Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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992 stories

Big mammals are at risk in the world’s poorest countries, even within parks

Tess Joosse 27 Nov 2020
Redwood forest in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

‘Nature is next’: Q&A with Finance for Biodiversity’s Simon Zadek

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Nov 2020
Plastic pollution endangers marine animals, such as this young monk seal, which may get entangled in or ingest litter. Photo credit: the Ocean Cleanup/Matthew Chauvin

Clean up efforts won’t solve the plastic pollution crisis in the world’s seas

Isabella Backman 25 Nov 2020
Nine of the 15 pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) autopsied for the study were emaciated when they died, zero were considered to be in ‘robust’ condition. Photo Credit: Inwater Research Group

Are industrial chemicals killing rare whales and familiar dolphins?

Cypress Hansen 24 Nov 2020
Tiger in India.

Mongabay launches in Hindi to expand environmental journalism in India

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Nov 2020
School of hammerhead sharks, northwest Galápagos. Photo by Greg Asner / DivePhoto.org

Could China become a partner in Galapagos marine conservation? Yolanda Kakabadse thinks so

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Nov 2020
Burnt forest, in Porto Velho, Rondônia state. 18 Aug, 2020 CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation shoots higher in October, reversing 3-month trend

Mongabay.com 14 Nov 2020
Coral garden. Photo credit: Raising Coral Costa Rica

Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs

Ashleigh Papp 12 Nov 2020

Honoring children and protecting the planet: An interview with musician Raffi

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Nov 2020
Nasrullah, a fisherman from Lombok island, shows one of the lobsters raised in his aquafarm. Image by Fathul Rakhman/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Mongabay’s most popular conservation news stories in October 2020

Mongabay.com 6 Nov 2020
Caribou calf. Photo © Xavier Fernandez Aguilar

Ice breakers in the Arctic: Let’s talk Inuit safety (commentary)

Martin Robards, Beverly Maksagak 3 Nov 2020
Map of Biodiversity. Esri, NatureServe

Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond: ‘People and planet are inextricably linked’

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Oct 2020
The ROV SuBastain with careful guidance by its pilots uses the manipulator arm to collect a geological sample at 500m on Flinders Reef. Photo credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt: ‘Solutions are always local’

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Oct 2020
Redwood forest in Santa Cruz County, California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

American Forests CEO Jad Daley: ‘We are one nation under trees’

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Oct 2020
Victoria amazonica. © Sir Ghillean Prance

Amazon botanist Sir Ghillean Prance: ‘The environmental crisis is a moral one’

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Oct 2020
Frigatebird displaying in the Galapagos. The Wyss Campaign for Nature partnered with the Charles Darwin Foundation to strengthen the management of the 138,872 square kilometer Galapagos Marine Reserve. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Despite COVID, political divides, conservation can advance: Hansjörg Wyss

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Oct 2020
Jacob Hamblin Arch, Escalante, Utah. Photo by Tina Butler.

Public lands and parks are our common heritage: Bruce Babbitt

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Oct 2020
Rainbow over the Colombian Amazon. Photo © Wade Davis

Colombia, ethnobotany, and America’s decline: An interview with Wade Davis

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Oct 2020
Satellite image of a portion of Everglades National Park in Florida. Courtesy of Zoom.Earth

Data drives Bloomberg’s support for climate solutions, says Antha N. Williams

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Oct 2020
Waves breaking on a beach in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Putting sustainability at the center of business strategy: An interview with Paul Polman

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Oct 2020
Tapir at the Ambue Ari Sanctuary of Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi. Courtesy of CIWY

Wildlife emergency in Bolivia as fires threaten animal sanctuaries

Milan Sime Martinic 16 Oct 2020
Installation view of Anicka Yi, Le Pain Sympathetique, 2014, mixed media, The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA’s Collection, May 19, 2019–January 27, 2020 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo by Zak Kelley. Anicka has conserved a large parcel of cloud forest in Central America via Art into Acres.

Can an art museum drive sustainability? Q&A with MOCA’s Klaus Biesenbach

Dave Martin 14 Oct 2020

The post-COVID opportunity for the environment: An interview with the GEF’s Carlos Manuel Rodriguez

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Oct 2020
Heat spots in areas with Prodes warnings (2017-2019). Area next to the borders of the Kaxarari Indigenous territory, in Lábrea, Amazonas state. Taken 17 Aug, 2020. CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Brazil reports lower deforestation, higher fires in September

Mongabay.com 9 Oct 2020
A community in Brazil harvests arapaima, the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world. Photo courtesy of Carlos Peres.

Our most read conservation stories for September 2020

Mongabay.com 8 Oct 2020
In northeastern DR Congo, as in many places around world, the forest produces a bounty of delicious and nutritious caterpillars that are a seasonally important food for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Photo © David Wilkie/WCS

Protect Indigenous People’s rights to avoid a sixth extinction (commentary)

David Wilkie, Susan Lieberman, James Watson 29 Sep 2020
Xikrin Kayapó family. Photo by John Hemming.

Exploring the history of the Amazon and its peoples: an interview with John Hemming

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Sep 2020
Korubo people in the Vale do Javarí Indigenous Land. Photo: Enrique Ortiz

Rieli Franciscato died protecting isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon (commentary)

Enrique Ortiz 18 Sep 2020
Lightning over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Manument. Photo by Adam Haggerty / BLM

Can public lands unify divided Americans? An interview with John Leshy

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2020
Fire near the Branco river in the Jaci-Paraná Extractive Reserve, in Porto Velho, Rondônia state. Taken 16 Aug, 2020. CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Rise in Amazon deforestation slows in August, but fires surge

Mongabay.com 11 Sep 2020
Cacao pod in Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Latin America has twice the plant life of Africa, SE Asia

Mongabay.com 9 Sep 2020
Boy with a 'dorado' catfish. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Why the health of the Amazon River matters to us all: An interview with Michael Goulding

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Sep 2020

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Jahëna Louisin, Mongabay reporter, and a Vodun ritual
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This elusive animal hunts in the dim light of dawn and dusk, making it difficult to observe and hard to count. One of the few ways to survey them is by laying nets, pictured here.
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