Rainforest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. In early March, scientists with the University of Maryland and NASA made an incredible announcement: they had discovered that vast…
Excavator working in a plantation with rainforest in the background in Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. International aid to protect forests in Indonesia and Brazil pales in comparison to…
A forest area in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, that has been cleared by a mining company. Photo: Christopher Paino As a pair of Chinese-controlled mining companies proceed with plans to construct…
CUNINICO, Peru--Villager examine oil slick near this Kukama Indian village in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Barbara Fraser. CUNINICO, Peru—When Peru's state-run oil company pulled out of this small…
Buyat Bay ‘solidarity front' threatens gold miner with legal action A Boltim Primanusa Resources excavator in Garini forest near Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi. Photo: United Buyat Solidarity Front Residents of…
Sumatran elephants in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Across the world, scientists estimate there are about two billion hectares of degraded forestland. In Indonesia alone,…
A newly protected peat swamp in Tripa. Photo: Indonesian Nature Foundation As Indonesia's Supreme Court prepares to rule on an appeal from oil palm developer Kallista Alam, ordered to pay…
Part 2 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing. Part I. Deforestation for palm oil production. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Today, oil palm is Indonesia’s most important…
In Mexico’s rainforests, club mosses – fern-like plants that resemble the branches of pine trees - are in trouble. All nine species of the club moss genus Phlegmariurus found in…
Indonesia's biodiversity-focused protected areas are failing to slow deforestation, while other categories have achieved mixed results, according to a new study by National University of Singapore researchers. The study, which…
GLobal Forest Watch map showing protected areas and industrial concessions in and around the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh and North Sumatra on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The rate of…
Rainforest understory in Gunug Palung National Park. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Can the act of planting a tree change one’s attitude towards forests and conservation? Erica Pohnan, Hotlin Ompusunggu,…
A large Indian civet hit and killed by a car in Peninsular Malaysia. Photo by WY Lam. Habitat loss and illegal hunting are leading drivers behind mammal population decline and…
Part 1 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing Deforestation for palm oil production in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Palm oil may be the single…
A small island off Kendawangan in West Kalimantan's Ketapang Regency has lost a substantial amount of its tree cover over the past decade, according to Global Forest Watch. Intense exploitation…
Media coverage of ruins raises controversy among scientists, but leads to stepped-up protection efforts in long-neglected region Temple at Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.…
A fishing boat, which was flying Indonesian colors, is sunk off the coast of Riau, Sumatra on February 9, 2015, after the fishery ministry evacuated the all-Thai crew. Photo courtesy…
Worker harvesting fresh fruit bunches in an oil palm plantation in Riau, Sumatra. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Declining crop prices usually spell bad news for farmers, and poor smallholders…
G-20 nations make commitment to invest $60 to $70 trillion worldwide in new infrastructure over the next 15 years Deforestation along the Transoceanic highway in Peru. Photo by Rhett A.…
Redwoods in Big Basin State Park, California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. If you Google "rainforest," you're almost assured to get a page of search results mostly about the tropics.…
The Southern Suriname Conservation Corridor came one step closer to fruition when indigenous leaders present members of Suriname's parliament with a declaration on March 5. “They’ve been protecting it, and…
The cryptic treehunter lives the in highly threatened Atlantic forest, but researchers hold out hope that more might be found. The cryptic treehunter (Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti). Photoart by Rolf Grantsau. In…
A log yard in Myanmar's southern state of Tanintharyi. Photo courtesy of Forest Trends. The Myanmar government has been allocating land for large-scale private agricultural businesses in the country’s biodiversity-rich…
Deforestation makes room for a new oil palm plantation in Riau, Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The rights of local and indigenous peoples aren’t being adequately protected in the…
Autumn leaves in Pittsfield State Park, Massachusetts. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Soil plays a big role in the global carbon cycle, but how much or how quickly forest soil…
Mangrove forest in Masoala National Park, Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Protecting Mangrove Forests Good For Environment And Economy: UN Global destruction of mangrove forests impacts biodiversity, food security,…
Researchers devise new method to track soy consumption Rainforest fragments in a sea of soyfields in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Sitting down at my favorite restaurant…
Peatlands around the world are drying and burning as humans drain them and the climate changes; scientists urge protections. A peat forest burns in Riau, Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A.…
A pair of Milton's titi monkeys (Callicebus miltoni). Photo by credit Adriano Gambarini. In 2011, Julio César Dalponte noticed a peculiar looking titi monkey on the bank of the Roosevelt…
Although it’s a hotspot of avian biodiversity, the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has been “poorly studied ornithologically,” according to a study published in the scientific journal PloS One. Case in…
