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.

Sir David Attenborough By BBC - Passion Planet

At 100, David Attenborough’s message is no longer just about wonder

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2026

Mel Sunquist

Mel Sunquist, field biologist and mentor to generations of conservationists

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Jun 2026

A bonobo observes its surroundings from the canopy in Salonga National Park. Earning the trust of wild bonobos is a painstaking process that begins before dawn and can take years to achieve. Photo by Alice Péretié / Chengeta Wildlife.

Before tourists can see bonobos, trackers must earn their trust

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jun 2026

Researcher pointing to fungi in Yunnan, China. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The case for field stations

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jun 2026

Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jun 2026

The remnants of Upper Guinean Tropical Rainforest within Sierra Leone are home to a multitude of species, many of them threatened, such as the white-necked rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus). Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A few seconds with one of West Africa’s rarest birds

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jun 2026

Mona Khalil in 2002 at in Tyre. Photo by Jihad Seqlawi/AFP/Getty Images

Mona Khalil, who left safety in Europe to protect sea turtles in Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli airstrike

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Jun 2026

Monika Silva Koniuszek, 41, defended the everyday things corruption corrodes

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Jun 2026

The Eighty Mile Beach is a nesting site for the flatback turtle.

Australia establishes the first Sea Country Indigenous Protected Area

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Jun 2026

Tony Parkes. Photo courtesy of Big Scrub Landcare

Tony Parkes, the banker who replanted a rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jun 2026

Recent fires in the Amazon Rainforest degraded a large portion of the world’s primary forests. Image © Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace.

Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest 12-month level since 2014, show Brazilian data

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jun 2026

A Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in India. Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Cambodia wants its tigers back. So it plans to import Bengal tigers from India

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Jun 2026

Soundscape Baselines Site in Baraboo Hills, Wisconsin, USA, includes view of bioacoustic recorder and camera trap

Why conservation urgently needs acoustic baselines

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Jun 2026

This platypus is ready for release, after being captured, weighed, measured and given a health assessment.

What the platypus can teach us about smarter conservation

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Jun 2026

A school of albacore tuna gathered by a seine net, off the Seychelles. Photo by Marc Taquet

Tuna are rebounding. The work is far from done.

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Jun 2026

A European wildcat in Scotland, where 46 captive-bred wildcats have been released as part of an ongoing reintroduction project. The cats are repopulating former habitat in the Cairngorms mountain range in the eastern highlands.

The European wildcat is back. In some places.

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Jun 2026

Brooklyn Rivera. Photo courtesy of La Prensa,

Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jun 2026

One of many unattributed AI-generated images doing the rounds on social media.

The new burden of proving wildlife is real

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 May 2026

Amazon rainforest canopy. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 May 2026

A leopard cat in India’s West Bengal state. India’s population of leopard cats is not contiguous, with individuals in the western part of the country isolated from the rest of the leopard cat’s range. Image by Soumyajit Nandy via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Asia’s overlooked leopard cat

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 May 2026

Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 May 2026

The plight of koalas was a factor in creating this new national park, but 66 threatened animals and 37 threatened flora species are also found here.

Great Koala National Park tests whether protected forests can stay connected

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 May 2026

Givaldo Santos Kaiowá

Givaldo Santos, Kaiowá and Guarani leader, was killed on May 1st, aged 40

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 May 2026

Merlin van Lawick speaking at Jane Goodall's celebration of life in Washington D.C. on November 12, 2025. Photo by the Washington National Cathedral.

Jane Goodall’s grandson on hope after loss

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 May 2026

A 2004 mapping expedition organized by the Trio and the Amazon Conservation Team in Suriname. Image courtesy of the Amazon Conservation Team

Whose map counts in conservation? The rise of participatory mapping

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 May 2026

Paying people to see wildlife: Inside a $1-per-hectare conservation experiment in Borneo

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 May 2026

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 May 2026

Tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus sp) in Madagascar. Photo by Elise Paietta

In one forest, native rats remain. In another, only invaders.

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 May 2026

Sir David Attenborough By BBC - Passion Planet

At 100, David Attenborough’s message is no longer just about wonder

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2026

A forest in Costa Rica. The country is considered a pioneer in a forest protection mechanism that has helped drastically reverse deforestation. Image by Rhett Butler.

Can listening to a forest reveal whether it is ecologically healthy?

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 May 2026

Raffles’ banded langur, courtesy of Andie Ang.

Singapore’s population of Raffles’ banded langur has doubled

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 May 2026

A young ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis). Image courtesy of Arman Muharmansyah.

Species thought extinct for thousands of years ‘rediscovered’ thanks to Indigenous knowledge

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026

Amazon Mining Watch leverages artificial intelligence to map the impact of gold mining activities across all nine Amazonian countries.

A search engine for the planet opens to the public

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026

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The blue shark is one of the widest-ranging sharks in the world, and its meat is the most commonly traded in commercial markets. Image courtesy of Prochym/Adobe Stock.

Shark Meat Nation

Who controls Indian Ocean tuna?

A mountain gorilla in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Photo by Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo.

Primate Planet

Guasimas Bay has been contaminated by agrochemicals and waste that is released from shrimp farms not far from the coast.

Who controls Mexico’s Yaqui River?

Beyond the screen: DCEFF

A dairy cow in a farm in the Netherlands.

The Dutch Nitrogen Crisis

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Collage, Fritz Pinnow, contributor, and a soldier

The Congo Basin is home to critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis).

Bay near Pulai Rayo, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler.

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