Deforestation for cattle ranching in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Brazil could reduce more than a quarter of emissions linked to deforestation worldwide by intensifying cattle production…
An area of rainforest APP has pledged to protect in Riau Province, on the island of Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), Indonesia's largest pulp…
Orangutan in Central Kalimantan. This Earth Day, we've decided to highlight the spectacular natural wonders of Indonesia, which is arguably the most biodiverse country on Earth. Indonesia is rich with…
Harrison Ford with baby orangutans at a rehabilitation center for orphaned apes in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan. Photo courtesy of the Years Project. For years climate change activists and environmentalists have…
Oil palm fruit. All photos by Rhett Butler. After years of criticism from environmental groups, Cargill says it will establish policies to eliminate deforestation, peatlands conversion, and social conflict from…
Volcanic rainforest cone and landscape in Sierra del Divisor. Photo by Diego Pérez. For more than twenty five years, an international non-profit known as the World Land Trust has been…
Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, with a chimpanzee in her arms, c. 1995. Image Credit: Apic/Getty Images Primatologist and conservation legend Jane Goodall turns 80 today. In recognition…
This is part of a series of articles on market transformation in the pulp and paper and palm oil sectors in Indonesia. Drainage canal that forms the boundary between the…
This is part of a series of articles on market transformation in the pulp and paper and palm oil sectors in Indonesia. APP acacia plantation in Riau, Indonesia in February…
This is an expanded version of A New Leaf in the Rainforest: Longtime Villain Vows Reform, which ran on Yale e360 last week. This story was originally developed in January…
Oil palm plantation in Borneo. Over half the world's palm oil traded internationally is now bound by zero deforestation commitments after Singapore-based Golden-Agri Resources (GAR) extended its forest conservation policy…
A solitary rainforest tree remains standing in a recently planted palm oil plantation on former orang-utan habitat inside the PT Karya Makmur Abadi Estate II palm oil concession. PT KMA…
Global Forest Watch showing tree height and forest loss and gain between 2000 and 2012. World Resources Institute (WRI) today announced the release of a tool that promises to revolutionize…
Indonesian pulp and paper giant talks forest conservation policy with critics Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network (RAN); Scott Poynton, The Forest Trust (TFT); Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace; Rhett Butler, Mongabay; Aida…
Portrait of a Matsés woman. Photo by Alicia Fox. Tribes in the Amazon are increasingly exposed to the outside world by choice or circumstance. The fallout of outside contact has…
APP One Year Forest Conservation Policy Anniversary event Today I moderated a panel at Asia Pulp & Paper's one year anniversary event of its forest conservation policy. Briefly, the policy…
Rainforest Alliance has agreed to conduct an audit of Asia Pulp & Paper's progress in implementing the zero deforestation policy the forestry giant signed last year. The deal, announced Thursday…
Ameerega macero poison dart frog in Manu N.P. Photo by Alessandro Catenazzi. It's official: Manu National Park in Peru has the highest diversity of reptiles and amphibians in the world.…
Fire burning on an oil palm plantation in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Storebrand, one of Norway's largest life insurance and pension savings companies, has sold off holdings in…
Rainforest in Sumatra For the past decade and a half, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has been one of the most controversial paper producers on the planet. Environmentalists, human rights…
Inia araguaiaensis Researchers have discovered a new species of river dolphin from the Amazon. Writing in the journal Plos One, scientists led by Tomas Hrbek of Brazil's Federal University of…
Carbon-dense peat forest in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler A widely-heralded effort to spare carbon-dense rainforests and peatlands from palm oil development in Indonesian Borneo is facing…
Mother Sumatran orangutan with baby in Gunung Leuser, North Sumatra.. In a precedent-setting case, an Indonesian court has found a palm oil company guilty of violating environmental laws and ordered…
The endangered Huemul deer. Photo by: Alejandro Vila. The most popular environmental news article on mongabay.com during 2013 was a story about the recovery of the endangered Huemul deer (Hippocamelus…
Community embraces ecotourism instead of deforestation for palm oil. Community-based Borneo rainforest tourism at its best Replacing rainforests and peatlands with oil palm plantations is ecologically devastating at the local…
The year in rainforest news 2013 was full of major developments in efforts to understand and protect the world's tropical rainforests. The following is a review of some of the…
Page 1 of 2 Green basilisk in Costa Rica With 2013 drawing to a close, here are 100 nature pictures taken during my various Mongabay reporting trips in 2013, including…
South African sunset over the savanna Several people have asked me what became of Mongabay's 'Innovation in Conservation' award, which was granted each December between 2007 and 2012. The answer…
Also see our Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2013. The discovery of a new tapir species is number seven in our first ever Top 10 List of Happy Environmental Stories.…
