Dialogue Earth’s best photo stories of 2024

This year, photographers ventured into the field across the Global South for Dialogue Earth, reporting on many of the world’s most pressing environment challenges. 

In Southeast Asia, they captured stories of communities fighting against the destruction of land and sea by extractive industries. In Africa, they met farmers working together to re-learn traditional techniques and exchange native seeds, aware they need to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. And in Latin America, they visited the arid Atacama region to reveal the shocking state of one of Chile’s industrial “sacrifice zones”, and journeyed deep into the Brazilian Amazon to highlight the actions and initiatives bringing hope for a region facing multiple threats. 

Their images not only capture the landscapes and people that bring our articles to life, they help us to tell stories in ways that are often much more powerful than words alone.

As our first year as Dialogue Earth draws to a close, our editors have picked their favourite shots and photo stories from the past 12 months.

In Indonesia, tin mining threatens an age-old fishing tradition

Photographer: Nopri Ismi

A squid just before it was hauled into Ismu Bai’s boat off Indonesia’s Bangka Island. Fishing at night from a small wooden boat, Ismu uses bright lights to lure the animals to the surface. Squid are a vital source of protein for his community, but the impacts of growth in marine tin mining is putting pressure on stocks (Image: Nopri Ismi / Dialogue Earth)

Solar power is turning the tide on energy inequality in the Amazon

Photographer: Flávia Milhorance

An aerial view of solar panels in Piyulaga, a village in the Xingu Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. Lacking connection to national grids, many communities in the Amazon are now turning to small-scale solar energy systems, which are supporting connectivity, health and environmental protection (Image: Flávia Milhorance / Dialogue Earth)

In Chile, a ‘sacrifice zone’ waits on a better future

Photographer: Nicole Kramm

Pilar Triviño (left) and her parents live in Huasco, a port city in Chile’s Atacama region that is considered a “sacrifice zone” due to heavy pollution from two massive coal-fired plants. One study found the city’s residents have a 71% higher chance of dying of cardiovascular diseases than the national average (Image: Nicole Kramm / Dialogue Earth) 

A tipping point for mangrove restoration and shrimp farming in Indonesia

Photographer: Muhibar Sobary Ardan

Dead mangroves in an aquaculture pond in Indonesia’s Mahakam Delta. More than half of the delta’s mangroves have been removed to make way for ponds since 1989. Now there are efforts to restore the mangroves, with experts promoting more nature-friendly methods of farming shrimp and other aquatic animals (Image: Muhibar Sobary Ardan / Dialogue Earth)

In Kenya, seed banks help with food security

Photographer: Suleiman Mbatiah

A volunteer measures seeds for a fellow farmer at an event in Gilgil, Kenya, 100 km north of capital city Nairobi. With support from the Seed Savers Network, smallholders in the East African country are fighting back against the rising power of agricultural multinationals, and a 2012 law that allows only certified companies to multiply and sell seeds (Image: Suleiman Mbatiah / Dialogue Earth)

In Ecuador, ‘toxitours’ show the scars left by oil in the Amazon

Photographer: Patricio Terán

Donald Moncayo shows a blackened hand to attendees on his “toxitour”. His glove is covered in oil after he dipped it into one of the many pools of oil that have accumulated near Lago Agrio, in Ecuador’s Amazonian province of Sucumbíos. The tour highlights pollution left behind by oil company Texaco, which operated in the area from 1964 to 1990 (Image: Patricio Terán / Dialogue Earth)

Ethiopia’s tree-planting scheme needs better coordination

Photographer: Tiksa Negeri

A dust storm darkens the sky near Gode in the arid south-east of Ethiopia. Climate change is exacerbating drought in the Horn of Africa, adding to the pressure on already widely degraded lands. In Ethiopia, the government is attempting to address this with its Green Legacy tree-planting initiative (Image: Tiksa Negeri / Dialogue Earth)

‘The cure is in the forest’: A shaman’s journey in the Brazilian Amazon

Photographer: Victor Moriyama

Shaman-in-training Xinã Yura stands at the base of a kapok tree, sacred to the Yawanawá and Noke Kuin peoples of Acre state, in the Brazilian Amazon. The 33-year-old is preparing to become a spiritual leader and healer, a guardian of ancient traditions who is also responsible for the preservation of the forest (Image: Victor Moriyama / Dialogue Earth)

The long road to recognition of Indigenous lands in Seko, Indonesia

Photographer: Junaidi Hanafiah

A farmer from an Indigenous community in Seko district on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi digs his paddy fields. When we reported from the area back in April, nine Seko communities were finally expecting state recognition of their customary territories after 20 years of work (Image: Junaidi Hanafiah / Dialogue Earth)

Hopes and doubts as an Amazon city prepares to host COP30

Photographer: Christian Braga

Maria Cristina dos Anjos do Carmo displays Amazonian medicinal herbs, which she has sold for 42 years at the Ver-o-Peso market, in Belém, Brazil, the city preparing to host the COP30 climate summit in 2025. Local residents shared concerns over the delivery of initiatives that can satisfy the needs of both COP30 visitors and the local population (Image: Christian Braga / Dialogue Earth)

The struggle against plastic choking the Mekong

Photographer: Anton L. Delgado

Mahouts at a camp near a Mekong tributary in northern Thailand have to regularly clear plastic waste from the riverbank, to prevent their rescued elephants from mistaking it for food. The Mekong, Asia’s “mother of rivers”, is facing a crisis caused by overreliance on single-use plastics and lack of proper waste management (Image: Anton L. Delgado / Dialogue Earth)

Honorary mention:

The problem with potash: Thailand’s salt-encrusted fields

Photographer: Luke Duggleby

In north-east Thailand, a few kilometres away from the Thai Kali potash mine, villagers hang a protest banner that reads: “The people of Sa Khi Tun don’t want mining”. Although this photo story was published slightly more than 12 months ago, at the very end of 2023, we feel it deserves a mention this year (Image: Luke Duggleby / Dialogue Earth)