BRASILIA, Brazil: After British journalist Dom Phillips was shot and killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world’s largest rainforest, friends vowed to finish the project. Three years later, their task is complete.
“How to Save the Amazon,” published Tuesday in Brazil and the United Kingdom ahead of its US release, was pieced together by fellow journalists who immersed themselves in Phillips’ notes, outlines and the handful of chapters he’d already written. The resulting book, scheduled to be published in the US on June 10, pairs Phillips’ own writing with others’ contributions in a powerful examination of the cause for which he gave his life.
In addition to the core group who led the work on finishing the book, other colleagues and friends helped to edit chapters, including The Associated Press journalists Fabiano Maisonnave and David Biller.
Phillips, who had been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was taking one of the final reporting trips planned for his book when he was gunned down by fishermen on June 5, 2022, in western Amazon’s Javari Valley. Also killed was Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on Indigenous tribes who had made enemies in the region for defending the local communities from intruding fishermen, poachers and illegal gold miners. Their deaths made headlines around the world. Nine people have been indicted in the killings.
“It was just a horrifying, really sad moment. Everybody was trying to think: How can you deal with something like this? And the book was there,” said Jonathan Watts, an Amazon-based environmental writer for The Guardian who coauthored the foreword and one of the chapters.
With the blessing of Phillips’ widow, Alessandra Sampaio, a group of five friends agreed to carry the project forward. The group led by Watts also included Andrew Fishman, the Rio-based president of The Intercept Brasil; Phillips’ agent, Rebecca Carter; David Davies, a colleague from his days in London as a music journalist; and Tom Hennigan, Latin America correspondent for The Irish Times.
“It was a way to not just feel awful about what had happened, but to get on with something. Especially because so many of Dom’s friends are journalists,” Watts said. “And what you fall back on is what you know best, which is journalism.”