Dom & Bruno

The first time most of us became aware that our Brazilian-based colleague Dom Phillips had gone missing was when an email went round asking if anyone had heard from him in the past couple of days. Nail-biting weeks followed, until finally, his death, deep in the Amazon rainforest that he loved so much, was confirmed, along with that of his comrade Bruno Pereira. Dom had dedicated himself to writing about the rainforest. Amid the intense sadness, our overriding feeling was a longing to honour Dom and Bruno, and their amazing work, as well as to shine a light into the heart of the forest. A team of colleagues from the environment desk and the international desk collaborated with Forbidden Stories and a number of other organisations on what would become the Bruno and Dom project. A year later, we published multiple investigations into the vast corporations that are industrialising the Amazon, the new roads breaking into its heart, and the link between livestock farming and deforestation, alongside some inspiring possible solutions amid new hope under the incoming president Lula. This lovingly designed front page summed all of that up.