A high profile pledge by the world's largest meat company to limit deforestation for cattle production in the Amazon appears to be working, resulting in a dramatic increase in compliance…
A fishing boat off the coast of Java. Photo: Rhett A. Butler The Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) has organized dozens of non-bank financial institutions to support the country's maritime…
Researchers at the Center of Excellence for Post-harvest Biotechnology (CEPB) in Malaysia test a preservative coating made out of gum arabic that they hope will help reduce food waste in…
White rhino in Kruger National Park. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In the first four months of 2015, poachers killed 393 rhinos in South Africa, the epicenter of the rhino…
Inside Central American rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Thanks to the world’s voracious appetite for crops like coffee, palm oil, rice, rubber, soy and tea, large-scale agriculture is one…
We'd been hiking through deep snow all day with the mercury well below zero, not an uncommon occurrence during winter in eastern Poland. Still I was sweating, covered in several…
Logged & degraded Harapan Rainforest in Jambi Province, Sumatra. Photo credit: Rhett Butler / Mongabay.com "Harapan" means "hope" in the Indonesian language. Fittingly, the Harapan Rainforest on the island of…
Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae), named for their poisonous secretions used by indigenous tribes to coat blow gun darts, may possess another less deadly talent. According to a recent study, published…
A Sumatran elephant of the sort that lives in the Leuser Ecosystem. Photo: Rhett A. Butler A new report provides evidence that a supplier of palm oil giants Wilmar and…
Sloth on all fours seeking salt. Photo courtesy of camera trap video compilation from Tiputini Biodiversity Station. A compilation of new camera trap videos from Yasuni National Park shows off…
A mural in the town of Celendín opposing the proposed Conga mine. Many people believe dams like Chadín 2 and Rio Grande 1 and 2 are intended to supply electricity…
Peat forest canopy in Riau, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), an Indonesian forestry giant that was once one of the biggest targets for environmentalists…
Twenty-three yellow-crested cockatoos and a green parrot were found crammed into plastic water bottles aboard a ship in Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port last week. Photo: Petrus Riski Days after police…
The green iguana is one of more than 100 species of reptiles and amphibians found in La Sierra del Divisor. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The fate of La Sierra…
A Madagascar nightjar (Caprimulgus madagascariensis), which shares a genus with the endangered Itombwe nightjar (Caprimulgus prigoginei). Photo by Francesco Veronesi Many of the world's endangered animals live in only one…
Cashew nuts grow in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by: P.J. Stephenson. Forests could help alleviate global hunger, according to a new report released Wednesday…
Energy has become a contentious and politicized topic, spurring activism, whether it be the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Keystone pipeline protests, or concern over wind turbine harm to birds. But…
Reaching 1,450 meters (4,750 feet) above the surrounding sea, Cleopatra's Needle is one of Palawan's tallest mountain peaks. Photo by Jonah van Beijnen. Palawan, an island-province of the Philippines near…
A fishing boat off the coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Photo by: Rhett Butler. Consumers in the developed world want sustainably sourced seafood and increasingly retailers like Walmart…
Forest cleared for oil palm in West Kalimantan. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has prohibited Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), one of its most prominent…
One of the world's largest fabric makers for the fashion industry today announced a policy to exclude fiber produced at the expense of endangered forests, reports Canopy, an environmental group…
Due to its widening impact on tropical forests yet high profit margins, palm oil is one of the most polarizing crops in the tropics. Scientists and environmentalists warn of the…
Installing solar panels in the U.S. Photo by: Oregon Department of Transportation/Creative Commons 2.0 For the first time in human history, carbon dioxide concentrations averaged out at 400 parts per…
Elephant ivory seized from poachers in Garamba. Photo by: Jonathan Hutson for the Enough Project and Satellite Sentinel Project. On April 25th, poachers shot and killed wildlife ranger, Agoyo Mbikoyo,…
Fish being loaded into a truck for processing and export in Batu Putih, North Sulawesi. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. In late December, Indonesian officials seized a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-manned vessel…
Twenty-three yellow-crested cockatoos and a green parrot were found crammed into plastic water bottles aboard a ship in Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port yesterday. Photo: Petrus Riski Police at a major…
"I am arrested and ready to be deported now – Alex." So read the text sent at 5 pm on February 23 by Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the founder of the Cambodian conservation…
"This is for the future of our oceans," Indonesian Fishery Minister Susi Pudjiastuti exclaimed when she announced minimum size limits for lobster and crab catches in January this year. It…
On May 1, five illegal foreign fishing vessels from Thailand were apprehended by the Indonesian Navy. Photo: Aseanty Pahlevi A convoy of blue Thai fishing boats slowly entered the mouth…
"We will protect our forests until the bitter end," the above text reads. A pair of documentaries about small-island indigenous peoples in Indonesia were screened in Oslo on Tuesday as…