“You can’t stop important, high-quality journalistic work.” Alessandra Sampaio, widow of British journalist Dom Phillips, says it was the main driver that led her to unite forces with his friends to finish his book after he was killed in 2022. “As soon as the tragedy happened, it became very clear to me and also to [Dom’s] journalist friends, from whom I had a lot of support, that it was important to finish the book,” Sampaio tells Mongabay in a video interview.

On June 5, 2022, Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were brutally killed in the Javari Valley region, in the Brazilian Amazon. The British journalist was investigating illegal fishing in the region, aimed to be the second-last trip for his book, according to Sampaio.

Near the Brazil-Colombia-Peru triple border, the Javari Valley region is a hotspot for organized crime, including drug traffickers, illegal loggers and poachers. The region is home to the second-largest Indigenous territory in Brazil — 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), an area twice the size of Switzerland — and an estimated 17 isolated Indigenous groups live there, with little to no contact with the rest of the world.

Three years later, How to save the Amazon: A journalist’s fatal quest for answers, by Phillips with contributors, will be launched beginning May 31 in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil, accompanied by dedicated events in the three countries.

“Emotionally, it has several meanings for me. Firstly, because it’s like realizing Dom’s death, because he was still writing, he was still alive,” Sampaio says, in tears. “And he told me some of the stories that are in the book, so I go back in time. And then, I recognize there all of Dom’s passion for the Amazon and his curiosity.”

For her, the book really sums up the essence of — and the call for — collective and collaborative work to save the Amazon, highlighted in the introduction: “People need to learn from Indigenous peoples that only collective, community thinking, not individual greed, can save the Amazon. We need to pull together, not pull apart,” Phillips wrote.

Respecting her mourning time, Sampaio says, she gathered all book-related materials left by Phillips: computer, external drives and his “famous little notebooks” with his manuscripts. He was very organized, she adds, and there were some well-defined paragraphs; others, not so much, as the ideas were still in his head.

“Naturally, this group was put together, and it was very good because I felt very supported by their experience, by their careful contact, by their way of understanding that they were going to contribute to Dom’s book — but it was Dom’s book. It was very nice,” Sampaio says. It also accompanied a solidarity movement and a crowdfunding campaign to finalize the book, she adds.

Phillips had a “very rare listening ability” and openness to talk to both those who defended the forest and those who worked in illegal activities “trying not to prejudge,” which was “a huge inspiration,” Sampaio says. He was also very sociable and “able to connect with people in such a beautiful way,” she adds. For her, the way the book turned out as a collaboration “is the essence of Dom’s own affirmation and of Dom’s own belief.”

Philips left about a third of the book written, Sampaio says. “Although the other chapters followed Dom’s ideas, each one has their own style, their own experience, so I thought it was a very nice collection of other ways of writing, other experiences, other styles.”

However, she says it wasn’t an easy task to read the full book. “When his chapters ended, it took me a while to read the book, it was a shock too.”

Continuity of Dom’s work and Alessandra’s courage

In June 2022, Phillips and Pereira were shot dead in a remote area of northern Amazonas state, where they were investigating illegal fishing and poaching. Their bodies were found 10 days later.

For Pereira’s widow, Beatriz Matos, the narrative that Dom’s killing was somewhat “a side effect” or “because of” Pereira’s work is not accurate. For her, both killings had to do with “the interruption of a work of protection and defense of the Amazon and the Indigenous peoples.” She says Phillips’ work was “very important, as was Bruno’s,” as he was “a journalist who showed [all] this to the world, and this work was interrupted.”

The book launch, Matos says, represents the “the continuity of Dom’s work, it represents Alessandra’s courage, it represents Alessandra’s strength, it represents the strength of Dom’s work.” For her, “it’s very important that this work is not interrupted. It’s very important that the stories he was telling are told.”

Matos says the book is also intertwined with Bruno’s work and also with everyone who works to defend the Amazon and Indigenous peoples. “I know that this dimension of Bruno’s work will certainly be shown there too. So it’s super important,” she tells Mongabay in a video interview. “Alessandra always says to me that ever since Dom met Bruno, Dom was very impressed by Bruno’s work, and he always talked about Bruno.”

