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.

For 50 years, Philip Fearnside has calculated the costs of losing the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Aug 2026

Guainia mountains

Nearly forgotten languages are finding new words for Colombia’s dragonflies

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2026

Illustration of the clownfish photo taken by Debby Ng.

A clownfish’s last stand

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2026

Spinach pipefish is an endemic species found in Papua New Guinea's Sepik River. It was not seen by scientists for more than four decades. Image Courtesy of New Guinea Binatang Research Centre.

Indigenous fisherwoman finds ‘lost’ spinach pipefish, not seen by science in 40 years

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Sep 2026

Michael Painter in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by David Wilkie.

Michael Painter put Indigenous land rights at the center of conservation

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2026

A view of the presidential palace in Indonesia's new capital, Nusantara. Image courtesy of Leah Varjacques.

Recording a rainforest before Indonesia’s new capital changes it

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Aug 2026

For 50 years, Philip Fearnside has calculated the costs of losing the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Aug 2026

Hà Đình Đức with the great softshell of Hồ Gươm. Photo by ZNews Vietnam

Hà Đình Đức, guardian of Hanoi’s legendary turtle, died at 86

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Aug 2026

Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Aug 2026

Patricio Segura. Courtesy of Patagon Journal

Patricio Segura, journalist who defended Patagonia’s rivers, died of hantavirus, aged 54

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Aug 2026

Pete Brosius in Sarawak

Pete Brosius brought Penan forest stewardship in Sarawak into court

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Aug 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

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