A baobob tree in scrub woodland in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe. Photo by Kjdhambuza. Zimbabwe, home to more than 14 million people, is currently facing a severe economic crisis. Under President…
Militant terrorist group Al-Shabaab funds itself, in part, through the
Wooden fishing rigs off the coast of Java. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The Indonesian fisheries ministry has introduced two divisive pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the sustainability of…
Presenting a workshop on ecosystem services to a roomful of priests in Ethiopia may seem like an unlikely scenario for a conservation biologist to end up in, but for Meg…
Hypsiboas picturatus, a tree frog found in Colombian and Ecuadorian forests. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has announced plans to create the world’s largest protected…
Editor's note: KLK issued a response to Chain Reaction Research's report on March 13, 2015. Deforestation for oil palm in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Malaysian palm oil…
Oil palm fruit, which can be used for biofuel. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. A new report from the World Resources Institute finds that dedicating land to the production of…
This article is the second in a two-part series about logging in Malaysia. The first part can be seen here Two international NGOs have called out Malaysia in recent months…
This article is the second in a two-part series about the shortcomings of protected area definition in Peru. Read the first part here. In a study published recently in PLOS…
Vanzolini’s squirrel monkey (Saimiri boliviensis), with its distinctive black cap. Photo Credit: Arkive. Walking through the Amazon rainforest for the first time is an overwhelming experience, and not in an…
This article is the first in a two-part series about logging in Malaysia. Read the second part here. A recent report by the international affairs think tank Chatham House has…
Ezequiel Antonio Castanha in custody. Image courtesy of IBAMA Authorities in Brazil have arrested a man they claim to be the single biggest deforester in the Amazon, according to a…
This article is the first in a two-part series about the shortcomings of protected area definition in Peru. Read the second part here. Many of the world's protected areas may…
Could a website save the world's lemurs? Indri lemur (Indri indri). Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Last year, scientists released an emergency three-year plan that they argued could, quite literally,…
A pale-headed brush-finch (Altapetes pallidiceps)., one of the most endangered birds in the world. An unassuming brown bird, tiny both in body and population size, hovers on the edge of…
Lazarus turtle: Scientists discover unknown population of Critically Endangered reptile A rare photo of a living Arakan forest turtle. Photo courtesy of Shahriar Caesar Rahman. By the early Twentieth Century,…
Greenomics map showing recent clearing by Austindo Nusantara Jaya Agri in West Papua, Indonesia An Indonesian palm oil firm is destroying rainforests in New Guinea despite high profile zero deforestation…
Peruvian authorities struggle to restore records lost during government transition Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Non-profit organizations are working with the regional government of…
Society for Conservation Biology warns that Africa could follow Southeast Asia in losing substantial amounts of its forest Africa’s people, forests and wildlife are in trouble if the mostly unbridled…
This article is the second in a two-part series about carbon stock assessment in Guyana. Read the first part here. Some countries that retain forest wealth have started monetizing their…
This article is the first in a two-part series about carbon stock assessment in Guyana. Read the second part here. With financial incentives encouraging maintenance of carbon stocks and the…
Illegally logged rainforest tree in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Amid government schemes to curb illegal land clearing and systematically enhance a struggling…
Frog species used in the study (clockwise from top-right): Scinax hayii, Proceratophrys boiei, Hylodes phyllodes, Brachycephalus pitanga, Hypsiboas bandeirantes. Photo credit: Gui Becker Biodiversity level changes can have consequences for…
Crude palm oil and palm fruit. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Instead of wisely investing the windfall generated by cutting petrol subsidies, Indonesia is poised to squander funds by increasing…
An Ayoreo woman in front of a traditional communal Ayoreo house that was abandoned because of bulldozing activity, according to Survival International. Photo courtesy of Survival International. Their children were…
Fish being loaded into a truck for processing and export in Batu Putih, North Sulawesi. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Today Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) signed a memorandum of…
Forest abutting Sanaga river in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of Google Earth. Cameroon is struggling to make progress in combatting illegal logging. Regulatory budgets are too thin to protect the country’s…
Global Forest Watch image showing recent FORMA and Terra-I forest cover change alerts that reveal clearing in concessions controlled by a subsidiary of United Cacao. A company aiming to be…
In a tiny area of an isolated archipelago in the southwest Pacific lives a unique tree species on the precipice of extinction. Recent research has shown it is declining dramatically,…