Founder's briefs News

Founder’s Briefs is an occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Rhett founded Mongabay in 1999 to raise awareness about tropical forests and biodiversity. In 2012, he transitioned Mongabay to a non-profit organization and oversaw its growth into a multinational, multilingual news service. Beyond Mongabay, Rhett has advised a range of institutions, while his writing and photography have appeared in hundreds of publications. Rhett's work has been recognized with the Heinz Award and the Parker/Gentry Award, among other honors.

Cerros de Mavecure in Colombia's Guainía in July 2026. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

Ten years of Mongabay Latam

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jul 2026

A Timor green pigeon (Treron psittaceus).

Only a few hundred Timor green pigeons may remain. There is still time to save them

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Aug 2026

Steve Smit. From his Facebook page

Steve Smit, South Africa’s “Monkey Man,” has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Aug 2026

John Salehe. Photo courtesy of AWF

John Salehe helped shape Tanzania’s community conservation movement

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Aug 2026

Chimpanzees at Tacugama

What makes chimpanzee conservation last? Lessons from Sierra Leone

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Aug 2026

A group of cow elk traverses an active mine site as they move between forest patches. Image courtesy of Brittany L. Slabach.

Wildlife in the eastern US are making a comeback

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Aug 2026

Mariano Cenamo. Photo by Renato Stockler / Folha Press

Mariano Cenamo, advocate for a sustainable Amazon bioeconomy, has died, aged 46

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Aug 2026

Tree cover is not the same as ecological recovery

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Aug 2026

Vinod Rishi

Vinod Rishi helped give India’s elephants room to roam

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2026

The Alta Floresta titi monkey is the symbol of Alta Floresta bridges program. Image courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and Projeto Reconecta.

Amazon canopy bridges enable 15,000 wildlife crossings without a single roadkill

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2026

Doña Oscarina. Photo by Ana Amelia Hamdan / ISA

Doña Oscarina, master ceramicist, documented Indigenous knowledge along the Tiquié River

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Aug 2026

A whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) stalks the reef at Luf Island, Papua New Guinea.

Four Pacific nations are planning one of the world’s largest ocean corridors

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Aug 2026

A local community takes part in a tree plantation project in 2018.

Bangladesh plans to plant 250 million trees. Keeping them alive will be harder

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Aug 2026

PUMA FEST and the community Mongabay Latam has helped build

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Aug 2026

Most tourists who travel to the Central African Republic (CAR) are drawn by the western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Dzanga-Sangha National Park. Image by Rhett A. Butler/ Mongabay.

Central African Republic’s Dzanga-Sangha tests the promise of wildlife tourism

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Jul 2026

Dave Johnson. Photo from the Global Owl Project

David Johnson, the owl man of Umatilla

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Jul 2026

Bill Oddie launches the Visit Scotland new website with Tam the Peregrine falcon at Visitscotland’s London office, May 6, 2004. Photo by Michael Stephens/PA via AP.

Bill Oddie brought birdwatching into millions of homes

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Jul 2026

Overhead view of the Rio Huaypetue gold mine in the Peruvian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Mining, drilling, and fire are fragmenting the world’s largest forests

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Jul 2026

Pat Lowe.

Pat Lowe spent decades describing and defending the Kimberley

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Jul 2026

Father Robert Athickal

Father Robert Athickal asked children to protect the living world

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Jul 2026

Khuiusi Khisetje. Photo by Christian Braga / ISA

Khuiusi Khisêtjê helped his people recover their land and future in the Xingu

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Jul 2026

Cerros de Mavecure in Colombia's Guainía in July 2026. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

Ten years of Mongabay Latam

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jul 2026

John H. Rappole. Photo courtesy of the Post Journal

Smithsonian ornithologist John Rappole reconsidered why birds migrate

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jul 2026

Renato Moraes de Jesus. Photo courtesy of the Conselho Regional de Engenharia e Agronomia do Espírito Santo (Crea-ES)

Renato Moraes de Jesus was a pioneer of Atlantic Forest restoration in Brazil

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Jul 2026

Florida Manatee. Photo credit: Robert Bonde / USGS

America’s retreat from wildlife protection will be felt far beyond its borders

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Jul 2026

Félix Guillermo Moncada Gavilán

Félix Guillermo Moncada Gavilán helped move Cuba from sea turtle fishing to protection

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Jul 2026

Ronald Sanabria. From his Facebook account.

Ronald Sanabria sought to make tourism more sustainable

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jul 2026

Sitesh Ranjan Deb at his facility. Image via Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Sitesh Ranjan Deb turned a hunter’s knowledge to saving wildlife

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Jul 2026

Bill Montevecchi. Photo courtesy of the Pacific Seabirds Group which honored Montevecchi with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.

Bill Montevecchi showed what seabirds could tell us about the sea

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Jul 2026

Gus Mills with a cheetah. Sourced via the Endangered Wildlife Trust

Gus Mills, hyena expert and ‘the cheerful pessimist of the Kalahari’, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jul 2026

Linda Ingham with Pacific white-sided dolphin caught in Japanese driftnet, north Pacific. Photo © Greenpeace / Roger Grace

A marine protected area can ban fishing boats. It cannot stop drifting gear

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Jul 2026

Lydia Möcklinghoff with a giant anteater. From her social media.

Lydia Möcklinghoff, champion of the giant anteater, has died in a plane crash. She was 45

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Jul 2026

Mohammed Abu Daya, right, collects data on a spinetail devil ray that fishers brought to shore in Gaza in 2015. Image courtesy of Mohammed Abu Daya and Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara.

The Gaza scientist still tracking rays from a war zone

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Jul 2026

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Aerial view of the Cuanavale river, which runs through the Angolan Highlands and joins the Cuito River. Image courtesy of Zach Vincent for National Geographic.

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