
Articles by William H. Funk
I hold a JD and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Policy from Vermont Law School, the country’s top environmental law facility, and have developed a reputation for explicating complex legal, policy and scientific matters in illuminating and compelling prose. My relevant areas of journalistic expertise include endangered species and habitat preservation, wildlife crime, American history, public lands management, climate change, animal cruelty, wetlands mitigation, land use, environmental law, sustainability, wilderness issues, traditional cultures, hunting and fishing, rural living and Appalachian culture. I’ve worked with numerous environmental NGOs and both federal and state environmental agencies, and am a skilled and eager naturalist.


Namibia’s low cost, sustainable solution to seabird bycatch

Nepal’s extraordinary devotion to preserving its rhinos

Where have all the lutungs gone? Mystery monkeys fast disappearing

Canada’s eastern boreal forest could become a climate change refuge

Poaching in Africa becomes increasingly militarized

An agribusiness revolution is needed to save Africa’s last great apes

Major legal system breakdowns threaten great apes of Africa, Asia

Eden Besieged: Amazonia’s Matchless Wildlife Pillaged by Traffickers

Africa’s unloved vultures headed for extinction?
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivian national park hit hard by forest fires in 2022, satellite data show
- Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land grabbers scramble to claim disputed Indigenous reserve
- Gold mining invades remote protected area in Ecuador

Oceans
- Good fisheries management, if enforced, can help sharks and rays recover
- An El Niño is forecast for 2023. How much coral will bleach this time?
- Thai government turns its sights on illegal coral trade
- Mongabay Explains: What’s the difference between artisanal and industrial fishing?

Amazon Conservation
- Joenia Wapichana: ‘I want to see the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol territories free of invasions’
- JBS is accused of misleading investors with suspicious green bonds
- Sonia Guajajara: Turnaround from jail threats to Minister of Indigenous Peoples
- From Japan to Brazil: Reforesting the Amazon with the Miyawaki method

Land rights and extractives
- Tense neighbors: Chinese quarry in Cameroon takes a toll on locals
- FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses
- Shadows of oil in Peru: Shipibo people denounce damage, contamination left by company
- In Liberia, a gold boom leads to unregulated mining and ailing rivers

Endangered Environmentalists
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
- Murders of 2 Pataxó leaders prompt Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to launch crisis office
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders

Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’

Conservation Effectiveness
- Biodiversity, human rights safeguards crucial to nature-based solutions: Critics
- Protecting canids from planet-wide threats offers ecological opportunities
- Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life
- Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
