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Statement in response to 2020 SEAL Journalism Award

This is a response to today’s news that I received a 2020 SEAL Journalism Award along with Fiona Harvey of The Guardian; Alexander C. Kaufman of The Huffington Post; Lisa Friedman of the New York Times; Dave Roberts of Volts; Brian L. Kahn of Earther / Gizmodo; Shannon Osaka of Grist; Zoya Teirstein of Grist; James Temple of The MIT Technology Review; Jeff Brady of NPR; Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post; and Mary Annaise Heglar of Hot Take Newsletter & Podcast.

I’m humbled to receive a 2020 SEAL Journalism Award. I accept this honor on behalf of the Mongabay team and our network of contributors, who work tirelessly to deliver news and inspiration from Nature’s frontline.

Despite the pandemic, rising violence against journalists, and other difficulties, Mongabay journalists have done incredible work over the past year, reporting on abuses in commodity supply chains from the Amazon to Indonesia, exploring solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, and holding power to account.

I’m extremely grateful to our team as well as the global community of journalists who put their lives on the line on a daily basis to inform and inspire us.

Thank you to the SEAL Journalism Awards for this recognition.

Rhett Ayers Butler. Image freely available for use. CC BY-SA Attribution-ShareAlike

By Rhett Ayers Butler

Rhett Ayers Butler is the Founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit conservation and environmental science platform that delivers news and inspiration from Nature's frontline via a global network of local reporters. He started Mongabay in 1999 with the mission of raising interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife.