Forestry authorities in China have stopped commercial logging in the nation's largest forest area, marking an end to more than a half-century of intensive deforestation that removed an estimated 600…
Orangutan in Central Kalimantan. This Earth Day, we've decided to highlight the spectacular natural wonders of Indonesia, which is arguably the most biodiverse country on Earth. Indonesia is rich with…
Aerial view of jungle river on the island of New Guinea. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Corruption, weak governance, and powerful timber barons are illegally stripping the forests of Papua…
Close-up on GloF-DAS map data for Southeast Asia. Forest disturbance in Malaysia, Bolivia, Panama, and Ecuador surged during the first quarter of 2014, according to NASA data. NASA's Quarterly Indicator…
The successful end of a monkey hunt by an indigenous tribe in Suriname results in a howler monkey for dinner. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The barbecued leg of a…
Amazon rainforest. While Brazil led the world in establishing new protected areas in recent years, it has also stripped legal protected status from some 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres)…
Natural forest that has been cleared by PT Triomas FDI on the Kampar Peninsula. All that remains are young ramin trees. The rest of the timber was transported to APRIL’s…
Harrison Ford with baby orangutans at a rehabilitation center for orphaned apes in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan. Photo courtesy of the Years Project. For years climate change activists and environmentalists have…
From 1999-2010, nearly three percent of the Amazon rainforest burned, and climate forecasts indicate dry conditions conducive to fire will only become more commonplace in the future. Scientists had long…
Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Dr. Mark Mulligan Swamp forest in Western Colombia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mark Mulligan makes maps for the masses. In his work…
A plan to clear half of Aru’s forest cover for sugar cane has been suspended, but the island paradise is still not safe from large-scale deforestation, according to a report…
Logging barge traveling down the Amazon River in northern Peru. According to new study, many of these giant logs may have come from unauthorized areas, including protected areas and indigenous…
The okapi, which is listed as Endangered by the IUCN, is only found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The head of an informal…
Head of new species: the colorful ichthyophis. Photo by: Harry Taylor (The Natural History Museum, London) from Wilkinson et al. Scientists have discovered a new species of limbless amphibians, known…
Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysia The Malaysian state should play a more active role in supporting the transition toward less environmentally destructive palm oil production, says a coalition…
A long snout with teeth jutting from the sides? Check. Catfish-like barbels dangling from its chin? Got them. Gills on the side of its body? It has those, too. These…
Rufescent tiger heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) in Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. In what is a major victory for environmentalists, campaigners with United for Yasuni…
Since the arrival of Homo sapiens, other species have been going extinct at an unprecedented rate. Most scientists now agree that extinction rates are between 100 and 1000 times greater…
At least 908 people were murdered for taking a stand to defend the environment between 2002 and 2013, according to a new report today from Global Witness, which shows a…
Tanjung Hantu Forest Reserve. Photo by: Nadine Ruppert. Plans for an industrial site threaten one of Malaysia's only marine turtle nesting beaches and a forest home to rare trees and…
Deforestation is destroying forests around the world, but its effects are especially obvious in the Amazon Basin. Due to cattle ranching, soybean farming, logging, and slash-and-burn agriculture, the rainforest is…
The world is warming rapidly due to greenhouse gas emissions, threatening everything from our food supply to our ecosystems, but the solution may be surprisingly cheap, according to the third…
Conservation for Sumatran rhinos suffered another blow last week, only days after Suci—one of only ten rhinos in captive breeding efforts—died at Cincinnati Zoo. Scientists in the Malaysian state of…
Public perception of wildlife tends to be tied to natural habitats such as forests, ocean and other wild settings. However, cities can provide habitat for many animals and plants. In…
Madagascar is one of the world’s hotspots for amphibian diversity, home to so many frog species that many of them don’t even have names. But soon the island may also…
1/3 Indonesia's land mass allocated for industrial development Forest clearing within areas zoned for timber, logging, oil palm, and mining accounted for nearly 45 percent of deforestation in Indonesia between…
Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Dr. Nigel Sizer Forest clearing in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Nigel Sizer has worked on the forefront of global forest…
David Reyes plunges his hand into a black smelly liquid at the bottom of a cut-off plastic jug tied around a palm tree and pulls out a dead horned beetle.…
The kakapo, a flightless parrot from New Zealand, is number four on the EDGE Birds List. Photo by: Shane Mcinnes. The comic dodo, the stately great auk, the passenger pigeon…
Oil palm fruit. All photos by Rhett Butler. After years of criticism from environmental groups, Cargill says it will establish policies to eliminate deforestation, peatlands conversion, and social conflict from…