Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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Sandhya Sekar in Kerala, India in 2025; Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

How Mongabay-India took root: Interview with Sandhya Sekar

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 May 2025
Barbara Yeaman. Image courtesy of Delaware Highlands Conservancy.

Barbara Yeaman, aviator and conservation pioneer, died April 6, aged 100

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 May 2025
Alwyn Gentry at work in Ecuador. Image courtesy of Randall Hyman.

Alwyn Gentry died young, but left a forest’s worth of ideas behind

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 May 2025
Ridzki in Jambi in 2022.

How Mongabay Indonesia grew into a trusted environmental voice: Interview with Ridzki Sigit 

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 May 2025

Jim Brandenburg, conservation photographer, died April 4th, aged 79

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2025
Marielle Ramires from Instagram

Marielle Ramires, Brazilian activist and environmental communicator, died on April 29th, aged 45.

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 May 2025
Split shot in the waters of San Benedicto, Mexico. Credit: Enric Sala/National Geographic Pristine Seas

Protecting coastal waters may be the best investment you’ve never heard of, says Kristin Rechberger

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2025

Indigenous women in Peru lead wildcat conservation initiative

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Apr 2025
Canopy platform in Amacayacu National Park, Colombia. Photo: Rhett A. Butler.

Ecologists are spending less time in the field. That could be a problem.

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Apr 2025
Ochieng Ogodo

Ochieng’ Ogodo, science journalist, mentor, and editor, died on April 17th, aged 64

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Apr 2025

Even in death, Indigenous Fijians protect the sea

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Apr 2025
Ochieng Ogodo

Mongabay mourns the loss of Ochieng’ Ogodo, our East Africa Editor

Mongabay.com 17 Apr 2025
The temperate Hoh rainforest in the U.S. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Proforestation: The case for leaving trees alone

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Apr 2025
Blue dart frog. Image by Rhett Butler.

The currency of impact: Why nonprofit models might be the future of serious journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Apr 2025
Fire in an area newly deforested in Brazil.

Brazil is speeding-up forest fire prevention to avoid dangerous tipping points in the Amazon (commentary)

Robert Muggah and Ilona Szabo 6 Apr 2025
Two Sumatran rhinos. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Life on Earth is changing — not just in numbers, but in essence

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Mar 2025
Elisabeth Vrba. Photo by J Play.

Elisabeth Vrba, the woman who timed evolution, died February 5th, aged 82

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Mar 2025
A mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Virunga National Park. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay.

The untold environmental toll of the DRC’s conflict

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Mar 2025

Vincent van der Merwe (1983-2025), champion of the cheetah

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Mar 2025
(left) Endangered Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus), Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. by David Hinkel. (right) Manatee. Photo courtesy of NOAA's National Ocean Service

Manatees in peril as human pressures push gentle giants toward the brink

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Mar 2025
David Myers. Courtesy of the Wildlands Conservancy.

David Myers, conservationist and land broker for nature, dies at 73

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Mar 2025
Scorched earth on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 12 Mar 2025
Mid rescue, the moment she realized I was trying to help. Photo by Stephane Thomas.

World Wildlife Day 2025: What I learned speaking spider monkey

Paul Rosolie 3 Mar 2025
Dr. Ajith Kumar. Photo by Ishwar Narayanan

Indian wildlife biologist Ajith Kumar has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Mar 2025
The Cape Orange National Park on the Amazonian coast of the state of Amapá. Block 59 - the site where Petrobras wants to drill - is located offshore 160 kilometers (99 miles) away. Image © Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace.

Oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon – Lula on a course to disaster (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 24 Feb 2025
Randy Borman. Courtesy of the Cofan Survival Fund

Randy Borman (1955-2025): An unlikely guardian of the Amazon rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Feb 2025

Ecuador’s next debt-for-nature deal falls short of Indigenous involvement

Ana Cristina Alvarado 10 Feb 2025
Gerry Flynn

Statement on Mongabay journalist Gerald Flynn’s blacklisting from Cambodia following his reporting on illegal logging

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Feb 2025
Gerry Flynn

Cambodia denies re-entry to Mongabay journalist who reported on illegal logging

Mongabay.com 3 Feb 2025
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Drop in Amazon deforestation confirmed, but degradation soars 497% in 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Jan 2025
Mikkel Larsen

Carbon exchange leader and sustainability advocate Mikkel Larsen dies at 50

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Jan 2025
Jane Goodall in Japan in June 2023. Photo taken by Kaori Nishida

Jane Goodall awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Jan 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

How manatees won over an entire village. Manatee Brazil
Videos
Sandhya Sekar in Kerala, India in 2025; Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.
Articles
An excavator and a gold washing station at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mine site in the Sangha. This equipment is typical of semi-industrial gold mining, while the water for the washing station is drawn from surrounding streams, raising concerns about contamination. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay.
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