Articles by Rhett Butler

Remnant Brazil nut tree in a landscape cleared for soy fields. Photos by Rhett A. Butler The Brazilian government has officially confirmed that deforestation in the Amazon is pacing sharply…

Illegal logging in Indonesian Borneo. Photos by Rhett A. Butler A seemingly well-intended law that aims to turn forests over to traditional users could instead lead to large-scale destruction of…

Sprawl near Law Vegas. Photos by Rhett A. Butler If there's one thing most governments and even political parties appear to agree on it's a desire for more infrastructure, i.e.…

WRI flood map for Indonesia 20.7 million people are affected by river flooding each year, and the number is expected to more than double by 2030 as population growth, urban…

Oil palm plantation and rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has completed its acquisition New Britain Palm Oil Ltd,…

Asia Pulp & Paper's supplier Wirakarya Sakti Sakti (WKS) will end its relationship with a security contractor implicated in the killing of a villager in Jambi, says the Indonesian forestry…

Open pit mining at PT Kitadin coal mine, majority owned by Thai firm Banpu, near Samarinda, East Kalimantan. Photo by David Fogarty, (August 2014). The governor of East Kalimantan, Indonesia,…

Palm fruit used for palm oil production. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has purged membership of a number of companies and organizations that…

Washington state rainforest. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. 3M has announced a new sustainability policy that will reduce the impact of its fiber-sourcing practices on forests and wildlife. The initiative,…

An acacia plantation that was burned in Riau by villagers seeking to establish an oil palm plantation. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Indonesian police are investigating the brutal killing of…

Editor's note: KLK issued a response to Chain Reaction Research's report on March 13, 2015. Deforestation for oil palm in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Malaysian palm oil…

Elephant in South Africa.. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. China has established a one-year ban on imports of carved African elephant ivory. Conservationists say the move, effective immediately, sends an…

Rainforest in Riau, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last fall Indonesia elected its first president with no ties to the established political order or the military. Joko Widodo's election…

Ezequiel Antonio Castanha in custody. Image courtesy of IBAMA Authorities in Brazil have arrested a man they claim to be the single biggest deforester in the Amazon, according to a…

Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research…

Nepenthes rafflesiana, a large pitcher plant commonly found in swampy forests of Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Pitcher plants (Nepenthes species) have long captivated our fascination. Typically growing in…

An excavator piles natural forest logs at a log pond. Photo © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace Banking giant Santander says it will not extend further financing to Asia Pacific Resources…

Picture of the tiger bust. Photo by Dian Risdianto / TNKS A sting operation by Indonesian officials snared a group of tiger hunters operating in Kerinci Seblat National Park in…

Greenomics map showing recent clearing by Austindo Nusantara Jaya Agri in West Papua, Indonesia An Indonesian palm oil firm is destroying rainforests in New Guinea despite high profile zero deforestation…

Peruvian authorities struggle to restore records lost during government transition Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Non-profit organizations are working with the regional government of…

The Cape pangolin, pictured here, could become increasingly imperiled if trade moves from Asia to Africa. Photo by: Maria Diekmann/Rare and Endangered Species Trust. It’s that crazy time of year…

Logging in Gabon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Selective logging is causing long-term changes to tropical forests in Africa by facilitating the growth of weeds and vines, which reduces plant…

Recent large-scale clearance of peatland forest inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province. © Ulet Ifansasti / Greenpeace.…

Brazilian rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Click to enlarge. A new campaign is calling on consumers to directly support forest conservation with their wallets. "Stand For Trees" is an…

Modern day signs of human activity in the Amazon rainforest. Courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. Researchers are planning to use drones equipped with vegetation-penetrating lasers to scan the Amazon…

Crude palm oil and palm fruit. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Instead of wisely investing the windfall generated by cutting petrol subsidies, Indonesia is poised to squander funds by increasing…

Fish being loaded into a truck for processing and export in Batu Putih, North Sulawesi. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Today Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) signed a memorandum of…

Global Forest Watch image showing recent FORMA and Terra-I forest cover change alerts that reveal clearing in concessions controlled by a subsidiary of United Cacao. A company aiming to be…

Indonesia kills first-of-its-kind REDD+ Agency Strangler fig in Sulawesi. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The world's first cabinet-level ministry dedicated to implementing REDD+ has been dissolved. In accordance with Indonesian…