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,…
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.
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…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- ‘Pray & continue’: Death of Philippine ranger is latest in legacy of violence
- In Cambodia, a rare acquittal in a climate of danger for green activists
- On Peru’s border, the Tikuna tribe takes on illegal coca growers
Indonesias forest guardians
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
- On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
- In Indonesia, bigger catches for a fishing village protecting its mangroves
Amazon infrastructure
- Yanomami Amazon reserve invaded by 20,000 miners; Bolsonaro fails to act
- Amazon infrastructure puts 68% of indigenous lands / protected areas at risk: report
- Amazon fish kill at Sinop spotlights risk from 80+ Tapajós basin dams
Asian rhinos
- Nepal to conduct, self-fund, rhino census in March 2020
- Calls for natural solution over man-made one in flood-ravaged rhino refuge
- Death on the Brahmaputra: The rhino, the rangers, and the usual suspects