At the same time, Matos adds, Pereira also respected Phillips’ work and he was important for him. She recalls Pereira’s last words in a phone call right before the fatal boat trip: “I’ve finished my mission that I had to do, but I’m going to accompany Dom until he does some interviews but it’s only going to be three, four days.”

“What I do know is that he [Phillips] was an important guy to him [Pereira], a guy who was so important that he made a point of following his reporting,” Mattos says. Bruno studied journalism, she adds, but dropped out of university to work in the interior of Amazonas, before joining Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency. “He also had a very clear perception of the importance of looking for good reporters, of talking to the good press. We used to joke that he did a kind of press advisory for the isolated people.”

Matos, an anthropologist who for more than two decades has carried out fieldwork in the Javari Valley — where she and Bruno met — says she also “sees herself” in the book, which she is looking forward to reading. “I think there’s a lot of Bruno in there and I also think from the point of view of my work,” she says. “I think it’s going to be incredible; I can’t wait to read it,” she adds, noting that it also might be emotionally hard for her to read the book.

Moving forward with Phillips’ and Pereira’s legacy

Both Sampaio and Matos say they’re working to continue their husbands’ work — and legacy.

Since February 2023, Matos has headed the department of territorial protection and of uncontacted and recently contacted Indigenous peoples at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI). “The work, the challenge, also keeps us alive,” Matos says. Pereira worked for many years as an official at Funai, coordinating the department of uncontacted and recently contacted Indigenous peoples.

“We met and fell in love there [in the Javari Valley] — and because of that,” Matos says. “Bruno and I, we’ve had a partnership in life, in everything and in work, too, especially in this issue [the Javari Valley]. Our children are named after Indigenous people from there, we have a house there.”

She took this position at MPI, she says, very much in relation to and because of that. “I think it’s going to be an incredible opportunity for us to do everything we had planned before. And when I say we, it’s me and Bruno.” It also includes continuing the work by their fellows at Funai, other government bodies and OPI, a nonprofit that defends the rights of isolated Indigenous, she adds. “We took up these positions in the government thinking about collective work, about a project that we’ve been brewing for a long time. So it’s not [just for] me. If Bruno was alive, he would certainly be at Funai or at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.”

In June 2024, Sampaio launched the Dom Phillips Institute, an NGO dedicated to highlighting the voices of the Amazon and the knowledge of its Native people through education. “The path we chose was the path of education and this movement of trying to engage people in changing their thinking and consciousness,” Sampaio says. “The commitment of the Dom Phillips Institute is to continue his legacy, trying to expand that legacy — because he didn’t have time to do that — echoing the voices of the Amazon, and the ancestral knowledge of the peoples and of the defenders of the Amazon.”

According to Sampaio, the institute also underscores Phillips’ concept book idea to focus on solutions to protect the Amazon from the rainforest itself. She says Phillips always came back delighted from his reporting trips, saying that if people got to know the Amazon, all its beauty, its potential and all the wisdom of its peoples, they would naturally, effectively connect with the Amazon and engage with the cause of protection. “That’s the path we want to take with the institute, one more front to work on this lack of knowledge about the Amazon, because we only can take care of what we know.”

The name of the institute’s first project, “Amazon, you beautiful thing,” refers to Phillips’ last social media post. The project is taking place in the Javari Valley with young communicators from the Javari Valley Indigenous Peoples’ Union, UNIVAJA.

Sampaio says she is highly impressed and learning a lot from another worldview and vision of life. “I think I’m finally experiencing everything I saw in the Amazon through Dom’s eyes. I didn’t know the Amazon before Dom died. And he always came back very enchanted. So I’m able to experience this enchantment now,” she says. “Despite this tragedy, I have the privilege of having this contact, this trust with the peoples, not just the Amazonian peoples, but the traditional communities, and having this exchange that we have a lot to learn from them.”

‘Uncle Dom and uncle Bruno’

In November 2024, Brazilian authorities announced the conclusion of a two-year investigation, identifying Ruben Dario Villar as the mastermind behind the double homicide. Known as “Colômbia,” he is accused of illegal fishing and poaching in the region and funding and armed the criminal to execute Phillips’ and Pereira’s killings and conceal the victims’ corpses. Villar denied the accusations.

Since the start of the investigation, eight other people have been indicted. The case of three defendants — Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, known as “Pelado,” Jefferson da Silva Lima and Oseney da Costa de Oliveira — were part of a single lawsuit that set a trial before a jury. But in September 2024, a court decision accepted Oseney Oliveira’s appeal and dismissed him from the lawsuit; the Federal Public Ministry appealed.

