
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
- Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat
- Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade
- Colombian and Ecuadorian Indigenous communities live in fear as drug traffickers invade
- Cocaine production driving deforestation into Colombian national park

Oceans
- 2020’s top ocean news stories (commentary)
- ‘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

Amazon conservation
- Indigenous groups blast Amazon state’s plan to legalize wildcat mining
- In ‘dire’ plea, Brazil’s Amazonas state appeals for global COVID assistance
- Brazil’s collapsing health service, new COVID variant, raise Indigenous risk
- Lack of protection leaves Spain-size swath of Brazilian Amazon up for grabs

Land rights and extractives
- Timber organization’s backing ‘one step’ toward ‘peace park’ in Borneo
- Indigenous groups blast Amazon state’s plan to legalize wildcat mining
- Papua tribe moves to block clearing of its ancestral forest for palm oil
- Protesters hold back military takeover of Balkans’ largest mountain pasture

Endangered environmentalists
- Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award
- 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

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
