Mongabay is an independent media organization reporting on Nature and planetary challenges with a global network of local journalists.
Mongabay believes credible and accurate journalism is essential to successfully address the planetary emergency because sharing knowledge through stories can inform, inspire and sustain effective action worldwide.
Mongabay works to…
Improve Understanding
…of the global scale forces undermining the health of Earth’s systems.
Make Science Accessible
…and elevate the voices and knowledge of people directly impacted by environmental change.
Serve a Diverse Audience
…by providing free access to news and information in numerous languages and formats to address knowledge gaps and improve transparency.
Reveal Evidence
…of ecosystem destruction and its consequences for people worldwide, and create opportunities to hold those responsible accountable.
Mongabay provides access to large volumes of reliable, credible and accurate evidence and insights
We publish in 12 different language and produce original content in English, Indonesian, Spanish, French, Hindi, and Portuguese. Mongabay is widely recognized as one of the top sources of news, information and analysis from Nature’s frontline. With our large global network of locally-based journalists, Mongabay reaches millions of people each month.
Mongabay supports a global newsroom by undertaking special reporting projects, which are deep dives on specific topics and geographies. To sustain these efforts, Mongabay organizes itself into various reporting bureaus and desks that are lead portions of our coverage. We offer a variety of newsletters and RSS / XML feeds and have a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, and Bluesky.
Mongabay.com was founded by Rhett A. Butler in 1999 out of his passion for tropical forests. He was inspired by an island in Madagascar, called Nosy Mangabe, for the site name.
Mongabay has grown substantially since its inception in 1999, rising from a one-person rainforest website to a multinational news organization with hundreds of staff and over 1,000 contributing journalists. We’ve come a long way thanks to our newsroom’s capacity to deliver original journalism that drives tangible impact. But the scale of the planetary challenges we face as a global community requires continued expansion channeled toward places and topics where Mongabay’s work can fill a significant gap.
Mongabay’s strategy has always been based on the idea that journalism can contribute to real-world results by raising awareness about the importance of nature, generating opportunities for accountability for environmental destruction and inspiring people to work toward solutions. We’ve focused on geographies where biodiversity is high, threats are acute, issues are relevant to our core coverage strengths and there are legal frameworks under which credible journalism can operate.
In 2012, Mongabay.org was registered as a nonprofit to facilitate the development of new education and journalism initiatives, and leverage Mongabay’s existing network, traffic, and reputation under a sustainable business model. Mongabay.org aims to improve understanding of the concurrent global scale forces undermining the health of Earth’s systems. While the organization became Mongabay.org, the news service continues living on Mongabay.com.
The first project under Mongabay.org was the launch of Mongabay.co.id, an Indonesian environmental news service run by a team of Indonesians. Following the launch of Mongabay’s first bureau in Indonesia, Mongabay launched a regional Spanish-language bureau, Mongabay Latam, in 2016, Mongabay India in 2018, the Portuguese-language Mongabay Brasil in 2019, and Mongabay Hindi in 2020. Most recently, Mongabay launched the Mongabay Africa bureau in 2023 and the Mongabay Data Studio in 2024.
In this context, Mongabay’s strategy is to assemble a collaborative journalism network at national, regional and global scales to help meet the challenge during this pivotal decade. Our 2030 strategy describes how we intend to build on Mongabay’s strengths and successes to scale up our capacity to deliver on our mission of conveying information in a compelling format in a relevant time frame to critical audiences that shape policy and influence global trends. We’ve organized this plan around five strategic objectives critical to enabling Mongabay to contribute toward alleviating the planetary emergency.
By realizing this strategy, Mongabay will meaningfully engage a global community brought together by a shared affinity for nature, mobilize a journalism network capable of gathering information from some of the world’s more remote corners via local sources and revealed in Earth observation data, expose hidden drivers of environmental destruction through investigative reporting on corruption and illegality, and sustainably provide professional opportunities for journalists to improve their skills and earn a decent and dignified living.