Mongabay investigation makes “Best Nonprofit Journalism of 2017” list
Congratulations to the reporting team of Sue Branford, Maurício Torres, and Thais Borges: the third feature in their multi-part investigation from the Tapajós River Basin in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon carried out in cooperation with The Intercept-Brasil was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News for their ‘Best Nonprofit Journalism of 2017‘ list. The feature, “Day of Terror,” revealed how a raid by federal police on an indigenous Munduruku village resulted in one death and multiple injuries, and prompted a prosecutor to open a new investigation and recommend the award of $2.9 million (US) in compensation to the village. Read the feature and watch the harrowing video here. Banner image: Adenilson Krixi Mundurku’s family watches in solemn grief as Mongabay journalists are told how he was killed by Brazil’s Federal Police. Photo by Thais...
Mongabay in the news, November 2017
At Mongabay, we’re usually the ones interviewing other people about the environmental news of the day, but sometimes the microphone gets turned around, such as in November 2017, when members of the team appeared on Al Jazeera, National Public Radio, WUNC, Radio Ecoshock, and Heritage Radio Network to discuss our work. Otherwise, our original reports were republished or referenced widely as usual by other media outlets ranging from The Guardian to The Weather Channel and the New York Times, the latter of which relied in part on a recent Mongabay feature about the rise of ‘great ape circuses’ in Asia in a November 4 cover story. Here’s a selection of outlets where Mongabay turned up in the news last month: AFK Insider, Al Jazeera, Almanac News, Alternet, Animal Politico, Asia Sentinel, Asian Correspondent, China Dialogue, Courrier International, Digital Journal,The Dodo, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, El Espectador, The Guardian, Heritage Radio Network, The Independent, Kumparan News, La Mula, National Geographic Indonesia, National Public Radio, Netral News, Nieman Lab, Nusantara News, Pacific Standard, RPP Noticias, Radio Ecoshock, Scroll, La Semana, WUNC/The State of Things, Truthdig, The Weather Channel, Weather Underground, and The Wire. Image: Young three-toed sloth hugging a stuffed panda in a Trio indigenous community in...
Mongabay welcomes new board member, Holt Thrasher
Mongabay is pleased to announce its newest board member, Holt Thrasher. Holt is an active conservationist and brings deep leadership in that sector as well as decades of experience in investment banking, IT, and consulting. “Holt’s unparalleled experience at the intersection of conservation, finance, and technology brings an invaluable perspective as we continue to scale Mongabay’s platform,” said board chair Brodie Ferguson. “We’re excited that Holt will join us as we enter this exciting new stage of growth.” Echoing board chair Ferguson, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler said, “We’re thrilled to welcome Holt to the Mongabay board. His passion for nature, deep knowledge of conservation issues and trends in technology, strategic thinking, and strong network will be tremendous resources for Mongabay as it continues its rapid expansion into new media markets.” Holt has been an active conservationist and nature enthusiast for more than 25 years. He currently serves as Trustee and Treasurer of the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation, supporting the 640,000 square miles of national marine sanctuaries and monuments managed by NOAA and the US Department of Interior. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the National Audubon Society. In 2001, he was a founding member and Chair of the Board of Audubon Connecticut. He joined Audubon’s national board five years later and was named Chair in 2008. His leadership played a critical role in advancing Audubon’s legislative, educational and conservation operations; guiding it to re-establish its science-based mission to conserve birds and their habitats; and strengthening Audubon’s place as one of the nation’s foremost environmental organizations. “I am very excited to be able to work with the Mongabay board and team to help increase their global activities,” said Thrasher. “Now more than ever, we need objective sources of environmental reporting.” Holt has more than 35 years’ experience in investment banking, information technology, and consulting. He currently is Founder and CEO of Synovia Capital, an investment fund focused on ecosystem management within the data analytics sector. He recently served as Group CEO of Permian Global, a Luxembourg-based investment fund focused on climate change mitigation through the effective management of large areas of tropical forest (avoiding deforestation and restoring degraded forests). Prior to Permian Global, he founded and served as Managing Partner of Mooreland Partners, an information technology sector-focused investment bank. Holt previously was a Partner at Broadview Holdings, a global merger and acquisition advisory and investment firm. He has a B.A. from Colby College and an M.B.A. from the International Institute of Management Development in Switzerland, and lives with his family in Greenwich, CT. Banner image of Yellow-rumped Warbler by Peter Pearsall of U.S. Fish and Wildlife...
