Leandro Amaya Camacho is a Peruvian journalist, descendant of the pre-Columbian Sechura culture. He specializes in the Amazon, Indigenous rights, the environment, oceans and tracing illegal economies. His work is known for a systemic and human-centred approach that seeks to understand territories from within in order to tell powerful and transformative stories.
His reporting has had a direct impact on the communities portrayed: several Indigenous leaders featured in his stories gained national visibility and were granted protection by the Peruvian state.
His accolades include the 2020 Young Journalist Award (Thomson Foundation and the Foreign Press Association, London) for two high-impact investigations: one uncovering irregular government negotiations for offshore oil drilling in northern Peru, and another exposing the contamination of children with heavy metals in Cerro de Pasco. In 2024, he received the Inter American Press Association’s (SIP) Excellence in Journalism Award (Environment category) for his coverage of Indigenous rights and environmental defenders in the Peruvian Amazon, and was a finalist for the IPYS National Grand Prize for Journalism for his reporting on the murders of environmental defenders in Peru — among other national distinctions.
Beyond his investigative work, he has mentored young journalists in workshops on investigative and environmental journalism, and has promoted community journalism networks in the Amazon and northern coast. He has spoken at conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Medellín, Lima, and other cities, sharing insights on traceability, criminal structures, and the role of independent journalism in defending democracy and protecting territories.