According to Sampaio’s lawyer, Rafael Fagundes, it’s possible for Pelado and Lima to be tried before a jury by the end of the year “if there are no extraordinary events.” For Oseney Oliveira’s case, it can’t be predicted, Fagundes says in a voice message.

“I really believe in justice, I think this case will be tried exemplarily, because it has to be,” Sampaio says. “The time of justice unfortunately is not the time of the families, and it’s not just me. But I still believe in justice, that those responsible will have to answer [for the crimes] before the courts.” And justice, she adds, is also linked to the protection of threatened people in the Javari region.

Matos echoes Sampaio. She says the legal procedures are slower than expected, but it’s very important that the crimes don’t go unpunished not only from the point of view of justice itself but also because “such an absurdity cannot be repeated.” She also urges protection for the whole Javari region, including public policies for the territory with the highest number of isolated Indigenous groups in the world and ensuring safety for their residents, who are constantly under threat.

Sampaio says her dream is “to remain firm and strong” through the institute to move forward with Phillips’ legacy. “I really believe in this educational movement to change people’s consciousness,” she says. “That’s the dream, to be able to inspire people through the institute so that they are more connected, [have] more affection, and understand themselves as nature. We’re not separate from it, we’re part of this network of life.”

Amid all pain and sadness in the aftermath of the tragedy, she says, some positive things really touched her , especially receiving messages from children in Brazil and abroad mentioning “uncle Dom and uncle Bruno as protectors of the forest,” and how they became symbols of protectors. “This has had an impact on many children.”

Phillips and Pereira were killed on World Environment Day. Sampaio says there is a movement at schools talking about “uncle Dom and uncle Bruno” as “guardians” who died to defend this cause. “I think that’s really beautiful. And that marked a generation,” she says. “Education also comes from this path, which has had such an impact on children, so we can use Dom’s and Bruno’s names to also bring this understanding of the importance of nature that we’re preserving and taking care of.”

Matos says her dream is her children growing up “not too traumatized, but happy” and able to build good lives in a nice place, in a better environment with cultural diversity and with the Amazon standing.

She says she also dreams of her children to learn from the Indigenous peoples as much as she and Pereira did. For her, that’ll be the biggest legacy from their father, as their kids were just 2 and 3 years old when Pereira died. “All they’ll have of their father is what other people say, it’s the legacy of his work.”

While working for Indigenous lands and for Indigenous peoples, she says, she’s working for the future of her children. “The work of taking care of the rights of Indigenous peoples is taking care of our future,” she says. “I only want the good of my children. But I understand that the good of my children is linked to all of this, it’s linked to the good of humanity.”

The MPI will promote an event in Brasília on June 5, together with the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, honoring Phillips’ and Pereira’s memories, according to Matos.

Following Phillips’ dream, Sampaio says, the main goal of both the book launch and the institute is to give hope, shedding a light on people who have been working for years and developing incredible projects to protect the Amazon. She recalls Phillips’ words to her: “When I talk to some people, they are already very hopeless, as if they have nothing else to do. So they don’t want to get involved in the protection movement because they think there’s no way out. And there is a way. Everyone can do something. Everyone can commit to something.”

Banner image: British journalist Dom Phillips interviewing Mariana Tobias, from the Macuxi people, at the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory, in northern Roraima state, in the Brazilian Amazon. Image © Nicoló Lanfranchi.

Reporter’s note: Philips’ book was finished after a crowdfunding campaign and collaboration to write, review and translate it. The co-authors withdrew any rights to royalties and the sales revenue will go fully to Sampaio.

The book will be launched in English and Portuguese, accompanied by dedicated events following the schedule below:

U.K.: May 31-June 5
U.S: June 9-14
Brazil: June 18 in São Paulo, during the Pacaembu Book Fair. There is no information about the book launch in other cities yet.

Karla Mendes is a staff investigative and feature reporter for Mongabay in Brazil and a member of the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.She is the first Brazilian and Latin American ever elected to the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ); she was also nominated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chair. Read her stories published on Mongabay here. Find her on 𝕏, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and Bluesky.

The war on journalists and environmental defenders in the Amazon continues (commentary)

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