Mongabay in the news, October 2017
The original reporting we do is re-reported and republished widely by a variety of media outlets, and in numerous languages. From a pre-Halloween Popular Science feature on ‘freaky’ animals, to a serial republishing of our sweeping “Indonesia for Sale” palm oil investigation at Asia Sentinel, and a Guardian article on hydro projects in Brazil which quotes one of the writers of our long-running series on the issue, and which links to a report of ours on the topic. Here’s a selection of places like these where our work appeared during October 2017: Africa Insider, Alternet, Asia Sentinel, Axios, Birdwatching Magazine, Catch News, China Dialogue, Common Dreams, Digital Journal, The Dodo, El Espectador, Ecowatch, Ecobusiness, Environmental Health News, Food Tank, Frontier Myanmar, Guardian, Heritage Radio Network, La Mula, Ladobe, Mekong Eye, NODAL, Popular Science, Publimetro, RPP Noticias, Spektrum, and The Telegraph. Photo of common terns at the research station on Great Gull Island by Erik...
Mongabay’s origin story covered in Silicon Valley newspaper
The Country Almanac, the weekly paper that services the Silicon Valley communities of Atherton, Menlo Park, and Woodside, did a cover story this week on Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, who grew up in the area. The article, titled Informing the World: How a curious kid from Atherton started and grew a global environmental news site and written by Barbara Wood, talks about the experiences that inspired Butler to found the web site as a 21-year-old, including visits to Ecuador and Borneo. It goes on to chronicle the expansion of the web site from a one-person operation to a multi-national non-profit enterprise that publishes stories in English, Spanish, and Indonesian....
Intern with us at Mongabay
Get published on a leading environmental news site, improve your writing ability, and become part of a community of passionate and talented journalists by interning at Mongabay! We are now accepting applications for our Environmental Journalism Internship program for Spring of 2018. Applications are accepted until December 8, 2017 for our January – June 2018...
Conservation Effectiveness Live! – Mongabay event in Palo Alto Nov 13
Two months ago Mongabay launched “Conservation Effectiveness”, a multi-part series investigating the effectiveness of some of the most popular strategies and interventions to conserve ecosystems and wildlife around the world. The series is the result of a collaboration between Mongabay staff reporters Shreya Dasgupta and Mike Gaworecki, and a team of conservation scientists led by tropical forest ecologist Zuzana Burivalova of Princeton University. We’re pleased to announce that Dr. Burivalova will be presenting some of the findings, along with the methodology behind “Conservation Effectiveness”, at a Bay Area Tropical Forest Network event in Palo Alto on November 13: What works – and doesn’t work – in conservation? Guests will also be able to view Tony Foster’s landscape watercolors presented at The Foster gallery. Snacks and refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to everyone who RSVPs. We plan to record the event for those who cannot make it. December 2017 update: video from the...
New 9-month collaborative investigation of palm oil launches
The first installment of Indonesia for Sale, an in-depth collaborative series with The Gecko Project on the corruption behind Indonesia’s deforestation and land rights crisis, has been published at Mongabay.com. It details how in the post-Suharto vacuum, local officials enriched themselves and their families by converting massive areas of Indonesia’s rainforests and communal farmland into private, for-profit oil palm plantations. Here’s some early acclaim from our peers in the media: “This is absolutely impressive. Investigative reporting of this scale is certainly a rare gem in Southeast Asia’s journalism scene.” – an editor at The Mekong Eye “This is literally the most incredible piece of investigative reporting on Indonesian palm oil I’ve ever read.” – investigative journalist for Harper’s and The New Yorker Read the first feature here and watch the spellbinding video trailer for the series here....
