New Special Reporting Project: Great Apes
Great apes are balanced on the knife-edge of extinction. Mountain gorillas, Cross River gorillas, western and eastern lowland gorillas, and Sumatran, Bornean and Tapanuli orangutans are all now listed as Critically Endangered; chimpanzees and bonobos are Endangered. These species are in a fight for their lives that will play out over this century. They face bad odds and massive threats including rapid wholesale deforestation due to industrial agriculture — especially oil palm production — logging, mining, energy production, and the pressures of rapid human population growth in Asia and Africa. Projections of human development patterns indicate that ninety percent of great ape habitat will be disturbed by humans by 2030 — making action now imperative. Mongabay is launching a Great Apes SRP (special reporting project) article series, to be published in the last quarter of 2018 through June 2019, bringing public attention to these issues. We’re looking for well written news stories that analyze individual threats; that profile trailblazing great ape scientists and conservationists; or that feature innovative solutions — ranging from community involvement and empowerment, to more effective law enforcement (think drones, camera traps), and more. Articles can highlight case studies, key new findings, and stories of great ape conservation across Asia and Africa. The stories will appear first on Mongabay, but authors will be encouraged to also sell their stories to third party media outlets, both mainstream publications and industry publications. Please click here to read the full detail...
Mongabay hosts September 4 program on how technology is protecting ocean ecosystems
Mongabay readers and friends in the Bay Area of California are invited to join founder & CEO Rhett A. Butler on September 4 in San Francisco as he moderates a roundtable discussion at The Commonwealth Club about new technological applications that boost marine conservation efforts. There is an accelerating effort among ocean scientists, advocates and technologists to harness new technologies for marine conservation. These technologies, which include satellite sensors, drones and artificial intelligence can be used to monitor and manage marine ecosystems—discovering new coral reefs, identifying illegal or unsustainable fishing fleets, and exposing destructive coastal development. Our panel will discuss what’s already working in this space and also what technologies might soon be available to protect and create healthy and safe marine environments in the Bay Area and around the world. The expert panel: Robin Martin, Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University Joe Mascaro, PhD, Director of Academic Programs at Planet, the Bay Area-based satellite company David Kroodsma, Research Director at Global Fishing Watch For tickets and information, visit the Commonwealth Club website: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/index.php/events/2018-09-04/using-new-technologies-create-safe-marine-environments Tuesday, September 4 @ 6:00 PM The Commonwealth Club 110 The Embarcadero Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium San Francisco, 94105 We hope you can join us! If you cannot, please tell a...
Mongabay-Wildtech Accepting Pitches: Conservation Technology
Technology now plays a crucial role in improving our understanding and protection of nature. Scientists and decision-makers need timely and reliable tools and data to assess the status and trends of species and ecosystems. Front-line conservationists want to understand the range of technology options before investing scarce resources. However, the challenges of keeping up with and mastering emerging technologies that might be applicable to a conservation objective are daunting. Mongabay-Wildtech has since become a trusted source of independent coverage of both existing and emerging technologies and has demonstrated a keen eye for recognizing cutting-edge technologies with the potential to transform nature conservation and research. Wildtech has posted over 220 articles on a wide range of innovations, from camera traps in trees and acoustic monitoring of bees, to virtual reality in the classroom and DNA analysis in the rainforest, and drones in the fight against wildlife poaching. The series Mongabay.com is now looking for article pitches that will foster a better understanding of how and where technology is being used to facilitate research and conservation of nature. Please click here for a full detail description on this...
