Reporting on environmental issues is not easy. It can mean great physical exertion under difficult conditions, painstakingly long investigative processes involving mountains of paperwork, stonewalling — or worse — from…
Deforestation during the final five months of 2019 hit the highest level since at least 2006 reveals data released this week by Brazil's national space research institute INPE. According to…
Mongabay's traffic hit a new record in 2019, with pageviews increasing 34% to 102 million and monthly active users climbing 50% to 4.3 million. But the high level numbers don't…
While I've written about use of drones in conservation since 2012 — a Mongabay story was the first to use the term "conservation drones" — 2019 was the first year…
After a decade of increased deforestation, broken commitments, and hundreds of murders of rainforest defenders, the 2020s open as a dark moment for the world’s rainforests. Here are some key…
2019 closed out a "lost decade" for the world's tropical forests, with surging deforestation from Brazil to the Congo Basin, environmental policy roll-backs, assaults on environmental defenders, abandoned conservation commitments,…
The 2010s opened as a moment of optimism for tropical forests. Widely available satellite imagery via platforms like Google Earth brought new levels of accountability which, for the first time,…
Whether it was radio-collaring elephants across the savannas of South Africa, competing internationally alongside the Israeli national team in tennis, tracking saki monkeys through the rainforest in the sweltering mid-day…
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is continuing to pace ahead of recent historical norms despite global outcry over ongoing destruction of Earth's largest rainforest, reveals data released by Brazil's national…
Efforts to catalog the fast-declining biodiversity of tropical rainforests just got a $10 million boost via a new competition from XPRIZE, an organization that has more than a dozen competitions…
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged more than 30 percent over the past year according to official data published today by Brazil's National Space Research Institute, INPE. The data, which…
Nearly 25 years ago, I had an experience that dramatically altered my life’s course, and ultimately inspired me to establish Mongabay, which with more than 4 million monthly readers is…
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continues its upward trajectory according to data released today by the country's national space research institute INPE. Monthly deforestation alert data showed that 1,444 square…
While the devices we carry around in our pockets everyday provide us with unprecedented convenience and levels of access to information, the materials they contain are often linked to the…
As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claims to be a champion of farmers and ranchers, but his policies in the Amazon could be ruinous for them in the long-run. Last month wind…
Africa's conservation challenges are daunting. The continent faces rapid human population growth, expanding agriculture and infrastructure, and globalized demand for its natural resources, including its forests, oceans, and wildlife. On…
Brazil's National Space Research Institute INPE resumed releasing deforestation data after nearly a month-long hiatus that followed the firing of the agency's director on August 2. The newly released data,…
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro likes to assert that foreigners deserve no say over the fate of the Amazon because it is a national sovereignty issue. His logic: Brazilian Amazon is…
Cloaked as a piece debunking disinformation about Amazon fires, the Forbes piece spreads more confusion and fails to hold Bolsonaro responsible for his role in the Amazon crisis.
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.
