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.

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Some background on Mongabay's origin:

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1819 stories

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

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 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

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

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Oct 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
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
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
This local guide located a Rhododendron in bloom in the Cromwell Mountains of Papua New Guinea. Credit RBG Kew

New Guinea has the most plant species of any island

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2020
Flowering rainforest tree in the Colombian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

World Rainforest Day: The world’s great rainforests

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jun 2020
PORTO VELHO, RONDÔNIA, BRAZIL. Aerial view of burned areas in the Amazon rainforest, in the city of Porto Velho, Rondônia state. (Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace)

14 straight months of rising Amazon deforestation in Brazil

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Jun 2020

Brazil revises deforestation data: Amazon rainforest loss topped 10,000 sq km in 2019

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Jun 2020
Deforestation in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

How much rainforest is being destroyed?

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Jun 2020
Deforestation for soy in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Amazon deforestation increases for 13th straight month in Brazil

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 May 2020
Mark Plotkin and Yaloefuh in Suriname in 1982. Courtesy of Mark Plotkin.

Everything you need to know about the Amazon rainforest: an interview with Mark Plotkin

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2020
Blackwater lake, rainforest, and the whitewater Zacambu River in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Bird’s eye view: Drone photos of the Amazon rainforest (insider)

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Apr 2020

Using satellites to alert an Amazonian indigenous community of coca encroachment (insider)

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Apr 2020
The Javari River where it forms the border between Peru and Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Despite COVID, Amazon deforestation races higher

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Apr 2020
Google Earth image of fish-scale deforestation east of Caroebe, in the state of Roraima, Brazil in January 2020

Deforestation in Brazil continues torrid pace into 2020

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Feb 2020
Tommy Apriando from @tommyapriando on Instagram.

Indonesian investigative reporter and journalism advocate Tommy Apriando, 1989-2020

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Feb 2020
Pangolins rescued from wildlife traffickers. These individuals are at a rehabilitation center in Cambodia. Photo by Rhett Butler.

Conservationists welcome China’s wildlife trade ban

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Jan 2020
CANDEIRAS DO JAMARI, RONDÔNIA, BRAZIL: Aerial view of a large burned area in the city of Candeiras do Jamari in the state of Rondônia. (Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace)

For final months of 2019, Amazon deforestation hits highest level in at least 13 years

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Jan 2020
Coastline of the Big Island, Hawaii. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / mongabay.

Pangolins top the charts while climate stories lag: Insights on our 2019 reporting (insider)

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Jan 2020
Snorkeler with three juvenile whale sharks in the Sea of Cortez off Baja California, Mexico. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Our top nature drone photos of 2019 (Insider)

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Dec 2019
Forest canopy in Volcano on the big island of Hawaii. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Rainforests in 2020: 10 things to watch

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Dec 2019
PORTO VELHO, RONDÔNIA, BRAZIL. Aerial view of burned areas in the Amazon rainforest, in the city of Porto Velho, Rondônia state. (Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace)

2019: The year rainforests burned

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2019

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

How manatees won over an entire village. Manatee Brazil
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An excavator and a gold washing station at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mine site in the Sangha. This equipment is typical of semi-industrial gold mining, while the water for the washing station is drawn from surrounding streams, raising concerns about contamination. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay.
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