Rhett Butler

About

Founder of Mongabay.

RSS
1013 stories

How a tiny blue gecko became a conservation comeback story

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jun 2026
Peter Klopfer. Photo by Anne Yoder

Peter Klopfer, the scientist whose civil-rights case helped bring lemurs to Duke

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Jun 2026
Tony Parkes. Photo courtesy of Big Scrub Landcare

Tony Parkes, the banker who replanted a rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jun 2026
Recent fires in the Amazon Rainforest degraded a large portion of the world’s primary forests. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.

Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest 12-month level since 2014, show Brazilian data

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jun 2026
Bob Ricklefs. Photo by August Jennewein

Robert Ricklefs, ecologist who helped generations understand nature, has died at 83

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Jun 2026
RAN Burger King protest in 1987. Image courtesy of Rainforest Action Network

How an activist network built pressure without political power

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Jun 2026
A recently emerged Suraka silk moth (Antherina suraka) is held by an artisan in the SEPALI Madagascar demonstration garden in Maroantsetra. Trained local farmers use the CPALI method to collect this species’ brown silk, leaving the developing pupae unharmed. Image by Rachel Kramer/CPALI.

How silk caterpillars became a tool for conservation in Madagascar

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Jun 2026
Soundscape Baselines Site in Baraboo Hills, Wisconsin, USA, includes view of bioacoustic recorder and camera trap

Why conservation urgently needs acoustic baselines

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Jun 2026
A school of albacore tuna gathered by a seine net, off the Seychelles. Photo by Marc Taquet

Tuna are rebounding. The work is far from done.

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Jun 2026
Popularly called the “ghost dog” (perro fantasma) in Bolivia, Atelocynus microtis is one of the world’s least-known canid species. Image courtesy of Guido Ayala & María Viscarra/WCS Bolivia.

The ‘ghost dog’ of the Amazon reveals the value of intact forests

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Jun 2026
Mangrove forest in Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

How small actions can become planetary forces

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Jun 2026
Brooklyn Rivera. Photo courtesy of La Prensa,

Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jun 2026
Thomas Crowther

Nature’s feedback loops can drive collapse. Thomas Crowther thinks they can also drive recovery

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jun 2026
Yakama leader Davis Yellowash Washines

Davis “Yellowash” Washines, Yakama elder who spoke for the river and salmon

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 May 2026
Amazon rainforest canopy. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 May 2026

Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 May 2026
Aerial view of a cargo ship. Photo by Cameron Venti / Ocean Image Bank

The most underfunded climate opportunities may be at sea

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 May 2026
Emergent tree in the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Will my president save the Amazon? (commentary)

Enrique Ortiz 24 May 2026
Mike Salisbury in Tanzania in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of BBC

Mike Salisbury, wildlife filmmaker who made plants behave like characters, has died, aged 84

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 May 2026
Givaldo Santos Kaiowá

Givaldo Santos, Kaiowá and Guarani leader, was killed on May 1st, aged 40

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 May 2026

Norlan Pagal, fisherman and guardian of Tañon Strait, died on May 14th, aged 56

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 May 2026
Rice paddies, forest, and agroforest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Smallholders are not the weak link in forest protection (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 20 May 2026
Monica Montefalcone. From her social media.

Monica Montefalcone, leading seagrass scientist, dies in Maldives diving accident, aged 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 May 2026
Oil palm plantation and rainforest in Jambi. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

FPC at a crossroads: clarity, credibility, and the cost of ambiguity (commentary)

Chip Fay 14 May 2026
A 2004 mapping expedition organized by the Trio and the Amazon Conservation Team in Suriname. Image courtesy of the Amazon Conservation Team

Whose map counts in conservation? The rise of participatory mapping

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 May 2026

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 May 2026
Mama ring-tailed lemur with baby in Anja, Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

A Mother’s Day lesson from a digger wasp

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 May 2026
Ted Turner at CNN. Courtesy of the Ted Turner Foundation

Ted Turner, a media mogul who tried to repair the land

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 May 2026
Sir David Attenborough By BBC - Passion Planet

At 100, David Attenborough’s message is no longer just about wonder

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2026
Tierney Thys with sunfish. Photo by Mike Johnson / Earth Window

Tierney Thys, marine biologist and interpreter of the sunfish

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 May 2026
RJ Nichole Ledesma. Via Facebook.

RJ Nichole Ledesma, chronicler of unsettled ground on Negros Island, was killed last month. He was 30.

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 May 2026
The Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Yo Yaj at Songkhla Lake, Thailand
Videos
Articles
Podcasts

you're currently offline