This is Data Fixers
A project specialized in gathering data and public records about environmental crimes in Brazil,
producing stories and helping journalists find theirs.
Stories and partnerships Datasets Publications/Partnerships Interviews/presentations Partners About
Contact us
Land Grabbing, Gold Mining, and Cocaine Trade in the Amazon
This investigation, written in Portuguese, uncovers a scheme in the Amazon region called "agropó" that combines land grabbing, illegal mining, and international cocaine trafficking. The investigation reveals that wealthy landowners, such as Janio Oliveira, have been involved in this lucrative criminal network.
Read the story (Portuguese only)Amazon Underworld
A 1-year cross-border series of articles that mapped the presence of organized crime groups in the Amazon region and reported on the field about the impacts of their actions. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the stories.
Visit the project pageDeforestation Inc.
An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)-led cross-border investigation exposes how a lightly regulated sustainability industry overlooks forest destruction and human rights violations when granting environmental certifications. Data Fixers coordinated the data analysis and obtained the documents needed for the Brazilian stories.
Visit the project page Read an article about this project on the Brown Institute's website Read the story in PortugueseHow public agencies hinder access to information about the beef cattle chain
In partnership with NGO Global Witness, Data Fixers has investigated how government agencies use several strategies to withhold data about the cattle chain in Brazil, making it harder to investigate companies.
Read an english version Read the story in PortugueseThe largest land grabber in the Amazon
The Brazilian magazine Piauí has published a profile on Altino Masson, a man who has ilegally seized 458,000 hectares of public lands, an area equivalent to three times the size of the city of São Paulo. This story is based on a data analysis conducted by Data Fixers and the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), which used data from the Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR), as well as Ibama's environmental fines data and other sources.
Read the article in PortugueseA world heritage site under attack in Brazil
This story was supported by Earth News Network/Internews. Brazilwood is being driven to extinction by an industry not often associated with organized crime: classical music. Known for its density and strength, the wood is crafted into bows that are used to play stringed instruments such as violins and cellos around the world. Forensic tests on a sample of the confiscated wood, obtained by reporters, show it was logged in the Pau Brazil National Park.
Read the article in Portuguese English versionThe Brazilian Bow Makers Under Investigation For Dealing in Endangered Wood
A 2-month cross-border investigation in the US, UK and Brazil about a group of bowmakers suspicious of trafficking an endangered brazilian wood to make violin and cello bows.
Read the English version Read the story in Portuguese (part 1) Read the story in Portuguese (part 2)How Brazil's environmental agency lost R$ 1 billion in environmental fines
An investigation about how environmental fines disappeared from Brazil's environmental agency office, Ibama, helping several environmental offenders save money and continue deforestation in the Amazon.
Read the story in English Read the story in PortugueseBrazil might lose R$ 300 million in environmental fines
A story Data Fixers found through a database of expired fines. Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts released a report mentioning the same documents and conclusions revealed in this story and recommended policy changes to the environmental agency a few months later.
Read the story in PortugueseA failure of enforcement
This story was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the Explanatory Journalism category. The Washington Post used our expired fines dataset and support to investigate how Brazil is struggling to enforce environmental crimes. Their reporter praised the project on his Twitter.
Read the storyEvery environmental fine in Brazil in 2022
A dataset containing every environmental fine issued by Brazil's environmental agency (Ibama) in 2022, detailed by type, city, state and others.
Open the spreadsheetSlave labor reports (1990-2022)
More than 700 complete slave labor reports obtained from a FOIA request.
Open the documents on Document CloudLand grabbing? Rural properties located in indigenous land protected areas (and some of their owners)
Data Fixers has obtained a dataset - Rural Land Register (Cadastro Ambiental Rural) - from the state of Mato Grosso and cross-referencted it with another database of rural areas located inside indigenous lands. The data comes from Ibama, Brazil's environmental agency.
Open the spreadsheet Check the code on Github/Google CollaboratoryIllegal mining: airplane seizures by the Federal Police (2009-2022)
Data Fixers has obtained a spreadsheet containing every airplane seizure in Brazil made by the Federal Police in more than a decade, most of it related to illegal mining.
Open the spreadsheetsIllegal mining: ICMBIO (Brazil's Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) fines(2021-2022)
We have obtained a spreadsheet and a PDF collection containing every fine issued by ICMBIO - Chico Mendes Institute. for Biodiversity Conservationrelated to illegal mining.
Open the documentsPolitical candidates and donors (2022) sanctioned for environmental crimes
We have scraped every environmental fine from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources website (IBAMA) and cross-referenced it with every political candidate and donor in the 2022 Brazilian election. It was used in an investigation by Al Jazeera and several other media outlets.
