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Silverback gorilla in Dzanga-Sangha, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why conservation needs stories of progress

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Apr 2026
Mitchell Byrd. Photo by Linda Richardson

Mitchell Byrd, ornithologist who helped bring bald eagles back from the brink in the Chesapeake area

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Apr 2026
Jane Goodall planting a tree. Photo courtesy of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Today is Jane Goodall Day. Her movement continues.

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Apr 2026
Tame Sumatran elephants were brought in to help clean up flood-affected residential areas in Meunasah Bie village, Meurah Dua district, Pidie Jaya.

A catastrophe that might offer a glimpse of hope for Indonesia (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 11 Jan 2026

Road to recovery: Five stories of species staging a comeback

Shreya Dasgupta 31 Dec 2025
Joanna Macy. Courtesy of the Macy family

Joanna Macy, author and teacher who turned despair into connection and agency

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Dec 2025
Misty morning in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Dec 2025
Jean Beasley with the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center with a juvenile Kemp's Ridley sea turtle on Sept. 17, 2013 in Surf City, N.C. Photo courtesy of KEN BLEVINS/STARNEWS

Jean Beasley, who turned her young daughter’s dying wish into a mission to save sea turtles, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Dec 2025
Screenshot of Gramma. Courtesy of the San Diego Zoo.

The long life of a Galápagos tortoise

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Nov 2025
A Bali starling sings with its beak wide open

How Indonesian communities rescued the Bali starling from the brink of extinction

Mongabay.com 19 Nov 2025

Scientists & nuns unite to save Mexico’s rare achoque salamanders

Mongabay.com 18 Nov 2025
Jane Goodall with Roots & Shoots members. Photo by Mary Paris/JGI

At her memorial, a call to carry Jane Goodall’s hope forward

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Nov 2025
Cacao. Image courtesy of Instituto Arapyaú

Brazil can protect its forests while growing its economy, says Arapyaú’s Renata Piazzon

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Nov 2025
Girl with a seedling in Northern California. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Nov 2025
Puerto Caimán Island in the Curare-Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve’s conservation area.

Indigenous communities protect Colombia’s uncontacted peoples

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Nov 2025
A green turtle. Image by Bernard DUPONT via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Green turtle rebounds, moving from ‘endangered’ to ‘least concern’

Shreya Dasgupta 17 Oct 2025
Rodrigues fody by pierrickferret via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0).

20 animal species on the road to recovery: IUCN Red List update

Shreya Dasgupta 16 Oct 2025
Denica Riadini-Flesch in Indonesia. Photo by Muhammad Fadli / National Geographic

Regenerative fashion initiative in Indonesia wins 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Oct 2025

Extinct-in-the-wild plant rediscovered in Sri Lanka thanks to social media

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Sep 2025
Waterfall in the Upper Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

How journalism helps turn information into outcomes

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Sep 2025

Finding optimism

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2025
Gray parrot. Image by L.Miguel Bugallo Sánchez via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

African gray parrots get complete protection in DR Congo

Shreya Dasgupta 26 Aug 2025
A full-circle rainbow arcing over a vast oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, carved out of what was once native rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The case for hope in environmental journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Aug 2025
Supertree grove is part of the Gardens by the Bay (GBTB) urban park in Singapore, covering 105 hectares (260 acres). Image by Tien Tran (tientran0019) via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

How urban greening is helping Singapore bounce back from widespread forest loss

Mongabay.com 7 Aug 2025
An adult female kākāpō (Strigops habroptila) in a tree at night. Kākāpō are nocturnal and flightless. Image by Andrew Digby/New Zealand Department of Conservation.

World Nature Conservation Day: How a large, flightless parrot rebounded from the verge of extinction

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Jul 2025
Humberto Mendes feeding a blue-and-yellow macaw. Image courtesy of Chris Biro.

Blue-and-yellow macaws return to São Paulo skies after 50 years, thanks to flying lessons

Mongabay.com 23 Jul 2025
A Eurasian otter captured by a camera trap in Tangkulap Forest Reserve in Sabah. Image courtesy of Sabah Forestry Department/Sabah Wildlife Department/Panthera.

‘Hopeful sign’ as Eurasian otter reappears in Malaysia after a decade

Spoorthy Raman 15 Jul 2025
Mark Erdmann releasing a thresher shark. Photo courtesy of Mark Erdmann.

Sharks didn’t rebound—so Mark Erdmann is putting them back

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Jul 2025
A river in the Amazon rainforest interior of Suriname. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler.

Half a million hectares of rainforest were saved — in part thanks to journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Jun 2025
The elkhorn coral that comprises most of the Cocalito reef used to be one of the most dominant coral species in the Caribbean.

The reef that shouldn’t exist

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jun 2025

Artificial nests help a rare Brazilian parrot bounce back

Mongabay.com 16 Jun 2025
A harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja). Image by Brian Gratwicke via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Harpy eagle confirmed in Mexico for first time in over a decade

Mongabay.com 22 May 2025

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