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

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

Photograph of a Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) submitted by a KehatiKu citizen observer.

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

Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.

Deforestation is surging in Indonesia

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026

"Flower Power" was taken by Bernie Boston The Washington Evening Star on October 21, 1967, during the March on the Pentagon by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. It shows a protester placing a carnation into the barrel of an M14 rifle held by a soldier of the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne).

When protest works: Examples where activists have successfully pushed for change

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026

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

Why forest conservation is also public health

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Apr 2026

A small frog in costa Rica. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Conservation collects more data than ever. What is it for?

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Apr 2026

Misty morning in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

10 forces that could reshape the future of the world’s forests

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Apr 2026

Aaron Longton. Courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts.

Aaron Longton, fisherman who tied sustainability to survival

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Apr 2026

African elephant. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Living with wildlife, bearing the cost

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Apr 2026

Waved albatross (Phoebastria irrorata). Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Half of seabirds are declining. Protecting marine flyways could help save them

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Apr 2026

A federal fisheries observer sorts fish and collects data to inform fisheries management aboard the Cassandra Anne, a groundfish trawler based in Oregon, U.S. Imge by Chris Peterson/Action Works Photography courtesy of Oregon Sea Grant via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

How the US rebuilt a collapsed fishery

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Apr 2026

Scarlet macaw in Costa Rica. Frugivores are important seed dispersers. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

How quickly do tropical forests recover? Faster than expected, but slower than it seems

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Apr 2026

Silverback gorilla in Dzanga-Sangha, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why conservation needs stories of progress

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Apr 2026

Azurina eupalama, last documented evidence of its existence, photographed in 1983 by Jack Stein Grove at Sullivan Bay, Santiago Island, Galapagos Archipelago

Is the Galápagos damselfish extinct?

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Apr 2026

Jane Goodall planting a tree. Photo courtesy of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Today is Jane Goodall Day. Her movement continues.

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Apr 2026

Remote river in the Peruvian Amazon. © Zoom.Earth

How underinvesting in information threatens our collective well-being

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Apr 2026

Conservation depends on rangers. Their wellbeing is often an afterthought

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Mar 2026

Dracontium_croatii in Emeraldas, Ecuador. Photo by Philipp Hoenle via iNaturalist

Extinction—or just unseen? What Centinela reveals about biodiversity data gaps

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Mar 2026

Silhouette of a woman standing in a California redwood forest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

A profession built on hope, strained by loss

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Mar 2026

Sperm Whales Up Close Underwater in Indian Ocean, Western Australia. Photo credit: © Alex Westover

The ocean’s enforcement gap

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Mar 2026

Frozen tuna are transferred from the Hung Hwa 202, a Taiwanese longliner, to the Hsiang Hao, a Panama-flagged reefer operating out of Tokyo, Japan, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and crew are investigating distant water fishing fleet practices in the Mid-Atlantic during September and October 2019. Photo credit: © Tommy Trenchard

The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Mar 2026

Massaha forest. Image by ZB.

How a community defended its ancestral forest from logging

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Mar 2026

Duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in Scottsdale, Tasmania, Australia. Photo by Charles J. Sharp of Sharp Photography (sharpphotography.co.uk)

Are government subsidies undermining conservation efforts in Australia?

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Mar 2026

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