Surprising reasons to be optimistic about saving forests
Note: this is the first draft of a commentary I submitted to Yale Environment 360 last month. A final first-person version is available at A Conservationist Sees Signs of Hope…
Only place where rhinos, tigers, elephants, and orangutans coexist is under threat
Adult male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser NP. Photos by Rhett Butler. A forest that is the only place where rhinos, tigers, elephants, and orangutans coexist is under threat from…
Peru has massive opportunity to avoid emissions from deforestation
Carnegie Airborne Observatory map showing carbon in along the main stem of the Amazon in Peru. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory/Greg Asner Nearly a billion tons of…
Indonesian law bars palm oil companies from protecting forests
Indonesian govt won't allow palm oil companies to protect forests Oil palm plantation in Borneo. A law passed by the Indonesian government last month makes it even more difficult for…
Brazil unlikely to sustain gains in reducing deforestation without new incentives for ranchers, says study
Report argues that a jurisdiction-based approach could be a solution if commodity certification fails to reduce deforestation Cattle pasture and a forest reserve in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett…
Despite high deforestation, Indonesia making progress on forests, says Norwegian official
Norwegian ambassador to Indonesia Stig Traavik commutes to the office by bike every day. Jakarta's poor air quality pushes many residents to wear face masks on a daily basis. Despite…
Brazil confirms last year’s rise in Amazon deforestation
Annual forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil's National Space Agency INPE has officially confirmed last year's rise in Amazon deforestation. After completing its annual analysis of satellite imagery, INPE…
FSC meeting weighs old-growth forest protection, smallholder participation
Industrial logging operation in Malaysian Borneo in 2012. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that sets social and environmental certification criteria for forestry products,…
Parker/Gentry Award for Conservation
Last week I received the Parker/Gentry Award for Conservation from the Field Museum. Several people have asked about my award acceptance speech, so I've included the introduction and the conclusion…
Parker/Gentry Award for Conservation
Field Museum President and CEO Dr. Richard Lariviere presenting the Parker/Gentry Award to Rhett Butler during a ceremony on September 3, 2014 Last week I received the Parker/Gentry Award for…
A path to becoming a conservation scientist
An interview with Zuzana Burivalova, a part of our on-going Interviews with Young Scientists series. The path to finding a career often involves twists and turns. Serendipity is important —…
Invasive species worsen damage from Hawaii’s storms
Iselle damage in Hawaii. Photo by Greg Asner Damage from Hurricane Iselle, which recently battered Hawaii's Big Island, was exacerbated by invasion of non-native tree species, say experts who have…
Indonesia’s forests so damaged they burn whether or not there’s drought
Fires on deforested land trigger massive GHG emissions, haze Light haze over a drained and deforested peat forest in Riau, Sumatra in February 2014. Photo by Rhett Butler. Air pollution…
Indonesian govt reiterates plan to clear 14M ha of forest by 2020
Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. The Indonesian…
Big palm oil companies move forward on carbon study
An illegal oil palm plantation established within a protected forest area in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett Butler. Seven palm oil giants have agreed to fund a study that will…
Jane Goodall: how many elephants will be killed on World Elephant Day?
Elephants in Namibia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Marking World Elephant Day, a designation intended to raise awareness about the plight of elephants that are being widely poached for the…
Ecologists are underestimating the impacts of rainforest logging
Some amphibian species, like this Fringe leaf frog (Cruziohyla craspedopus), are particularly affected by heavy logging. Ecologists may be underestimating the impact of logging in old-growth tropical forests by failing…
The future of tropical biology research and conservation
Fan palms in the Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Last week, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest organization devoted…
30% of Borneo’s rainforests destroyed since 1973
More than 30 percent of Borneo's rainforests have been destroyed over the past forty years due to fires, industrial logging, and the spread of plantations, finds a new study that…
New palm oil sustainability manifesto met with criticism from environmentalists
Oil palm fresh fruit bunches in Aceh, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. This week several palm oil giants — Sime Darby Plantation, Musim Mas Group, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad…
APP won’t acquire companies that continue to destroy forests
APP supplier concession in Riau Province Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) will not acquire companies that continue to destroy forests, according to a new procedure for association introduced by the…
Despite moratorium, Indonesia now has world’s highest deforestation rate
Indonesia now has the highest deforestation rate in the world, topping even Brazil which has more than five times the natural forest cover. Background photo: rainforest in Sumatra. Despite a…
Despite early headwinds, Indonesia’s biggest REDD+ project moves forward in Borneo
Global Forest Watch map showing forest loss in and around Tajung Puting and the Rimba Raya project area. Just over a year ago, the Indonesian government officially approved the country's…
Discarded cell phones to help fight rainforest poachers, loggers in real-time
A technology that uses discarded mobile phones to create a real-time alert system against logging and poaching will soon be deployed in the endangered rainforests of Central Africa. Rainforest Connection…
Protecting rainforests could sequester equivalent of a third of global emissions annually
Global carbon emissions from human activities. Eliminating deforestation, peatlands and forest degradation, and forest fires in the tropics could reduce global carbon emissions by two billion tons a year, or…
In cutting deforestation, Brazil leads world in reducing emissions
In past decade, Brazil has done the carbon equivalent of taking every car off America's roads for three years Brazil's success in reducing deforestation in the world's largest rainforest has…
Singapore intercepts massive illegal shipment of Madagascar rosewood
Recent major Malagasy rosewood busts. Authorities in Singapore have made the largest-ever international seizure of rosewood logs, providing further evidence that industrial-scale smuggling of Madagascar's rainforest timber continues despite an…
Logger continues to destroy Indonesian rainforest despite green promises (Photos)
Active clearance of peatland forest inside a PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (PT RAPP) pulpwood concession on Pulau Pedang, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province taken 05/20/2014. PT RAPP is a…
Indonesian activist: strong company commitments, media push government on forest issues
Zamzami in Siak, Riau on May 23, 2014. Photos by Rhett Butler. Indonesia has become notorious for its high rate of forest loss, but there are nascent signs of progress.…
New opportunities for data-driven reporting on forests
Global Forest Watch image showing forest loss near Lake Toba in North Sumatra. This map was used for a story about a conflict between a local community and an industrial…