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Valmik Thapar. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Valmik Thapar, India’s tiger man, died on May 31st, aged 73

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 May 2025
Sebastião Salgado. Courtesy of Instituto Terra

Photographer Sebastião Salgado (1944-2025) planted a forest and grew a global movement

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 May 2025
Ochieng Ogodo

Mongabay mourns the loss of Ochieng’ Ogodo, our East Africa Editor

Mongabay.com 17 Apr 2025
Randy Borman. Courtesy of the Cofan Survival Fund

Randy Borman (1955-2025): An unlikely guardian of the Amazon rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Feb 2025
Mikkel Larsen

Carbon exchange leader and sustainability advocate Mikkel Larsen dies at 50

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Jan 2025

Conservationists and nature defenders who died in 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2024
Ryan Killackey

The life and legacy of Ryan Killackey, the filmmaker who rallied international support for Yasuni (Obituary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Oct 2024

Peter Dykstra, award-winning environmental journalist, died at 67

Bobby Bascomb 7 Aug 2024
Danilo Villafañe in the Sierra Madre in Colombia in 2010. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Indigenous leader Danilo Villafañe dies at 49 in trying to save drowning women in Colombia

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Dec 2023

Indonesia remembers Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, rare policymaker who stood for nature

Junaidi Hanafiah, Richardo Hariandja 22 Dec 2023
Gordon Moore. Courtesy of the Moore Foundation.

Gordon Moore, tech legend and conservation philanthropist, has died at 94

Mongabay.com 28 Mar 2023

Sumatran conservationist Rahmad Saleh Simbolon dies at 47

Elviza Diana, Lili Rambe 29 Aug 2022
Aziil Anwar.

Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64

Agus Mawan 16 Aug 2022
L. Bruce Kekule in his element in the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Sanctuary rainforest in southern Thailand. Image courtesy of Greg McCann.

Exploring the deep wildlife photography legacy of Bruce Kekule (commentary)

Gregory McCann 1 Jul 2022

Sabino Gualinga, Amazon shaman and defender of the ‘living forest,’ passes away

Kimberley Brown 23 Feb 2022

Elephant protector and fossil hunter Richard Leakey leaves outsized legacy in Kenya

Jeremy Hance 25 Jan 2022

E.O. Wilson’s last dream

Jeremy Hance 3 Jan 2022

Conservation deaths in 2021

Mongabay.com 30 Dec 2021
Courtesy of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation

Edward O. Wilson, prominent biologist and author, has died at 92

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2021
Photo credit: Bill Laurance

Tom Lovejoy, prominent conservation biologist, dies at 80

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Dec 2021

Reveling in complexity: Remembering a man who ‘truly lived’ conservation (commentary)

Gregory McCann 7 Apr 2021

Notable deaths in conservation in 2020

Mongabay.com 28 Dec 2020
Santos Sauna at a sacred coastal site where the Sierra Nevada meets the sea.

COVID is killing Indigenous leaders (commentary)

Mark Plotkin 11 Aug 2020

Madagascar remembers Guy Suzon Ramangason, a champion of protected areas

Mickah Raharisoa 9 Jul 2020

Marcellus Adi Riyanto: The Indonesian vet who lived for the Sumatran rhino

Julia John 19 Jun 2020

Legendary entomologist Terry Erwin passes away at age 79

Liz Kimbrough 15 May 2020
Yohanes Terang in his beloved forest. © Titayanto Pieter

Indonesian environmental poet and Dayak leader Yohanes Terang, 1956-2020

Erik Meijaard 11 May 2020

Tribute to Garth Owen-Smith, African conservationist (commentary)

Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation 18 Apr 2020
Tommy Apriando from @tommyapriando on Instagram.

Indonesian investigative reporter and journalism advocate Tommy Apriando, 1989-2020

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Feb 2020
Sue Palminteri with elephants. Courtesy of George Powell.

Conservation biologist and wildtech journalist Sue Palminteri, 1965-2019

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Dec 2019

Wild Kingdom’s Jim Fowler has died

Mongabay.com 9 May 2019
Red-footed Boobies flying over Palmyra Atoll, Northern Line Islands, USA. Photo copyright Erik Oberg / Island Conservation

Trapper, turned conservationist: Bill Wood (obituary)

Bernie Tershy 24 Oct 2018

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