Mongabay hosts sold out ‘tech in conservation’ event (video)
Can technology drive conservation? “That was the question Mongabay founder Rhett Butler recently posed to a panel of three specialists on the frontlines of applying technology to conserve key species and ecosystems. On September 27, 2017, Mongabay and the Commonwealth Club of California hosted the panel, who discussed with a full-house audience in San Francisco the possibilities for advanced technology to aid conservation efforts worldwide. Butler moderated the panel, which consisted of Crystal Davis, director of Global Forest Watch, Topher White, founder and CEO of Rainforest Connection, and Virgil Zetterlind, director of Protected Seas and Chief Technology Officer for Conserve I.O. The panelists provided an overview of technology’s potential to support conservation efforts, some of the conditions that enable technology to play this role effectively, and other factors that may affect its application to conservation action.” – Sue Palminteri, writing for Mongabay’s WildTech unit Watch the full event video...
Mongabay in the media, September and August 2017
Our original reports are referenced and republished widely, and in multiple languages. One highlight of the past two months was the story we published about a newly rediscovered Amazonian monkey species that has not been seen alive by scientists in 80 years getting picked up by numerous outlets, from National Geographic News to Gizmodo and the Huffington Post. Likewise, Buzzfeed republished a good news style feature about an inspiring cross border effort to find and rescue one-horned rhinos swept across the Indo-Nepal border by monsoon floods. Here are those stories and a selection of other places where Mongabay’s reporting turned up during August and September 2017: AFK Insider, Africa Science News, Analitica, Asia Times, Atlas Obscura, Brazzil, Buzzfeed, El Deber, Deustche Welle, Entwicklungspolitik, Earth Island Journal, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, El Espectador, Gizmodo, The Guardian, Huffington Post, IC Indigenous News, The Intercept, International News Lens, Jakarta Globe, Lado B, Latin America Bureau, Mental Floss, Mother Nature Network, National Geographic News, National Geographic Voices, New Security Beat, News Deeply, Pacific Standard, Publimetro, RPP Noticias, SciDev, Scroll, La Semana, Slate, Smithsonian, Telesur TV, Time, Truthout, The Wire, Yahoo News, Yale Environment 360, The Zimbabwean, and ZME Science. Photo by Rhett Butler for...
Mongabay in the news, July 2017
Mongabay’s original reports are referenced and republished widely, and in multiple languages. One highlight of the past month’s pickups is Buzzfeed’s republishing of our feature about the women who live alongside rhinos in Orang National Park, a 78-square-kilometer protected area in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. Here’s a selection of media outlets where our reporting turned up during July 2017: AFK Insider, Animal Politico, Buzzfeed, Common Dreams, The Conversation, El Espectador, Ecowatch, The Guardian, The Independent, E&E News, Eco-Business, Financial Tribune, International News Lens, La Mula, Mekong Eye, News Deeply, Pacific Standard, Paste Magazine, Publimetro, RPP Noticias, Reptiles Magazine, Scroll, Semana, Telesur TV, Truthout, Vulcan Post, The Wire, and The Zimbabwean. Photo by Erik Hoffner....
Aida Greenbury joins Mongabay’s board of advisors
Mongabay is pleased to announce that Aida Greenbury, an Indonesian forester with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of sustainability, forest management and industry, is joining our advisory board. Other members of the Mongabay.org advisory board include primatologist and conservation icon Jane Goodall, tropical ecologist William F. Laurance, and botanist Peter Raven. “I’m thrilled to welcome Aida Greenbury to Mongabay’s advisory board,” said Rhett Butler, Mongabay’s founder and CEO. “Her curiosity and passion toward forests and wildlife as well as her knowledge from studying forestry for almost all her life lead her to become an early champion for the zero-deforestation movement within a company, and industry, where that was a pretty radical concept at the time.” For 13 years Greenbury worked on sustainability issues at Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest integrated forestry, pulp and paper groups. As the Chief Sustainability Officer, Greenbury spearheaded the controversial forestry group’s development, adoption, and implementation of a forest conservation policy that in 2013 won wide acclaim from some of APP’s harshest critics. The policy established protocols for addressing social conflict, barred deforestation and conversion of peatlands from its supply chain, and set targets for restoring degraded peatlands. Greenbury left APP in May 2017, although she is currently engaged by the group on a short-term advisory contract limited to its potential re-association with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Greenbury is currently working as an independent sustainability advisor, including serving as Co-Chair of the High Carbon Stock Approach Steering Group and Chair of the Private Sector Roundtable of the Asia Pacific Rainforest Partnership. As a member of the advisory board, Greenbury will provide advice and help coordinate network development as Mongabay expands its coverage in Asia. She will also offer insights on the forestry sector in the region. “I feel very fortunate to have a chance to contribute to this cause. Mongabay is a non-profit organization based on science. Although I took a different but, parallel path with my earlier career, I was raised as a scientist and have always applied its disciplines,” said Greenbury. “The founder and board members of Mongabay are driven by their passion for nature and wildlife, and I have always been passionate about responsible forest management and forest conservation. Given these similarities between our goals, it seems only natural to me that our paths should intertwine.” “Saving the forest is not a one-size-fits-all process; it can be done in many different ways, but one thing that holds true is that the barriers between forest conservation and stakeholders must be broken down. By joining Mongabay’s Advisory Board I hope to take a step towards...
Mongabay to expand environmental news coverage in India
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” In 1999, embracing those famous words derived from remarks made by Mahatma Gandhi, I founded Mongabay out of my passion for wildlife and nature. Since then, the effort has grown into a multinational initiative involving hundreds of journalists and reaching tens of millions of people each year. Mongabay’s expansion has particularly accelerated since we moved to a non-profit model five years ago. Our first project as a non-profit environmental media organization was Mongabay-Indonesia, an Indonesian-language environmental news service run by Indonesians for Indonesians. Mongabay-Indonesia proved remarkably popular and impactful in Indonesia, pioneering new ideas for Mongabay’s global news operation and paving the way for Mongabay-Latam, our Spanish-language news service that launched just over a year ago. Stories from Mongabay-Latam are now regularly appearing in nearly 20 newspapers, blogs, and publications in ten Latin American countries. Today I’m excited to announce a new expansion: Mongabay-India, which will follow in the tradition of our other properties by producing high-quality, original news reporting on conservation and environmental issues in India. Mongabay-India will be run by a team in India — we are now hiring the first two staff positions (Managing Editor and Staff Writer) and plan to launch the reporting bureau by October. Initially, Mongabay-India will focus on producing written content in English, but in time, we intend to broaden our offerings to video and other languages. Our articles will be produced under an open Creative Commons license allowing other outlets to use our content commercially or non-commercially at no cost. Why India? With ecosystems ranging from the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans to the rainforests of the Western Ghats to the alpine habitats of the Himalayas, India is one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet. Yet the country, which is soon to be the world’s most populous, suffers from many environmental problems. Still there are reasons for optimism: local entrepreneurs, researchers, civil society groups, governments, and others are devising ingenious solutions to many of these issues, providing inspiring models that could be adopted more widely provided they were better known. Mongabay-India will report on the country’s environmental challenges by highlighting threats to ecosystems and wildlife, identifying opportunities for progress, and showcasing successful models for resource management and conservation which could be embraced both within India and outside its borders. Beyond our core team, we expect to work with journalists across India, bringing local and region issues to a global audience. I believe Mongabay is well placed to make this new program a success. Between Mongabay-Indonesia (established 2012) and Mongabay-Latam (2016), we have a demonstrated track record in...