Mongabay in the news, June 2018
Mongabay’s original reporting appears in many places beyond the bounds of Mongabay.com when other outlets republish, quote from, or re-report our findings. One highlight from this past month included a New York Times story picking up on a Mongabay feature about the rare moustached kingfisher (pictured) which was killed by a scientist for study, rather controversially: “‘Ghost bird’ photographed for first time ever, euthanized for science.” The Times piece, “The Ornithologist the Internet Called a Murderer,” talked about what happened to that scientist when the internet found out. Mongabay publishes on a Creative Commons basis and encourages media outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn how to do this here. Here’s a selection of outlets our reporting appeared in during June 2018: Asian Correspondent, Business-Human Rights Resource Centre, Cambodia Daily, CanIndia, Daily Mirror, Deccan Chronicle, The Diplomat, Eco-Business, Economic Times, EcoWatch, Epoch Times, Gulf News, IFL Science, Inhabitat, India Times, International News Lens, Metro, New York Times, Noticias Venezuela, Pacific Standard, RPP Noticias, The Revelator, Scroll, La Semana, Tarung News, and The Wire. Banner image: Moustached Kingfisher. Photo courtesy of University of Kansas/Rob...
Exhibition in Munich presents Mongabay founder’s photos
A photo exhibition in Munich, Germany is showcasing nature and wildlife images taken by Mongabay’s founder Rhett A. Butler in the rainforests of southeast Asia. The Exhibition, titled “Der verschwundene Wald” (“The Vanished Forest”), was organized by Susanne Nusser of memonature.org and is being hosted by Stadtteilkulturzentrum Guardini90 (Guardinistr. 90, München). The exhibit — which features 17 images from Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo, and beyond — asks viewers to consider what is happening to the world’s tropical rainforests. “Tropical rainforests have been growing for millions of years, ranging from the Amazon to Papua New Guinea. It is no exaggeration to write that today they are all at risk, in different ways and for different reasons,” said Nusser. “But what they all have in common is they are disappearing without much public attention.” “We have to ask a simple question: where have all the trees gone?” Nusser said the exhibition kicked off with an awareness-raising activity among school children, with a group of ten-year-olds exploring what’s happening to timber from the forests of southeast Asia. They found that a lot of trees eventually become paper that makes its way into German books. “The tracks of the vanished forest lead to us,” she said. The exhibition is free and open to the public. It runs through July 26,...
Film about Mongabay advisor Jane Goodall gets seven Emmy nominations
“This film is inspiring thousands of people, and that can only help the chimps,” advisory board member Jane Goodall told Mongabay regarding the new documentary film about her life, Jane. Last week, the film received seven Emmy Award nominations, including one for exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking. It was created by National Geographic and directed by Brett Morgan. Dr. Goodall has been a key advisor to Mongabay since she joined the board in 2014, and speaks frequently with the Mongabay team and most often with Founder & CEO Rhett Butler, including for the organization’s podcast recently, here. The conservation icon recently returned from a speaking tour around South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya: she is always quite busy on these trips but found time to briefly visit three chimp sanctuaries in the region. The Jane Goodall Institute is working here and elsewhere on the continent including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Senegal and Mali to establish chimpanzee research and conservation programs. They have also created sanctuaries to care for orphaned chimpanzees. Read Jane’s reflections on last week’s first World Chimpanzee Day on July 14 at her organization’s blog here. Banner image of Dr. Jane Goodall by Morten...
Former Nature Conservancy & foundation leader Steve McCormick joins Mongabay board
Mongabay is pleased to announce the newest member of its board of directors, Steve McCormick. “Steve is a strong addition to Mongabay’s board. He is a bold and strategic thinker who is deeply passionate about conservation,” said Founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler. McCormick was formerly President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), one of the world’s largest environmental NGOs. He then served as President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the U.S., from 2007-2014. Under his leadership, the foundation’s environmental program shifted its strategy to focus on advancing sustainability initiatives. After his work at the foundation, he cofounded Earth Genome, a firm specialized in providing “big data” on the environment to clients. “I’m excited about joining the Mongabay board. In my experience, conservation efforts succeed only if there is awareness and understanding of what’s happening to the environment, and the consequences to human wellbeing,” McCormick stated. “As the mainstream media reduce coverage of the environment, we desperately need the kind of thorough, high-quality, high impact reporting that Mongabay produces.” He served as President/CEO of TNC from 2000-2008. As President, Steve led its growth, and during his tenure he oversaw an operating budget of $500 million and a widely distributed staff of over 3,000 people in 30 countries, as well as every state in the U.S. “Steve’s unparalleled experience leading two of the world’s most important conservation organizations will be a tremendous resource as Mongabay continues to grow. We’re also excited about his recent work valuing natural capital in order to assess the real environmental costs of our day-to-day decisions, which is very much aligned with Mongabay’s mission,” said Mongabay Board Chair Brodie Ferguson. McCormick has served on numerous boards in the past, including The Independent Sector, Student Conservation Association, Sustainable Conservation, the California Academy of Sciences, and the advisory board of University of California-Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. View the full Mongabay board of directors and advisors here. Rainforest banner image by Rhett...
Mongabay in the news, May 2018
Mongabay’s original reporting appears in many places beyond Mongabay.com when other outlets republish, quote from, or re-report our findings. One highlight from this past month includes Agence France Presse picking up on our report about rapid deforestation in areas of Peruvian rainforest, which was itself picked up widely by dozens of outlets ranging from Yahoo News UK to The Hindu. Also in May, Mongabay editor Glenn Scherer was interviewed at length about the deteriorating situation in Venezuela for the syndicated radio show “Radio Ecoshock”, which is heard on 96 radio stations around the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Scherer’s reporters have filed a series of stories about threats to the country’s environment from the rampant unemployment and inflation, which is driving its citizens to raid zoos and nature reserves to kill animals for food, and farmers to invade a biological research station to cut the forest to plant crops, putting a species of critically endangered primate at further risk. Listen to him discuss the issues on the show here. Mongabay publishes on a Creative Commons basis and encourages media outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn how to do this here. Here’s a selection of where our reporting appeared in May 2018: Africa Business Report, BT.com, BaleBengong, Beritagar, Business Standard, CanIndia, Clean Technica, Climate Change News, DH News-Brussels, Daiji World, Daily Observer, Daum News-South Korea, Day After News-India, The Dodo, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, Energy Post, El Espectador, Europe1, France 24, Free Malaysia Today, The Guardian, The Hindu, IC Magazine, The Independent, India-New England News, Des Informemenos, International News Lens, La Jornada, Latest News, MED India, MVS Noticias, Metro-Brussels, Mother Nature Network, La Mula, Natural News, New India Express, New Kerala News, New Security Beat, The News Minute, Northeast Today, Noticias de Hoy, Pacific Standard, Peru Reports, Publimetro, The Quint, RPP Noticias, Raw Story, The Revelator, SIFY News, La Semana, Sciences et Avenir, Scroll, South Africa Today, TVA Nouvelles, Telesur, El Tiempo, UOL Noticias, El Universial, The Week, & Yahoo News UK. Banner image: Rockweed, Maine coast, by Erik...
![[VIDEO] At Seattle event, Mongabay discusses technology’s role in conservation](https://mongabay.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Nasa-771x427-449313_240x240.png)
[VIDEO] At Seattle event, Mongabay discusses technology’s role in conservation
Last month, Seattle Audubon hosted a panel discussion featuring Mongabay staff and colleagues about the ever-growing applications of technology for conservation. Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler moderated the event. He was joined by Mongabay Wildtech editor Suzanne Palminteri, plus board member Christopher Herndon, who co-founded the conservation group Acaté Amazon Conservation, which uses a range of technology for its projects supporting the Matsés indigenous community in Peru. They were joined onstage by Seattle Audubon’s Dr. Megan Friesen, a bioacoustics researcher and recent guest on Mongabay’s podcast where she discussed her work discovering the breeding behavior of secretive seabirds. Following a discussion of the many ways the panelists see technology being applied to conservation these days, from drones to remote sensing, GPS and artificial intelligence, the group then answered questions from a crowd of around 50 attendees. Watch the video here. Banner image courtesy of...
