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.

Jane with Uruhara pant-hooting, 1996. Photo by Michael Neugebauer

Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Oct 2025
In the dump, men, women and children are looking for plastic and clothes that they can then sell. The people who work on the dump often wear no protection. It is estimated that 3,000 households make a living from this recycling.

The clothes that never die: How fast fashion is burying Africa in plastic

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Aug 2025
Burning within Tesso Nilo National Park.

Indonesia’s idle land problem

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Aug 2025

How rain can reveal what lives in rainforest treetops

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Aug 2025
John Landsiedel. Image from his social media.

John Landsiedel, Alaska wildlife biologist and pilot, died on July 25, aged 33

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Aug 2025
Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua at work. Image from his social media.

Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, water bearer to Tsavo’s wild, died June 18, 2024, aged 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Aug 2025
Shark meat on sale in Brazil is labeled as “cação,” a generic term whose true meaning is unknown to most Brazilians, surveys show.

Brazil’s shark meat problem

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Aug 2025
Rainbow over the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

People on nature’s frontlines aren’t waiting for miracles, says author Alan Weisman

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Aug 2025
Dang Dinh Bach speaking.

Dang Dinh Bach: He fought for clean air. Now he breathes through bars.

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Aug 2025
A full-circle rainbow arcing over a vast oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, carved out of what was once native rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The case for hope in environmental journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Aug 2025
Rex Mann. Image courtesy of the American Chestnut Foundation.

Rex Mann, American chestnut evangelist, died July 2, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Aug 2025
Ed McNabb. Image courtesy of the Australia Wildlife Sound Recording Group (AWSRG).

Edward McNabb, pioneer of conservation bioacoustics died on May 7, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Aug 2025
Lúcio Flávio Pinto

Lúcio Flávio Pinto: The Brazilian reporter who wouldn’t be bought or silenced

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2025
Paul-Loiselle at the New York Aquarium. Image courtesy of Julie Larsen/Wildlife Conservation Society.

Paul V. Loiselle, champion of cichlids, died April 15, aged 79

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2025
Jayantha Jayewardene. Image from The history of Ceylon tea.

Jayantha Jayewardene, Sri Lanka’s elephant advocate, died July 30, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2025
The critically endangered lemur leaf frog (Agalychnis lemur), found in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Requiem for the nearly lost

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Aug 2025
Devils Hole pupfish in the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility. Photo by Olin Feuerbacher/USFWS

Devils Hole pupfish hit by micro-tsunami from 8.8-magnitude Russian earthquake

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Aug 2025
The Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Community patrolling reduced environmental crime by 80% in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Aug 2025
John Robbins in his 70s. Image courtesy of the Food Revolution Network.

John Robbins, heir to an ice cream empire who chose a life of principle, dies at 77

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Jul 2025
Hamid Moradi. Photo courtesy of the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

Hamid Moradi, died on July 25th after battling a forest fire in Iranian Kurdistan, aged 36

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Jul 2025
An adult female kākāpō (Strigops habroptila) in a tree at night. Kākāpō are nocturnal and flightless. Image by Andrew Digby/New Zealand Department of Conservation.

World Nature Conservation Day: How a large, flightless parrot rebounded from the verge of extinction

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Jul 2025
Left: Ranger Claude, photographed by Brent Stirton. Right: Ranger Daniel, photographed by Virunga National Park.

Two rangers killed in a plane crash in DRC’s Virunga National Park

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Jul 2025
Sharon Haussmann,. Image courtesy of Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation.

Sharon Haussmann, guardian of rhinos, died on May 31, aged 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Jul 2025

James ‘Buddy’ Powell, defender of manatees, died on July 19, aged 70

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Jul 2025
A mangrove forest in the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia.

How much does it cost to restore a mangrove forest?

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jul 2025
Rain over a tropical island in the South Pacific in April 2025. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Conservation’s silent strain: Nature’s protectors face a mental health crisis

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Jul 2025
An ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in the Peruvian Amazonian rainforest (Cocha Cashu Biological Station), recorded through camera trapping. Photo credit: Fortunato Rayan.

Videos capture an unlikely alliance between ocelots and opossums in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Jul 2025
Ly Chandaravuth, Mother Nature Cambodia activist. Image © Andy Ball.

The price of protecting what’s left in Cambodia

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Jul 2025
Cnemaspis nilgala is a gecko that is found only in the rocky outcrop of Nilgala and is named after this unique habitat. Image courtesy of Suranjan Karunarathne.

Sri Lanka grants protection to a rare ecosystem

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jul 2025
Marlyse hiking in the heart of the Lobéké National Park, south-east Cameroon. Image by Yannick Kenné for Mongabay.

How one woman rose from porter to conservation leader

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Jul 2025
Harapan rainforest canopy in Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia, by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

What’s holding back natural climate solutions?

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Jul 2025
The Geoffroy's Tamarin can be found in the Darién rainforest. Image by Concep Arroyo via Pexels.

Inside Panama’s gamble to save the Darién

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Jul 2025
Patchwork of cassava fields, regenerating secondary forest, and natural forest in the Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Young secondary forests may be the planet’s most overlooked carbon sink

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Jul 2025

Latest Specials

The Andes, the longest continental mountain range in the world, stretches like a giant snake embracing all of South America, writes Yesid Achicue. Image courtesy of Yesid Achicue.

Voices from the Land

5 stories

Whose Amazon is it?

5 stories

Palm Oil War

10 stories

The Great Insect Crisis

5 stories

Dying for Arariboia

8 stories

Kafue River Transect

7 stories
Two Munduruku boys walk along a river in the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land. Image by Anderson Barbosa / Greenpeace.

Inside Brazil’s Amazon gold war

7 stories
Lion inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Beyond the Safari

6 stories
All Specials

Interested in other Mongabay websites?

Earth HQ
Data Studio
Conservation Effectiveness
Mongabay Latam
Reforestation App
Mongabay Indonesia

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Cassandra Garduño harvests kale in her chinampa.
Videos
Articles
Whānganui River
Podcasts

you're currently offline