New Reporting Opportunity: Global Agroforestry
Mongabay is excited to announce a new reporting opportunity: Global Agroforestry The world faces a multitude of challenges, yet some of the toughest ones–from climate change to hunger, food security, water shortages, soil degradation, and loss of biodiversity–could be solved in part by agroforestry. Many agronomists, sustainable farming experts, and scientists argue that this traditional system of agriculture, which often combines tall woody perennials like trees and shrubs with annual crops, ought to be implemented more widely, since it produces food, fuel, fodder, and fiber while drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, while also providing habitat for animals and plants, and building local water tables and soil profiles. Mongabay.com therefore seeks story pitches for this series that will foster a better understanding of the scale, scope, and impact of agroforestry systems from the local to global levels, with a special emphasis on indigenous peoples’ implementation of it and a geographical interest in (though not limited to) Melanesia (Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea), the African Rift Valley (Kenya and Ethiopian Highlands), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), northern Australia, and northwestern Mexico. Click here to read more about this opportunity and how to apply....
Mongabay Hiring for Three Positions
At the heart of Mongabay is a spirit of innovation. We’re open to trying new ideas, adapting existing models, and phasing out underperforming projects in our quest to deliver the best products and services given our resources. We are excited to announce three new positions. The Program Director will work closely with the Mongabay’s CEO, Operations Manager, and Development Director to manage Mongabay’s rapidly growing team and execute on the organization’s mission to inspire, educate, and inform the public on conservation and environmental issues. Program Director Mongabay-India Mongabay is planning to establish a news bureau in India to do original reporting on conservation and environmental issues in the country. Content will be distributed via Mongabay, its social media channels, and third party outlets, including local newspapers and online media. Initially Mongabay will produce articles in English, but in time we expect to expand to other languages spoken widely in India. We are recruiting a team to develop Mongabay-India, including a Managing Editor to oversee the initiative and a Staff Writer to produce original daily content across India. Mongabay India Managing Editor Mongabay India Staff Writer Click on the job positions to learn more about the opportunity, position requirements, and how to...
New Reporting Opportunity: Asia’s Oceans
Mongabay is excited to announce a new reporting opportunity: Asia’s Oceans. Pollution, rising CO2 levels, noise, and coastal and military development. The oceans are under threat from many sources — and nowhere more so than the waters of Asia. With this reporting initiative Mongabay will investigate lesser-known issues facing the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, zeroing in on Asian ecosystems and organisms that tend to be overlooked. Click here to read more about this opportunity and how to...
Mongabay in the news, June 2017
Our original reports are referenced and republished widely but sometimes Mongabay itself is the subject of stories in the media, as when the Knight Center for Journalism highlighted the successes of our Latin America bureau, Mongabay Latam, which just marked its one-year anniversary, and when Revelator News ranked our podcast, the Mongabay Newscast, as one of the top environmental podcasts. Plus Mongabay Editor Glenn Scherer appeared on the broadcast TV show Rising Up to discuss his writing team’s deep coverage of dam building in the Brazilian Amazon and that country’s troubling environmental policy moves. Elsewhere, Mongabay reports were republished twice by The Guardian and also referenced in a Guardian feature about Brazil’s palm oil boom, which described the Mongabay as being “widely respected.” Here’s a selection of places like this that our reporting turned up during June 2017: Asia Pacific Report, Business Insider, Cincinnati.com, Common Dreams, EcoBusiness, El Espectador, Frontier Myanmar, Guardian, International Business Times, International News Lens, The Intercept, The Irrawaddy, La Mula, Lado B, Pacific Standard, Publimetro, RPP, The Revelator, Rising Up with Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthout, and The Wire. Photo of Magnificent Frigatebird in the Galapagos by Rhett...