Mongabay in the News, April 2018
Our reporting appears in many places beyond Mongabay.com when other outlets republish, quote from, or re-report our findings. One highlight from this past month includes an interview of Mongabay reporters Alicia Prager and Flávia Milhorance on the radio show “The Takeaway”, which has millions of listeners in the U.S. The pair reported for a series on threats to Brazil’s massive Cerrado savannah ecosystem from agriculture, and the reports also detailed a land grab by Harvard University‘s investment arm there of a tract of land the size of Los Angeles. Listen to them discuss the issue on the show here. Here’s a selection of where our reporting appeared in April 2018: Alto Nivel, Asian Correspondent, El Deber, The Dodo, EFE, EJU TV, Earther, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, Environmental Health News, Epoch Times, Mining.com, Minnesota Post, El Nuevo Herald, Pacific Standard, RPP, Republika, Scroll, La Semana, Tarung News, WNYC’s “The Takeaway“, and Yale Environment 360. Mongabay publishes on a creative commons basis and encourages other outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn how to do this here. Banner image by Rhett A. Butler for...
Partnership between Mongabay and CIFOR announced
Mongabay has launched a new partnership to increase the dissemination of news about the status of the world’s forest ecosystems with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a scientific organization that researches ways to better manage and preserve the planet’s tropical forests. “I have always been a great fan of Mongabay,” said Robert Nasi, CIFOR Director General. “This is science communication at its best — informing and influencing society for a more sustainable world. I see only benefits in our future collaboration.” The two organizations will complement each other’s activities through production of original reports about forest conservation, events and webinars, and through professional training opportunities for Mongabay’s global network of 200+ journalists in 50 countries. “As one of the world’s top forest research institutions, CIFOR is at the forefront of efforts to understand forest ecosystems globally,” said Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Butler. “This collaboration will enable Mongabay’s vast network of journalists to leverage CIFOR’s expertise and expansive body of research to explore issues related to tropical forest conservation and management.” CIFOR is a non-profit, scientific institution that conducts research on the most pressing challenges of forest and landscape management around the world. Using a global, multidisciplinary approach, CIFOR aims to improve human well-being, protect the environment, and increase equity. “This collaboration between CIFOR and Mongabay is a breakthrough. It’s exciting to see two key players in forest conservation join forces to investigate and report on the progress and challenges we are facing in saving forests and addressing climate change,” added Aida Greenbury, an Indonesia-based advisory board member for Mongabay. The partnership is slated to span two years. Banner image by Rhett A. Butler Editor’s note: the number of Mongabay’s global correspondents was previously noted incorrectly and has been...
Mongabay event: X-raying coral reefs and rainforests from the sky
Mongabay’s Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) is holding an event in Palo Alto, CA on May 24th. Patagonia, the outdoor apparel and equipment company, is graciously hosting the event at the Palo Alto store from 6-8 pm. The event will feature a conversation between Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler and Greg Asner and Robin Martin of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory. Asner and Martin will talk about their use of airplane-mounted hyperspectral sensors to map rainforests in unprecedented detail as well as their latest initiative: an effort to create a comprehensive global reef monitoring system by tying field data collected during underwater surveys to Planet’s constellation of satellites. Event description: Robin Martin and Greg Asner have pioneered the use of advanced LiDAR and spectrometer sensors to study tropical forest ecosystems, revealing information about biodiversity, habitat function and health, and ecosystem services. Their work has been widely profiled by the likes of Science Magazine, National Geographic, and hundreds of other outlets. They’ve now turned their system to coral reefs, which may support the development of the first comprehensive global reef monitoring system in an era when the world’s corals are deeply threatened by rising temperatures, growing carbon emissions, and unsustainable fishing and extraction. Rhett Butler, founder of conservation news web site Mongabay.com, will talk with Robin and Greg about how technology can help protect an conserve these critical ecosystems. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited, so please RVSP here if you’d like to attend. Video footage...
