Categories
Announcements The Business of Mongabay

Empowering change through informed action

High-quality data journalism serves as a powerful tool in elucidating complex environmental issues, transforming raw data into compelling narratives that illuminate the hidden stories behind the numbers. By employing rigorous data collection and analysis, journalists can uncover trends and patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed, providing a solid foundation for investigative reporting. But how do […]

Categories
Talks

Conveying climate change to the public, by journalism and fiction

Earlier this month, I joined science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson for a conversation about conveying climate change and other environmental issues to the public. The virtual event took place at the University of California-San Diego’s Triton Leaders Conference 2024 and was emceed by Michael Bumbry. We discussed communicating environmental issues via news reporting and […]

Categories
Talks

Reasons for hope in the face of the global environmental crisis

On Monday night I gave a lecture at the prize ceremony for the BBVA Foundation’s 5th Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication (English) (program). The event was held in Madrid. I was asked to speak about “Reasons for hope in the face of the global environmental crisis” and provide a text of my remarks ahead of […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

An overview of Mongabay’s audience and the stories we produced in 2023

People often inquire about Mongabay’s readership, so here’s an overview of data from last year. The attached document offers a summary of readership and story production data for Mongabay’s primary news sections in 2023, which include Mongabay-Brasil (Portuguese), Mongabay-French, Mongabay-India (English and Hindi), Mongabay-Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia), Mongabay-Latam (Spanish), and Mongabay-News. Please note that this analysis […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

An interview with anthropologist Alison Richard

The island nation of Madagascar is celebrated for its extraordinary biodiversity, characterized by remarkably high rates of endemicism; approximately 90% of its wildlife is unique to the island, making it an unique and irreplaceable treasure trove of biological richness. This includes a myriad of distinctive species, such as lemurs, chameleons, and a diverse range of […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

Key rainforest issues to monitor in 2024

Last week, Mongabay published a recap of the major trends in the world’s tropical rainforests for 2023. Here’s a glimpse into some of the key issues to monitor in 2024. Brazil The deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon has declined significantly during President Lula’s first year of his third term, following the reinstatement of various rainforest protection programs. […]

Categories
Announcements The Business of Mongabay

The end of an era

Driven by a desire to share my book on tropical rainforests with the public for free, I established Mongabay in 1999. 25 years on, Mongabay has evolved from a website hosting my book to a comprehensive platform covering a wide range of environmental topics far beyond tropical forests. Mongabay has since evolved from a website […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

Danilo Villafañe (1974-2023): A Guardian’s Farewell

In the emerald shadows of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a profound loss echoes through the mountains. Danilo Villafañe, an Arhuaco Indigenous leader of unwavering conviction, passed away on Christmas Day, aged 49, in a selfless act of heroism. Villafañe drowned while trying to rescue two young women from the waters where the Palomino […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

A review of tropical rainforest news in 2023

While the data is still preliminary, it appears that deforestation declined across the tropics as a whole in 2023 due to developments in the Amazon, which has more than half the world’s remaining primary tropical forests. Sharp decline in Amazon deforestation An analysis published in December by the MAAP initiative revealed a significant decrease in deforestation. […]

Categories
Media appearances

Appearance on Mark Brand’s BETTER podcast

Last year I talked with Mark Brand, a social-impact entrepreneur, chef, and systems designer who is committed to ending hunger. I met Mark at the Sun Valley Forum, where we both spoke. Today I learned that the podcast episode featuring our conversation aired in July 2022. You can hear it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or […]

Categories
Media appearances

World Economic Forum video

Earlier this year I agreed to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Food and Water Security. This may seem like an odd fit given my background and area of focus, but I saw it as an opportunity to ensure that nature was part of the conversation. Indeed, when I was asked at […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

Interview with author Sonja Swift

Wolves, with their widespread distribution from North America to Eurasia, are ecologically vital as keystone species, playing a critical role in maintaining the health and balance of ecosystems by regulating prey populations. Their influence extends to increasing biodiversity and reshaping landscapes, thus fostering more robust and diverse natural environments. Culturally, wolves hold a unique place […]

Categories
Mongabay Features

Interview with Jocotoco’s Martin Schaefer

In July, I visited Narupa Reserve, a protected area established and run by the Jocotoco Foundation. While I had only two days, I was very impressed with the quality of the forest, the abundance of birds, and the stunning scenery. In 1997, ornithologist Robert S. Ridgely discovered a previously undocumented bird species, the Jocotoco Antpitta […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

