital in Ecuador’s Guayaquil for Sanches Pin’s weekly dialysis treatment last month, hospital staff refused to let the mother, a diabetic, in because she had a runny nose. Hospital staff worried it could be COVID-19 and…

  • The hidden toll of lockdown on rainforests (BBC Future Planet)

    The hidden toll of lockdown on rainforests (BBC Future Planet)

    QUITO, ECUADOR –  You might be forgiven for thinking that the global lockdown measures keeping us all at home can only have been good for the environment. Pollution in cities has decreased, wild animals have increasingly been spotted entering urban areas, and many new cycle lanes have opened up worldwide. But in the world’s tropical…

  • Visions of a Crisis: Difficult days in Ecuador (Literary Review of Canada)

    QUITO, ECUADOR – The first time I cried was Saturday, March 21. It was a beautiful morning, and I was sitting at my window, staring at the sun-kissed Andes Mountains around Quito. But I couldn’t hear cars honking on my normally bustling street. There were no car alarms, either. The furniture store next door wasn’t blasting reggaeton…