Mongabay public event in Seattle, May 17
Mongabay staffers will visit Seattle soon, and on May 17 Seattle Audubon will host them for a panel discussion about the ever growing use of technology in conservation, from drones to GPS and AI. Speaking will be Founder/CEO Rhett A. Butler, Wildtech editor Suzanne Palminteri, and board member Christopher Herndon. They will be joined on stage by Audubon’s Megan Friesen, who is a bioacoustics researcher (and recent guest on Mongabay’s podcast, listen here). Learn more here and please join us, or tell a friend if they’re in the area. View full information at the Aububon site. Banner image: Researchers using a small drone tested ground and aerial photo measurements to calculate leopard seal size and mass using the body length (between the blue dots) and width at various points along the body (the pink dots). This method allows scientists to gather important population data without capturing and stressing the animals. Photo credit: NOAA AERD Video footage of the event...
Mongabay’s performance during Q1 2018
The first quarter of 2018 was a strong one for Mongabay. Traffic to our four main news sections — Global English, Indonesia, Latam (Spanish), and India — grew 26 percent versus Q1-2017, with a net increase of 567,000 users and 1.73 million pageviews. The biggest new development during the quarter was the official launch of Mongabay-India in mid-January. Mongabay-India’s readership and social media following grew rapidly since its inception — a trend we expect to continue as the team grows from two to six staff in the next few months. 2017 trends Traffic to Mongabay hit a new record in 2017. We had more than 24 million visitors and nearly 56 million pageviews during the year. Indonesia attracted the most traffic of our news sections, followed by English and then Spanish. Mongabay published more than 4,000 articles across nine languages. Indonesia led the way with 1,830 stories, followed by our global English section with 1,268, and Spanish with 648. The shift toward mobile devices continued through 2017, with more than 70 percent of users visiting Mongabay on cell phones. Mobile users primarily access Mongabay via the mobile version of our web site and Facebook Instant Articles. Mongabay plans to release a mobile app in the second quarter of 2018. Facebook was our largest source of traffic in 2017 with 13 million user...
Mongabay news app for Android now available
Mongabay now has a free app available in the Google Play Store. This app provides Android users with a quick and easy way to read and share Mongabay news and stories on their devices. Similarly, Apple customers can receive Mongabay stories on their iPhones, iPads, etc via that company’s news app, Apple News, more info here. If you have an Android device, please download the app and give it a try. If you like what you see, please give it a rating. Here’s what it looks like: ...
Mongabay in the News, March 2018
Our reporting appears in many places beyond Mongabay.com when other outlets republish, quote from, and re-report our findings. Highlights from this past month include Salon.com’s republishing of our exposé on sexual harassment in the natural science and environmental fields, and an appearance by a Mongabay-India editor on the BBC talking about a recent sea turtle hatching that amazed residents of Mumbai. Mongabay publishes on a creative commons basis and encourages other outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn how to do this here. Here’s a selection of where our reporting appeared in March 2018: Alternet, Asian Correspondent, BBC Indonesia, BBC World, Buffalo News, Cambodia Daily, Common Dreams, Dagens Nyheter, Daily Climate, Earth Island Journal, El Espectador, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, The Dodo, GenomeWeb, Guardian, Huffington Post, IDN Times, IFL Science, India Blooms, The Intercept-Brasil, Jakarta Post, LADbible, Metro Ecuador, Mexico News Daily, National Geographic Indonesia, News Lens International, Ooska News, Pacific Standard, RINF News, RPP Noticias, Salon, Sciences et Avenir, Scroll, Smithsonian Magazine, Spektrum, The Star-Kenya,Tarung News, Visayan Daily Star, Western Australia Today, and World Politics Review. Banner image: Indonesian rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for...