Pursuing impact over pageviews

As noted before, shifting Mongabay from a for-profit to a nonprofit granted us the privilege to prioritize impact over chasing clicks. This move freed us to give away our stories and view other media outlets as potential partners rather than competitors. If our articles are republished, that helps us fulfill our mission by helping inform […]

Categories
Media appearances

Appearance on the Mongabay Newscast

This week the Mongabay Newscast published an interview with me about developments in the Amazon, my recent travels, and what’s upcoming for Mongabay.

Categories
Media appearances

Appearance on Mark Plotkin’s “Plants of the Gods” podcast

A few months ago I was a guest on Dr. Mark Plotkin’s “Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation” podcast which explores medicinal plants, Indigenous cultures, and conservation. Plotkin is a conservationist, ethnobotanist, and author who co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team and has won many accolades. I’ve interviewed Plotkin for Mongabay in the […]

Categories
Media appearances The Business of Mongabay

An interview with Sinc (Ciencia Contada en Español)

An interview with Alejandro Muñoz for Sinc (Ciencia Contada en Español): “No vamos detrás del clic, nuestro periodismo busca mejoras reales en el medioambiente”. A few extracts translated from from the interview: Do you think interest in environmental journalism has increased? Yes. I think the effects of environmental degradation are more evident than ever. This […]

Categories
Talks

Talks at UT Austin

In September I did several talks at the University of Texas at Austin thanks to the Texas Tropical Network. The Texas Tropical Network was inspired by the Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN), a group I co-founded in 2009 that held about 100 events around the Bay Area over a ten-year period. Texas Tropical Network […]

Categories
Talks The Business of Mongabay

Stories from Nature’s frontline – Talk in the San Francisco Bay Area

In October 2023 in an event at Holbrook Palmer Park in Atherton, CA, I spoke about conservation journalism in the world’s most biodiverse places. I talked about my journey of growing Mongabay from a personal passion project into a multinational nonprofit media organization that covers critical issues affecting wildlife, wild places, and communities globally. I […]

Categories
Media appearances

Spanish media coverage of the BBVA Biophilia Award

Spanish media published multiple stories about Mongabay winning the 2023 Biophilia Award. Here are two examples: La Fundación BBVA galardona a ‘Mongabay’ por crear una plataforma mundial de periodismo ambiental (ABC.es) Rhett Butler, fundador de la web ambiental Mongabay: “La gente prefiere creer lo que encaja con su visión del mundo” (El Mundo)

Categories
Announcements

Mongabay wins the Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication

This week we learned that Mongabay won the BBVA Foundation’s 5th Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication. Mongabay was selected “for its outstanding track record in communicating on nature and biodiversity conservation, especially in the countries of the Global South, thanks to the contributions of over 800 journalists, scientists and other correspondents in more than 80 […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

Navigating difficult news industry trends

“How are you responding to challenging trends in the news industry?” To provide background context in answering this frequently asked question, I usually direct people to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report and materials from the Pew Research Center. Here are a few key data points from these resources I find particularly relevant: ☑ Decline in […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

A recap of our 2030 roadmap

Over the past few months, via LinkedIn I’ve shared a series of posts on Mongabay’s 2030 roadmap. Here’s a recap of some of the key points: What is Mongabay? Mongabay is a nonprofit, independent media organization that focuses on issues at the intersection of people and nature. We collaborate with journalists worldwide to highlight stories […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

Helping ensure environmental journalism provides a decent and dignified living

Working to ensure that environmental journalism is a viable career option that provides a decent and dignified living. Advertising-based media is struggling, resulting in fewer resources for enterprise reporting, such as in-depth investigations. This decline also means fewer paid opportunities for journalists. The challenges are arguably even more acute for journalists who focus on environmental […]

Categories
The Business of Mongabay

Will Elon Musk’s decision to block news links accelerate the abandonment of the platform by environmentalists?

This week, Elon Musk confirmed that the social media platform, X — formerly known as Twitter — plans to stop displaying news article headlines or text within links. Will this decision accelerate the abandonment of the platform by environmentalists? The decline of “Environmental Twitter,” a segment of 380,000 users who frequently discussed climate change and […]