Rhett Ayers Butler

Rhett Ayers Butler

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About

Rhett Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay.

Rhett founded Mongabay out of his passion for wildlife and wild places.

He has traveled widely in the tropics and enjoys photography, hiking, and scuba-diving.

LinkedIn Profile | Personal website | Contact

Some background on Mongabay's origin:

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2025 stories
California redwood forest in December 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

15 forces that could reshape conservation in the next 10 years

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Dec 2025
Brigitte Bardot. Photo: Getty

Brigitte Bardot, who turned fame into a lifelong fight for animals

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Dec 2025
Clark Lungren. Courtesy of the Lungren family.

Clark Lungren and the case for compromise in conservation

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Dec 2025
Joann Andrews

Joann Andrews, a patient force behind Yucatán’s protected landscapes

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2025
Jay M Savage. Screenshot from an interview with OTS.

Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2025
Kristina-Maria-Gjerde. Image courtesy of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI).

Kristina Gjerde, defender of the deep ocean, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
Rainforest in Brunei in 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
Stuart Brooks. Photo courtesy of The National Trust for Scotland.

Stuart Brooks, peat protector, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
Tell Hicks, from his Facebook page.

Tell Hicks, reptile artist

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Dec 2025
Two male ibex in front of Mont Aiguille in the Dauphiné Alps, France.

France’s largest rewilding project

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Dec 2025
William Bond. Photo courtesy of the University of Cape Town.

William Bond, grasslands researcher who reminded conservation that context matters, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Dec 2025
Weather over Jambi. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

2025: A year of consequence for Mongabay’s journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Dec 2025
Joanna Macy. Courtesy of the Macy family

Joanna Macy, author and teacher who turned despair into connection and agency

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Dec 2025
Neddy Mulimo in the field. Image courtesy of Giraffe Creatives Portraits.

Neddy Mulimo treated ranger welfare as conservation

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Dec 2025

Daniel Ole Sambu, who helped lions and people coexist, died at age 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Dec 2025
Bee Smith, from her Instagram account.

Bethany “Bee” Smith, researcher who documented a megamouth shark alive, died in a diving accident, aged 24

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Dec 2025
Conservationists, environmental defenders, and scientists who died in 2025.

Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Dec 2025
Jeff Foott. Photo by Judith Zimmerman

Jeff Foott, chronicler of ice, rock, and change, has died, aged 80

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Dec 2025
Misty morning in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Dec 2025
Background: rainforest in Brunei. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The value of journalism in the AI era

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Dec 2025
Tree Aid’s efforts as part of the Great Green Wall has resulted in planting nearly 28 million trees in the region so far.

Navigating the complex world of reforestation efforts

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Dec 2025

From Kalimantan’s haze to Jakarta’s grit: A journalist’s journey

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Dec 2025
Survivors inspect clothings they salvaged at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Sumatra’s ‘natural’ disaster wasn’t natural: How deforestation turned a rare cyclone catastrophic

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Dec 2025
Photo © California Academy of Sciences

Chris Grinter has spent much of his life surrounded by insects

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Dec 2025
Iain Douglas-Hamilton. Image courtesy Save the Elephants.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, elephant protector, has died at 83

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Dec 2025
Deforestation in Borneo, Malaysia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Balancing evidence and empathy in an age of doubt

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Dec 2025
Courtesy of Grupo de Intervención en Altura.

Cristina Gallardo, 39, a devoted guardian of Spain’s wild places, is lost to a fall

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Dec 2025
Bamboo lemur in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Lemurs are at risk. So are the people protecting them.

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Dec 2025

How dropping ads set us free to focus on impact

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Dec 2025
Gregg Treinish in Botswana's Okavango. Photo by Shah Selbe

Turning adventure into data

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Dec 2025
Jean Beasley with the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center with a juvenile Kemp's Ridley sea turtle on Sept. 17, 2013 in Surf City, N.C. Photo courtesy of KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS

Jean Beasley, who turned her young daughter’s dying wish into a mission to save sea turtles, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Dec 2025
Early-career conservationists take part in the 2025 EDGE Conservation Tools Course, part of a global fellowship program that supports emerging leaders to drive locally led conservation. Image by Paul Barnes /EDGE of Existence, Zoological Society of London.

Small grants can empower the next generation of conservationists

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Dec 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Izzy Sasada and orangutan
Videos
California redwood forest in December 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler
Articles
Gregg Treinish in Botswana's Okavango. Photo by Shah Selbe
Podcasts

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