Nature conservation Influencers News

Nature conservation influencers is a series of interviews conducted by Mongabay Founder and CEO, Rhett Ayers Butler, with leading conservation thinkers, funders, and practitioners.

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
California redwoods. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Nature is no longer “a nice to have,” it’s “a must-have”: Q&A with André Hoffmann

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Apr 2021
Pair of zebra in Rwanda. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Momentum is building for a ‘robust’ biodiversity framework: Q&A with Elizabeth Mrema

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Apr 2021

Recognizing the true guardians of the forest: Q&A with David Kaimowitz

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Apr 2021
Layang Layang Atoll, Spratly Islands, South China Sea.

‘We’re at a tipping point with coal’: Q&A with Bloomberg’s Antha Williams

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Apr 2021
Sophie, head of the pangolin working group of the CBCGDF, sampling a Chinese pangolin's oral and nasal secretions and skin surface tissues at the Jinhua Wildlife Rescue Center. After being cleared, the pangolin was released into the wild. CBCGDF was been working to protect pangolins since 2015. Photo credit: CBCGDF

Civil society’s push to advance conservation in China: Q&A with Jinfeng Zhou

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Apr 2021

“Activism gives you hope”: Q&A with Wallace Global Fund’s Ellen Dorsey

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Apr 2021
Eliza, a Haruku Kewang, is helping protect a local population of gosong birds. Photo credit: EcoNusa/Victor Fidelis

Helping Papuans protect Indonesia’s last frontier: Q&A with Bustar Maitar

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Apr 2021
Photo credit: Sacred Earth Solar

Melina Laboucan-Massimo: Catalyzing an Indigenous-led just energy transition

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Mar 2021

Rewilding public lands in Patagonia and beyond: Q&A with Kris Tompkins

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Mar 2021
Bernadette Demientieff at a protest.

“Our identity is non negotiable” says Gwich’in leader Bernadette Demientieff

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Mar 2021
The border region between Bears Ears and Navajo Nation. Photo credit: NASA Landsat

Conservation would be more effective with more Indigenous leadership, says Patrick Gonzales-Rogers

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Mar 2021
Satellite image of Reserve de chasse de la Lefini in Republic of Congo. Photo credit: NASA Landsat

‘There are no silver bullets’ in conservation: Synchronicity Earth’s Jessica Sweidan

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Mar 2021
Young girl in the Kayapó-Mẽbêngôkre village of Aukre in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo credit: Cristina Mittermeier

“Securing Indigenous guardianship of vital ecosystems”: Q&A with Nia Tero CEO Peter Seligmann

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Feb 2021
Satellite image of Mount Aspiring National Park, New Zealand in February 2021. Photo credit: Maxar Technologies and Planet.

‘Everything on this planet is connected’: Q&A with WWF’s Marco Lambertini

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Feb 2021

Backing the stewards of biocultural diversity: Q&A with Indigenous rights leader Carla Fredericks

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Feb 2021
Greenpeace volunteers create a burnt smoldering rainforest with a lifelike animatronic orangutan at the headquarters of Oreo cookies near Uxbridge, UK as part of a campaign to pressure Wilmar, which is a palm oil supplier to Mondelez, which makes Oreo cookies. Photo © Chris J Ratcliffe / Greenpeace

‘A better world is within reach’: Q&A with Greenpeace’s Jennifer Morgan

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Feb 2021
White pelicans, Pelecanus onocrotalus, Danube Delta rewilding area, Romania. Photo by Staffan Widstrand / Rewilding Europe.

With shared knowledge, ‘we could build a new world’: Q&A with Lisbet Rausing

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Feb 2021
Elephants in Namibia. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler.

Investing in African wildlife: An interview with David Bonderman

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Jan 2021
Gentoo penguins watching an iceberg. Image credit: Mongabay

We’re approaching critical climate tipping points: Q&A with Tim Lenton

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Jan 2021

How to transform systems: Q&A with WRI’s Andrew Steer

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Jan 2021
Pine forest in the Sierra Nevada. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / mongabay

Bold sustainability commitments: An interview with Microsoft’s Lucas Joppa

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Dec 2020
A canoe on the Maroni river, which forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname. Photo © Didier Gentilhomme.

France’s tropical forest conservation efforts: an interview with AFD’s Gilles Kleitz

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Dec 2020
Redwood forest in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

‘Nature is next’: Q&A with Finance for Biodiversity’s Simon Zadek

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Nov 2020
School of hammerhead sharks, northwest Galápagos. Photo by Greg Asner / DivePhoto.org

Could China become a partner in Galapagos marine conservation? Yolanda Kakabadse thinks so

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Nov 2020
Map of Biodiversity. Esri, NatureServe

Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond: ‘People and planet are inextricably linked’

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Oct 2020
The ROV SuBastain with careful guidance by its pilots uses the manipulator arm to collect a geological sample at 500m on Flinders Reef. Photo credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt: ‘Solutions are always local’

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Oct 2020
Frigatebird displaying in the Galapagos. The Wyss Campaign for Nature partnered with the Charles Darwin Foundation to strengthen the management of the 138,872 square kilometer Galapagos Marine Reserve. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Despite COVID, political divides, conservation can advance: Hansjörg Wyss

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Oct 2020
Jacob Hamblin Arch, Escalante, Utah. Photo by Tina Butler.

Public lands and parks are our common heritage: Bruce Babbitt

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Oct 2020
Satellite image of a portion of Everglades National Park in Florida. Courtesy of Zoom.Earth

Data drives Bloomberg’s support for climate solutions, says Antha N. Williams

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Oct 2020
Waves breaking on a beach in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Putting sustainability at the center of business strategy: An interview with Paul Polman

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Oct 2020

The post-COVID opportunity for the environment: An interview with the GEF’s Carlos Manuel Rodriguez

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Oct 2020
Lightning over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Manument. Photo by Adam Haggerty / BLM

Can public lands unify divided Americans? An interview with John Leshy

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2020

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