Saving jaguars in the Chaco (event recap)
Earlier this month Mongabay held a Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) event at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University. The event featured Anthony Giordano of S.P.E.C.I.E.S and the Chaco Jaguar Conservation Project, who spoke about his efforts to conserve jaguars and their habitat in the Chaco ecosystem of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina. Giordano told the audience about the natural history of the jaguar, which is the third largest cat species in the world (and the most powerful of the big cats pound for pound) and once ranged from California to Patagonia. He explained that jaguars today face three major threats: loss of habitat, conflict with ranchers and farmers, and declining availability of prey. As a consequence, jaguars have gone functionally extinct in the United States, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, while suffering heavy losses across many other range countries. Jaguars now occupy less than half their early 1990s range. Giordano also spoke about the Chaco, which is the second largest biome after the Amazon in South America, with an original expanse topping a million square miles. While the Chaco is often characterized as a dry forest ecosystem, it is actually one of the world’s most diversified biomes, with habitats ranging from flooded swamps to savannas to humid forests. This variance supports a richness of species, including all three species of peccary. But like the jaguar, the Chaco is also under threat, primarily from cattle ranching and soy farms. Losses have been substantial in Argentina and Paraguay, which have some of the highest deforestation rates in the world since 2000. Given these dire trends, Giordano has launched a series of initiatives to study and protect the Chaco in Paraguay, including the first scientific survey of jaguar across the country, supporting the development of a national jaguar conservation plan, and leading workshops to to address human-jaguar conflict. Giordano says that jaguar conservation can support broader efforts to conserve the Chaco ecosystem by building good relationships with landowners and creating positive incentives for maintaining wildlife populations and encouraging habitat restoration. Mongabay’s next BATFN takes place in Palo Alto in May. More details to...
Mongabay Latam a finalist for One World Media Award
UPDATE: Mongabay Latam has now been named a finalist for the award. Congratulations to the whole team. Mongabay Latam has been named to the longlist in the Special Award category of the One World Media Awards, for its environmental coverage in Latin America. This award recognizes an independent media organization based in a developing country using media to address social, cultural, political and economic issues. The Award seeks to recognize and encourage outstanding reporting that informs the public, provides an outlet for local people’s voices, creates a space for critical information, and holds those in power to account. Other nominees include Myanmar Now (Myanmar), Nasha Niva (Belarus), and Reporter At-Large (India). The judging panels will meet in late April to decide the final nominees in each category. View the longlists for the Special Award and the other...
Mongabay – Now Accepting Summer Internship Applications
Mongabay.org offers two exciting internship opportunities. The first opportunity primarily involves writing environmental news stories for our affiliated news site – Mongabay.com. Our interns will have the opportunity to develop their writing skills and have their news stories be published on our renowned website which boasts over two million global readers every month. The second opportunity is similar but it focuses on technology that plays a crucial role in improving our understanding and protection of nature on our Mongabay Wildtech news site. Mongabay’s Wildtech section identifies potentially valuable tools, as well as the scientists and resource managers using technology in their work. Wildtech interns will apply their research, critical thinking and writing skills to produce stories about the development and innovative use of technology to improve research and conservation outcomes. Full internship details here! Deadline to apply is June...
“Conservation Effectiveness” series wins award
A feature on how conservation NGOs use evidence to guide their decisions, by staff writer Shreya Dasgupta, is the winner in the environment category of the 2018 Science Seeker Awards. Scientists have long urged conservation NGOs to make decisions based on scientific evidence, Shreya writes in the piece. However, big conservation NGOs run into many problems in trying to use the available science. So she sets out to explain what is known about the topic by looking at the published evidence: “Overall, there has been a rise in peer-reviewed studies looking into the effectiveness of conservation strategies. But NGOs don’t seem to be using them,” she writes in the piece. Read on for her full analysis of why this is and what can be done, here, Experience or evidence: How do big conservation NGOs make decisions? The feature was part 4 of “Conservation Effectiveness,” Mongabay’s multi-part series investigating the effectiveness of some of the most popular strategies to conserve tropical forests around the world. The series was the result of a collaboration between Mongabay staff reporters Shreya Dasgupta and Mike Gaworecki, their editor Rebecca Kessler, and a team of conservation scientists led by tropical forest ecologist Zuzana Burivalova of Princeton University. Wonderfully interactive infographics were created for most features in the series by GreenInfo Network, whose team was led by Tom Allnutt. Banner image: Crested black macaque. Photo by Rhett A. Butler /...
