Rhett Ayers Butler
Environmental decisions are often made with too little reliable information. Forests are cleared, fisheries depleted, Indigenous territories threatened, and carbon projects approved or financed before the public fully understands what is at stake. In many places, the problem is not only weak policy or poor enforcement. It is also a lack of trustworthy reporting, public [Continue reading]
I am often asked what Mongabay’s legacy is, or what it might turn out to be. The question usually comes with an assumption that a quarter-century of publishing should yield a tidy answer. It does not. Mongabay did not begin with a theory of media change, nor with an ambition to redefine environmental journalism. It [Continue reading]
In 2025, Mongabay reached 111 million unique visitors through our websites, a 46% increase over the previous year. That figure captures direct readership only. It excludes circulation through social media, messaging apps, and republication by more than 100 partner outlets, all of which extend the audience well beyond what web analytics record. Even so, the [Continue reading]
Like many mission-driven newsrooms, Mongabay is deeply concerned with whether our journalism makes a difference. We measure success not by the size of our audience but by what our stories enable—better governance, empowered communities, more resilient ecosystems, and the spread of innovations. Tracking those ripples has been a priority since Mongabay’s founding, and today it [Continue reading]
The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by people [Continue reading]
One year after completing Mongabay Africa’s environmental journalism grants, a cohort of Sahel-based journalists has taken the initiative to form the African Network of Francophone Environmental Journalists (RAJEF). Officially launched on February 26th, the network aims to strengthen environmental reporting across Francophone Africa, beginning with a fact-checking training session. The six founding members, hailing from [Continue reading]
I don’t get excited about independent evaluations. That’s what I used to think—until one conducted last year on our tropical forests reporting yielded some eye-opening findings. An independent evaluation recently reviewed our work on tropical forest reporting, interviewing 38 stakeholders and analyzing data from over 600 survey respondents. The results were compelling and reinforced the [Continue reading]
Reflecting on the past 25 years at Mongabay, it is evident that impactful journalism can drive meaningful change. Our work has contributed to significant outcomes, from exposing trafficking of pygmy sloths in Panama to informing a state decision to convert 101,000 hectares from a logging concession to a reserve in Borneo. My go-to example of [Continue reading]