Rhett Ayers Butler
This post is an abbreviated response to a recent question about my journey into sustainability My journey into sustainability didn’t begin in a classroom or a boardroom—but in a rainforest in Borneo. I was a teenager, cooling my feet beside a jungle creek, when a wild orangutan emerged in the canopy overhead. We made eye [Continue reading]
20 years ago, I started Mongabay News with a laptop, a dream, and a sense of urgency — here’s what’s next. Last month marked 20 years since I started Mongabay’s news service. In those early days, it was just me—working from my apartment or traveling with a laptop, publishing articles primarily about tropical forests. My [Continue reading]
This month marks 20 years since I started the Mongabay news service. At the time, it was just me—writing, editing, and publishing from a desk with more ambition than resources. The idea was simple: provide consistent, fact-based environmental reporting that filled a gap I saw between advocacy groups and mainstream media. Coverage of tropical forests [Continue reading]
It’s difficult to describe the feeling of standing beneath Auyán-Tepuí, that towering table mountain in southern Venezuela, except to say that something in me changed. In the mid-1990s, I visited this place—part of Canaima National Park—drawn by the allure of Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall on Earth. But nothing prepared me for the sheer presence [Continue reading]
In 2021, I grappled with a difficult decision. At the time, Facebook accounted for more than 80% of Mongabay’s external referral traffic — but we were increasingly questioning the value of that traffic. Mongabay’s mission as a nonprofit newsroom is to produce journalism that informs and drives impact, not just generate clicks. Years earlier, we’d [Continue reading]
My obsession with Madagascar began in childhood. While my friends hung out at the mall or played video games, I hoarded books on the island’s chameleons and lemurs, dreaming of the day I would see them myself. I saved every spare dollar—from jobs, birthdays, even the Tooth Fairy—to fund my future adventure. By college, I [Continue reading]
For my eighth-grade graduation, my parents gave me a basic 10-gallon aquarium. I quickly became obsessed with freshwater fish—not just the common pet store varieties like neon tetras and angelfish, but also more unusual species like elephant-nose fish and upside-down catfish. My fascination led me to devour books and academic papers, work in a fish [Continue reading]
How travel shaped my life 🥾 Growing up, travel wasn’t a luxury—it was a way of life. My father’s job meant a steady stream of airline miles, and my mother, a travel agent in the golden age of the industry, had the know-how to turn those miles into experiences on a limited budget in an [Continue reading]
What I wish I knew 25 years ago When I started Mongabay, I wasn’t thinking about building a global news organization. I just wanted to share my love for nature and make people care about what was happening to the world’s forests. Back then, I didn’t know how to run a newsroom, raise money, or [Continue reading]
Not all opportunities are worth taking. In 2010, a high profile literary agent approached me with an enticing offer: Write a book about my journey and the environmental trends shaping the world. It was the kind of opportunity many dream of—a chance to share my perspective, to build my profile, to hold a finished work [Continue reading]
I grew up with an unusual passport for a kid. My father’s constant work travel meant a generous supply of airline miles, and my mother—who built her career as a travel agent focused on international destinations—had the connections to make them go far on a limited budget. We went to the classic places for middle-class [Continue reading]
“When are you going to get a real job?” I heard this a lot in the early years—from my parents, my peers in Silicon Valley, even a partner at a consulting firm who tried to recruit me out of college. I had stepped away from stability into uncertainty. I’d always had a job since I [Continue reading]
Do you want to contribute to something impactful in a place where you’re an outsider? Here’s what I learned starting Mongabay-Indonesia, an environmental news service in a country where I didn’t even speak the language. 1) Find the right people. The real secret? It’s not about having all the answers—it’s about finding people who do. [Continue reading]
Want to raise money from foundations? It’s not just about persistence—it’s about speaking their language. When I first started seeking foundation support for Mongabay, I faced a wall of silence. No responses. When I was lucky, I got a “No thanks.” At the time, I thought I was taking the right approach. I targeted foundations [Continue reading]
Over the next couple of months, I plan to share weekly posts like this, offering context and insights on my journey in a format different from my usual style. My goal is to explore whether this approach resonates with new audiences and communities. I never set out to become a journalist. When I started Mongabay, [Continue reading]
On June 8, 1999, Mongabay was officially launched. So today is officially Mongabay’s 25th birthday. Over the past several days, many people have been asked about the history of Mongabay. This an extended version: https://mongabay.cc/pazNOU Here’s a brief version: I founded Mongabay out of my love for tropical forests. The site’s initial model was based [Continue reading]
Next week marks 25 years since I founded Mongabay out of my passion for nature. I never imagined that a personal effort to raise awareness about tropical forests would evolve into a global network of dedicated journalists reporting from nature’s frontlines. It’s been incredible to see the contributions of these talented individuals making a real-world [Continue reading]
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 [Continue reading]
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 [Continue reading]
“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 [Continue reading]
In April, I formally joined the advisory council for the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Bioacoustics will revolutionize biodiversity monitoring, transform how we evaluate the effectiveness of conservation, and create new opportunities to engage the public around wildlife and ecosystems. The K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation [Continue reading]
Mongabay just hit 1 billion lifetime pageviews. It took almost 23 years. Here’s my key takeaway from the journey. One billion pageviews is a small number compared with platforms like YouTube and Facebook or mainstream news outlets like The New York Times, but for a niche provider of environmental news like Mongabay, the interest in our [Continue reading]
One of the few benefits of having a father who had to fly each week from San Francisco to meet clients in Hawaii and Alaska during my formative years was the airline miles — my father had a ton. So many, in fact, that our family didn’t have to spend a lot of money on [Continue reading]