Duda Menegassi

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with new species still being discovered every year. Many Brazilians, however, do not recognize or value this biodiversity. One of my main missions as an environmental journalist is to give visibility to these stories, often finding a voice for animals and plants through those who work to know and protect them – scientists, environmentalists, indigenous people, traditional communities, and rangers or fire brigades. We only protect what we know, which is why this communication and dissemination work is so important. And often, with an affectionate, curious and even adventurous narrative, I manage to gain the attention of more and more people to these stories, making people care about them or even raising an alert about the threats that loom over some of the species and their ecosystems.  Through my work telling in depth these stories and connections, I hope to awaken this perspective in people and even other journalists, because there are many stories waiting to be told and seen.

In 2022, I accompanied a group of primatologists on a very unusual expedition. We were in the north of the state of Mato Grosso, in Brazil, in an area of the Amazon where deforestation is occurring at an accelerated rate. And we went to a rural property, where in a fragment of less than 5 hectares (less than five soccer fields) lived a couple of a species of monkey considered one of the most endangered in the world. The Mato Grosso Titi Monkey (Plectorocebus grovesi) was only described by science in 2019 and can be found solely in a small portion of the Amazon, delimited by large rivers and by the transition to the Cerrado fields (Brazilian savannah) to the south. And it has increasingly been cornered by deforestation, which is advancing northwards.

Scientists are in a race against time to learn about this monkey while finding ways to ensure its survival. In the forest fragment we visited, there was obviously an alarming issue, but there was also hope, because the researchers were trying to organize the planting of a forest corridor in partnership with the owner to, in the short term, improve conditions for the isolated couple there. They were also building up a primate watching and an environmental education initiative. At the time I wrote this story, with this mix of urgency and hope. And two years later, the initial planting of the corridor got off the ground and schools are being involved towards the conservation of the monkey. And the report I wrote was used as a reference throughout the process to raise awareness.