Central American team awarded HSF grant to report on climate resilience and economic survival

A team of Central American journalists has been awarded our 2026 Historias Sin Fronteras reporting grant for a cross-border project that will explore how vulnerable coastal communities are transforming a threatened ecosystem into a source of resilience with a tangible strategy for climate adaptation, ecological conservation, and economic survival.

Against the backdrop of recent extreme weather events associated with La Niña, mangroves constitute critical natural infrastructure but they are under severe environmental threat. This project will illustrate how beekeeping in mangrove ecosystems can generate stable income and provide a solution that demonstrates that climate resilience is not only necessary, but it can also be both viable and profitable.

The journalists will travel to communities along the Central American coast to interview community residents and capture compelling images and gather information for interactive infographics for this multimedia project. Historias Sin Fronteras will publish the project in the summer of 2026.

Historias Sin Fronteras received 21 outstanding proposals from cross-border teams of journalists throughout Latin America in response to our call for proposals for projects on science and ancestral knowledge in the conservation of biodiversity.

In selecting the proposal by the Central American team, the judges said, ““We received several proposals related to bees and honey production, but this one truly stands out for its focus on the connection between beekeeping and mangrove conservation. We thought the idea of ​​creating an interactive map that displays mangrove loss alongside areas where apiaries are fostering their regeneration was brilliant.”

Our 2026 grant is funded with the generous support of individual donors who are committed to helping Latin American journalists conduct in-depth reporting on climate and environment in the Western Hemisphere.

InquireFirst awarded the grant to: 

Jorge Rodríguez, a Guatemalan environmental journalist who is the founder of the online magazine Revista Viatori. His work has been published by National Geographic, El País, Mongabay Latam, Living Bird and Audubon Magazine. He was selected by the Pulitzer Center to produce stories about the ocean and has been a recipient of the Logan Science Fellowship.

Michelle Soto, a Costa Rican environmental journalist with more than 20 years of experience. She is the editor of Ojo al Clima, coordinator of the Periodistas por el Planeta project and a correspondent for Mongabay Latam.

Iván Carrillo, the co-founder of Historias Sin Fronteras, will serve as project editor. He is a journalist, documentary maker and producer specializing in science, the environment and the oceans, with over twenty years of experience across the Ibero-American media landscape. He has published and produced work for media outlets such as National Geographic, KnowableMagazine, CNN en Español, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Expansión, NCC Iberoamericano and El Universal. 

His work has received international recognition, including the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awardfor Excellence in Science Communication 2025,awarded by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—one of the most prestigious honors in the field of science communication.