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
Redwood forest in California. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Conservation in a hotter world

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Sep 2025
Hema Sane. Image courtesy of Vision Publications

Hema Sane, botanist who lived without electricity, died on September 19th

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Sep 2025
Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in a dry forest in Madagascar. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

A dancing lemur could help save one of Madagascar’s most endangered ecosystems

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Sep 2025
Sumatran rhino at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The rhinoceros, under siege but not lost

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Sep 2025
Sumatran rhino. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Navigating conservation’s crisis (commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Sep 2025
A hunter in Colombia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

146 environmental defenders were killed or disappeared last year

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Sep 2025
Robert Redford at Sundance Ranch, 1975. Courtesy of Robert Redford. Via Orion Magazine.

Robert Redford, filmmaker who fought for nature, has died, aged 89

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Sep 2025
Waterfall in the Upper Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

How journalism helps turn information into outcomes

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Sep 2025

Finding optimism

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Sep 2025
An Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon Rainforest in Colombia. Some researchers oppose the idea that human cultures would have been limited and determined by the environment, and that supports the notion that human cultures have modified the environment as desired. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Forests on Indigenous lands help protect health in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Sep 2025
Mountain gorilla in Bwindi, Uganda in 2006.

The need for success stories in conservation (commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Sep 2025
Vian Ruma from his Facebook page.

Vian Ruma, Indonesian activist, found dead. Aged 30.

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Sep 2025
Newly hatched Socorro doves at Chester Zoo. Image courtesy of Chester Zoo.

Lost to feral cats, saved by zoos: The story of the Socorro dove

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Sep 2025
Rainforest in the Western Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Where life has found its richest expression – Amazon Rainforest Day

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Sep 2025

From beavers to bison: England’s rewilding revolution

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Sep 2025
Sunrise over the Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2025
A puma in the highlands of the Antisana páramos. Image courtesy of Andean Condor Foundation.

Restoring the Páramo: How Ecuador healed its degraded high-Andean ecosystem

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2025
Marc Stalmans. Courtesy of the Gorongosa Project

Marc Stalmans, ecologist who helped restore Gorongosa’s wildlife, dies at 66

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Aug 2025
Donovan Kirkwoord, Curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden. Image courtesy of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden.

Donovan Kirkwood, protector of South Africa’s rarest plants, dies aged 54 in search for one of the world’s most endangered species

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Aug 2025

Deforestation is killing people by raising local temperatures

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Aug 2025
Giant Galápagos tortoises. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The slow demise of turtles and tortoises

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Aug 2025
An adult leopard shark at the North Stradbroke Island summer aggregation site in Australia. Photo by MV Erdmann

Can we undo extinction? A growing effort to restore lost sharks

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Aug 2025
Augustin K. Basabose. Image by Allison Shelley for Wild Earth Allies

In eastern Congo’s war-torn forests, Augustin Basabose gave hope to gorillas and people

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Aug 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

Latest Specials

Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ssp. verus) in the Guinea forest. Image by ©Juan Maza.

Guinea’s Iron Frontier

6 stories
Samburu pastoralists walking with their herd.

Pastoralists in a Changing World

10 stories
Cassandra Garduño in a wooden boat.

Hands On: Stories that build change

4 stories

Forest Restoration Solutions

16 stories

Finning the High Seas

8 stories
Mamá Conchita in her chagra with her dogs.

Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon

9 stories

The Ideas Shaping Environmental Action

7 stories

The Future of Suriname’s Rainforests

13 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.

Gold nugget
Videos
Illustration of the clownfish photo taken by Debby Ng.
Articles
San Mateo village, one of 29 Matsés communities in Peru, on the banks of the Gálvez River. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay.
Podcasts

you're currently offline