Mongabay‘s Natural Defenses Special Reporting Project will document nature-based solutions relevant to protecting people and places in seven languages, across six continents.

When communities face floods, droughts, or intensifying storms, nature-based solutions like restored wetlands, urban greenery, mangrove protection, and sustainable land management are increasingly part of how they respond and adapt. But rigorous, community-centered journalism on what works, what doesn’t, and what can be replicated elsewhere remains scarce. Following its pattern of impactful natural climate solutions reporting, Mongabay aims to fill that gap.

In this series, the international environmental news outlet will publish at least 50 articles and 10 videos examining nature-based climate solutions across a range of geographies, scales, and contexts. Reporting will be produced in English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Indonesian, French, and Swahili, drawing on Mongabay’s global network of locally-based contributing journalists who work directly with communities on the ground. The approach goes beyond feel-good stories or crisis narratives: using a solutions journalism methodology, each piece will aim to give policymakers and practitioners the evidence they need to act.

Mongabay has a track record of journalism that moves beyond awareness to tangible impact. The Natural Defenses project builds on that foundation, with the explicit goal of informing better-equipped decisions by policymakers, researchers, and civil society organizations working on climate resilience. Frontline communities and community-led initiatives are central to the project’s frame — not as subjects to be described, but as primary sources and active innovators. This reflects both an editorial commitment and a practical recognition that the most effective and equitable climate resilience strategies tend to emerge from the communities most exposed to risk.

At a moment when news avoidance around climate topics and mis- and disinformation is epidemic, trustworthy, solutions-focused journalism that centers community knowledge and nature-based approaches offers a meaningful alternative — one that informs without inducing despair and builds the public understanding that durable climate action requires.