How blockchain gaming could benefit wildlife conservation
Blockchain has been one of the hottest sectors in tech over the past couple of years, with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum soaring in value as they captured the public's…
Articles by Rhett A. Butler
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.
Facebook video shows orangutan defending forest against bulldozer
Dramatic footage released last week by an animal welfare group shows a wild orangutan trying in vain to fight off destruction of its rainforest habitat in Borneo. The video (below),…
A global coral reef monitoring system is coming soon
Coral reef conservation efforts will soon get a major boost with a global monitoring system that will detect physical changes in coral cover at high resolution on a daily basis,…
Rainforests: the year in review 2017
Between America's abandonment of leadership on conservation and environmental policy, Brazil's backtracking on forest conservation, massive forest fires worldwide, and the revelation of a sharp increase in global forest loss…
Mapping how to feed 9 billion humans, while avoiding environmental calamity
Yesterday The Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation unveiled an ambitious plan to protect and connect 50 percent of the world’s land area as part of a broader effort to curb global warming,…
Deforestation drops 16% in the Brazilian Amazon
Deforestation in the world's largest rainforest declined over the past year, reports the Brazilian government. According to preliminary data from Brazil's national space agency INPE, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon…
One man’s quest to save the world’s wildest places: Hansjörg Wyss
In the late 1950s, a young graduate student from Switzerland named Hansjörg Wyss took a summer job with the Colorado Highway Department. In his free time, he explored, climbed, and…
Transforming business as usual in Indonesia: an interview with Aida Greenbury
Perhaps no forestry company operating in Indonesia was more controversial from the late 1990s to the early 2010s in environmental circles than Asia Pulp & Paper (APP). Throughout that period,…
Borneo’s ‘biocultural holocaust’: an interview with author Alex Shoumatoff
Over the past half century, we've laid waste to the rainforests of Borneo. Fed by our insatiable demand for food, fuel, and fiber, vast tracts of cathedral-like landscape across the…
What happens when the soy and palm oil boom ends?
Over the past thirty years demand and production of oils crops like oil palm and soybeans has boomed across the tropics thanks to rising incomes, macroeconomic changes and government policies,…
What to expect for rainforests in 2017
While 2016 lacked the drama of Indonesia's 2015 fire and haze crisis, surging deforestation in Earth's largest rainforest and ongoing destruction of forests for industrial plantations meant that it was…
The year in tropical rainforests: 2016
Massive forest fires in the Congo and Amazon, surging deforestation in Brazil, and tentative steps toward reform in Indonesia and Myanmar: there were no shortage of major happenings in tropical…
Brazil: deforestation in the Amazon increased 29% over last year
Deforestation in the world's largest rainforest jumped 29 percent over last year, representing a sharp increase over the historically low deforestation rate seen just five years ago and the highest…
Could REDD help save an embattled forest in Cambodia?
ver the past three decades, few countries lost forest cover faster than Cambodia: over a quarter of the country's forests were cleared since 1990. Much of that destruction was driven…
Recognizing environmentalists under threat
It is well documented that our planet, along with its biodiversity and life-sustaining resources, is severely threatened. Lesser known is that some of the bravest among us, our environmental defenders,…
Brazil revises Amazon deforestation 6% upward
The Brazilian government has revised upward its estimate for the extent of Amazon rainforest destroyed last year. Figures released last week by Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE) put Amazon…
Saving Bangladesh’s last rainforest
When most people think of Bangladesh's native ecosystems, the Sundarbans — the world's largest mangrove forest — are probably the first thing that come to mind. But the Sundarbans aren't…
Rainforest destruction rises in the Brazilian Amazon
Newly released data suggest that rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon has reached the highest level since 2009. In the past week, Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE) and Imazon,…
On eve of Olympics, Amazon deforestation surges in Brazil
Preliminary data suggests deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may be on the rise after years of remaining at historic lows. According to data released last week by Imazon, a group…
Illegal wildlife trade in Asia decimating species, warn scientists
Asia's burgeoning demand for wildlife is decimating wild populations around the planet, hastening the demise of biodiversity already under threat from habitat destruction and climate change, warned scientists meeting last…
10 reasons to be optimistic for forests
It's easy to be pessimistic about the state of the world's forests. Rates of forest loss remain persistently high, especially in the tropics and boreal regions. Drought, fragmentation, degradation via…
The top 10 most biodiverse countries
Author's note: The data that underpins this post is updated on a regular basis on Mongabay's rainforest site: Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Reptiles, Vascular Plants. May 22 has been designated…
Conservation giant puts $100M into Amazon protected areas
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation — the biggest private supporter of conservation in the world's largest rainforest — has pledged another $100 million toward efforts to establish and support…
New Rainforest Alliance head: technology could improve commodity certification
In January, Rainforest Alliance, one of the world's most influential environmental groups for its work in developing eco-certification as a mechanism for raising social and environmental standards for commodity production,…
For Leap Day, 35 pictures of frogs
Leap Day only happens every four years but when the next one comes around, the planet may have lost a few more frog species: amphibians are the most endangered group…
77 inspiring rainforest pictures
Mongabay was born out of my love for rainforests so for this Valentine's day, I'm doing something a little different: posting a bunch of my favorite rainforest photos from the…
Fires burned 26% of forestry giant’s South Sumatra plantations in 2015
Peat fires burned 293,065 hectares of land within concessions managed by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) suppliers during last year's haze crisis, an area amounting to 37 percent of its…
Indonesia appoints conservationist to save country’s declining peatlands
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has appointed conservationist Nazir Foead to head up a newly-created peatland restoration agency, which aims to resurrect peatlands devastated by recent fires. The establishment of the…
What’s ahead for rainforests in 2016? 10 things to watch
Between Indonesia's massive forest fires, the official approval of REDD+ at climate talks in Paris, and the establishment of several major national parks, there was plenty to get excited about…
50+ companies being investigated or punished for Indonesia’s haze crisis
More than 50 plantation companies are being punished or investigated by the Indonesian for fires linked to the choking haze that polluted skies across Southeast Asia this fall. A week…
Special series
Forest trackers
- Solomon Islands environmental defender faces life sentence for arson charge
- Threatened species caught in crossfire of ongoing land conflict in Myanmar
- Under cover of COVID-19, loggers plunder Cambodian wildlife sanctuary
- Brazilian Amazon protected areas ‘in flames’ as land-grabbers invade
Oceans
- ‘Tamper with nature, and everyone suffers’: Q&A with ecologist Enric Sala
- New paper highlights spread of organized crime from global fisheries
- Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters
- Game changer? Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study
Amazon conservation
- As the Amazon burns, what happens to its biodiversity?
- Game changer: NASA data tool could revolutionize Amazon fire analysis
- The view from above: How do we know what’s really burning in the Amazon?
- Rise in Amazon deforestation slows in August, but fires surge
Endangered environmentalists
- Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer
- Deaths, arrests and protests as Philippines re-emerges from lockdown
Indonesias forest guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Conservation effectiveness
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
- On a wing and a prayer? Evidence for ways to conserve bats (commentary)
- Audio: The sounds of a rare New Zealand bird reintroduced to its native habitat
- Eavesdrop on forest sounds to effectively monitor biodiversity, researchers say
Southeast asian infrastructure
- Paper giant APP’s Sumatran road project cuts through elephant habitat
- Study revealing New Guinea’s plant life ‘first step’ toward protection
- Indonesian case highlights potential for long-term harms of corruption
- Indonesia approves coal road project through forest that hosts tigers, elephants