Seeking acoustic ecologists and sound recordists
Are you an acoustic ecologist or sound recordist focused on the environment or natural world? Mongabay wants to highlight your work on its podcast. The Mongabay Newscast is our free, biweekly podcast delivering news and inspiration from nature’s frontline. It features inspiring guests and deeper analysis of the global environmental issues explored every day by the Mongabay.com team, from climate change to biodiversity, tropical ecology, wildlife, and much more. One regular feature of the podcast is Field Notes, where researchers and sound artists/recordists are interviewed about their field work, and during which they play some sample recordings and explain what we’re hearing and how it informs our understanding of biology and natural history. If you would like to be featured, post to Twitter mentioning @Mongabay and the hashtag #sciencesoundslike with a link to some recordings (this is our preferred method, but if you lack a Twitter account or online recordings of your work, you can also send an email to submissions@mongabay.com with this information). And attach a picture that illustrates the work you’re submitting, if feasible. We will listen to the recordings, retweet some of our favorites, and invite the most interesting clips’ authors onto the show. Listen to the episodes below to get an idea for the segment, or subscribe via Stitcher, TuneIn, iTunes, Google Play, Android, or wherever you get your podcasts, to hear them all. Here are some selected Field Notes features: May 3, Leah Barclay, acoustic ecologist discusses her work on marine bioacoustics (whole show) June 27, Marconi Campos Cerqueira (from minute 19 on), who recently completed a study that used bioacoustic monitoring to examine bird ranges in the mountains of Puerto Rico March 21, Zuzana Burivalova (from minute 32 on), a conservation scientist at Princeton University who has recorded the soundscapes of over 100 sites in the Indonesian part of Borneo We look forward to hearing your Field Notes submissions on Twitter via the #sciencesoundslike...
Mongabay in the news, May 2017
May 2017 saw a surge in coverage of our work in Southeast Asia thanks to the celebration of Mongabay-Indonesia’s 5th anniversary. Also in May a Mongabay investigation concerning the role of illegal chainsaws in Myanmar’s ongoing logging controversy appeared in numerous regional publications from The News Lens to Frontier Myanmar and The Irrawaddy, plus a recent Mongabay feature by correspondent William Clowes (“Conserving Congo’s wild places on a shoestring”) was republished by Slate and the popular journal of food, politics, travel, and culture, Roads and Kingdoms. Here’s a selection of where to see these stories and others: Africa Science News, Alternet, Asia Sentinel, Asia Times, Catch News, The City Paper, Digital Journal, Eco-Business, Economist-Namibia, El Nacional, El Espectador, Ethical Corporation, Financial Tribune, Fokus Jabar, Frontier Myanmar, Gizmodo, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Huffington Post-India, Indian Country Today, India Express, International News Lens, The Irrawaddy, Kabar News, Klik Samarinda, La Estrella, La Hora, La Mula, La Opinion, Lado B, Maravi Post, News Deeply, Pachamama Radio, Pacific Standard, Plaza Publica, RPP, Roads and Kingdoms, The Scientist, Scroll, Slate, Smithsonian, Tribuna Noticias, Truthout, Vietnam Express, and Viva. Photo by Rhett...
Mongabay is seeking a research associate to help evaluate conservation effectiveness
Mongabay is working on a reporting project that combines science and journalism to evaluate the effectiveness of different conservation strategies. We are looking for scientists who have strong literature synthesis skills, are able to work independently in a rigorous and unbiased way with different types of scientific evidence, and are open-minded and willing to depart from the traditional academic work. This project contributes to a growing demand for evidence on the actual, on-the-ground impact of different conservation strategies, helping the public, conservation practitioners, donors, and decision makers make sense of a large but disparate body of literature. The evidence on each conservation strategy will be presented in an engaging, interactive, approachable, yet rigorous way, together with an investigative story about each strategy by a Mongabay staff writer. We are looking for one or two scientists (advanced graduate students, postdocs) who will carry out a literature review on a specific conservation strategy, collaborate with a journalist on creating a story, and help make interactive visualizations of the collected evidence. Funds for 1-3 months of research work will be available. Projects will have to be completed by mid-December 2017. Examples of the strategies that we are interested in include, but are not limited to regulations of trade with wildlife, environmental law enforcement, environmental advocacy, ecotourism, land purchase schemes, protected areas, including marine protected areas, and others. Learn more about this opportunity, the position requirements and how to apply. We look forward to hearing from...