Open the spreadsheets Check the code on Github/Google CollaboratoryReconciliation hearings - Ibama (2021-2022)
A dataset obtained through a FOIA request containing the result of environmental offenders reconciliation hearings.
Read about the data (in Portuguese) Open the spreadsheetRural property ownership in Distrito Federal (DF) - Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR)
A dataset obtained through a FOIA request containing every rural land register in Distrito Federal and who owns those lands.
Read about the data (in Portuguese) Open the spreadsheetIndigenous people mental health data (2018-2022)
We have obtained data from the Ministry of Health in a Freedom of Information request (FOIA) with details about alcohol and drug abuse among indigenous people in Brazil.
Open the spreadsheetsRoraima: Indigenous people killed in illegal mining areas (2018-2022)
We have obtained data from the police with details about indigenous people deaths in mining areas.
Read the documentIllegal fishing and wildlife trafficking (seizures) in Brazil's conservation units
A database obtained through a freedom of information request containing every case of illegal fishing and wildlife trafficking in Brazilian conservation units (source:ICMBio).
Open the spreadsheetsPolitical candidates and donors (2022) sanctioned for slave labor
We have cross-referenced every political candidate and donor in the 2022 Brazilian election with slave-labor cases between 2010 and 2020 obtained through a FOIA request.
Open the spreadsheets Check the code on Github/Google CollaboratoryEmployee dismissal records at IBAMA
Through the Access to Informaction Act (also known as LAI in Brazil), we got access to records related to the dismissals of public officials at IBAMA. One of these documents revealed that an official agent anticipated operations against environmental crimes to a company.
Read the documentsExpired environmental fines
This is a dataset of environmental fines expired in Brazil, including companies' names, environmental crimes and more. It was featured in journalistic investigations by BBC and The Washington Post.
Open the dataset in OCCRP's Aleph system (account needed) Open it in a Google SpreadsheetTimber illegal trade (2008-2022)
We have scraped every timber illegal trade sanctioned by Ibama from 2008 to 2022 with specific details about each case, divided by city, state and company.
Read the code (Python/Google Colab) Open a Google SpreadsheetEnvironmental crime administrative trials
A dataset of environmental crimes found by IBAMA, the Brazilian environmental agency, and their trial date.
Check the code on Github/Google Collaboratory Check the spreadsheets (in Portuguese)Any use of documents downloaded from this site must attribute the "Data Fixers project" with a link to this website.
Data Fixers supports news outlets in Brazil and abroad. Check who's using it:
We contribute to improve public transparency awareness in Brazil by doing presentations and interviews
Filecoin Foundation for the Descentralized Web/#FilLisbon2022 (Nov.22) - presentation about Data Fixers in Lisbon/Portugal in a tech conference. Held in English.
Jornal da Cultura - interview (Dec.22) - Our founder Luiz Fernando Toledo was interviewed by Jornal da Cultura, a traditional TV show in Brazil, to explain how Brazil can improve transparency policies in 2023. Held in Portuguese.
Observatório de Justiça e Conservação - interview (Mar.17 2023) - Founder Luiz Fernando Toledo and the investigative journalist Allan de Abreu were interviewed by this Youtube channel to explain stories they have published about environmental crimes, including a cross-border project about greenwashing with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
UOL/Análise da Notícia - interview (Dec.22) - Founder Luiz Fernando Toledo was interviewed by Brazil's most popular news website to explain how we did the Brazilwood smuggling investigation. Held in Portuguese.
Fiquem Sabendo. One of Brazil's most relevant non-profit organizations specialized in public records. We publish data in their newsletter together and partner with media organizations to use our data. Read the content here.
InfoAmazonia. Data, interactive maps and journalism on the Amazon rainforest. We we hired to provide data and support for a project related to criminal gangs in the Amazon Rainforest. Read more here.
Muckrock/Document Cloud (via Filecoin Foundation). Data Fixers received funding to use DocumentCloud as a platform to share documents and investigate public records for stories. Read more here.
Revista Piauí (Piauí magazine). One of the the most relevant news magazines in Brazil. Our publishing partner for several projects, including a major cross-border investigation about timber smuggling
Global Witness. A non-profit organization that investigates and exposes environmental and human rights abuses. We were hired as public records consultants in Brazil for a specific project.
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). This cross-border investigative journalism platform based in Europe is a publishing partner and also helps us spread important datasets through their Aleph system, a platform dedicated to investigative journalists around the world.
About
Data Fixers is a data-driven journalism project sponsored by The Brown Institute for Media Innovation – a joint initiative between Columbia University and Stanford University. This project received a Magic Grant to find data and public records to investigate environmental crimes in Brazil and is coordinated by journalist Luiz Fernando Toledo (MS in Data Journalism 2022). Read more about the project in this article by Muckrock and here at the Brown Institute's website.