New Special Reporting Project: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation
Indigenous peoples’ stewardship of natural resources is increasingly being recognized as a critical priority in efforts to combat climate change, protect biodiversity, and maintain the ecosystems that sustain the planet. Yet indigenous communities continue to face grave threats when it comes to protecting their lands: a 2016 report by Global Witness found that 40 percent of those killed defending the environment in 2015 were members of indigenous communities. Some indigenous peoples are challenged by governments’ failure to recognize their land rights and the loss of traditional knowledge, which erodes cultural identity. To raise greater awareness of these issues, Mongabay is undertaking a special reporting project to focus specifically on the intersection of indigenous peoples and conservation. The Indigenous Peoples and Conservation project will produce a series of journalistic stories that explore threats to indigenous peoples’ territories and showcase successful indigenous-led conservation initiatives. Click here for full details on the Indigenous Peoples and Conservation...
Mongabay’s reporting now available on Apple News
We’re always trying to reach Mongabay readers wherever they like to consume news, and Apple News is the latest destination we’ve added. Readers who have Apple devices like iPhones or iPads with an iOS 9 or later operating system can now find our features there, just tap the search button and look for Mongabay (or click on this link to go directly there). Other places we make our news available include at Flipboard.com, on our social media channels (follow/like our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and/or our Instagram profile for regular updates), via email alerts or RSS feed, and also via audio on our podcast and video on our Youtube channel....
Mongabay CEO speaks about conservation April 10th in San Francisco
Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler will speak at the Battery in San Francisco, CA on April 10th. The event centers on the question “How can we conserve Earth’s most important ecosystems so humanity and nature can flourish?” Rhett will be sharing the floor with Enrique Ortiz, a noted biologist who co-founded the Andes Amazon Fund and the Amazon Conservation Association. Rhett and Enrique will be discussing forests. The Battery is a private club so tickets are not available to the public....
Mongabay in the news, January 2018
Among the most popular of our features that were referenced and republished elsewhere in the news media during January 2018 was the huge story Mongabay broke concerning a policy shift away from the building of mega-dams in the Amazon — such as here at Business Insider — these dam proposals have energized resistance among indigenous groups, NGOs, activists, and residents of the affected regions, so the change in direction by Brazil was a major announcement. Also of note in January was coverage of Mongabay’s opening of a new bureau in India, and a Mongabay report from a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh which was republished by numerous outlets including Pacific Standard: refugees in the camp are forced to strip the surrounding forests for building materials and cooking fuel, putting the camp at risk for mudslides when the rains return. Here’s a selection of where Mongabay features appeared in January 2018: AFK Insider, Asia Sentinel, Asian Correspondent, BBC Indonesia, Brazzil.com, Business Insider, Catch News, Curacao Chronicle, Daily Maverick, Die Tageszeitung, The Diplomat, EFE, El Deber, El Espectador, El Nacional, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, Hawaii Public Radio, India Blooms News Service, IntellAsia, Gizmodo Brasil, International Business Times, International News Lens, Jakarta Post, L’Express, La Mula, La Red 21, Lado B, Malaysian Insight, Metro News Russia, The New Arab, New York Daily News, Noticias Venezuela, Pacific Standard, Pulitzer Center, RPP Noticias, Science Alert, Scroll, The Star, United Press International, and The Wire. Mongabay publishes on a creative commons basis and encourages other outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn more about how to do this here. Banner image: A wild orchid in the Ebano Verde Scientific Reserve in the Dominican Republic, by Rhett Butler for...
Mongabay welcomes new board member, Jeanne Sedgwick
Mongabay is pleased to announce its newest board member, Jeanne Sedgwick. Jeanne brings deep and varied experience in the conservation field, and is currently vice chair of the Resources Legacy Fund, a Sacramento-based conservation organization and environmental philanthropy platform. “We’re very excited to have Jeanne join the board,” said Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler. “Jeanne brings passion, strategic thinking, and an extensive network of contacts in the conservation world that will help accelerate Mongabay’s growth and impact.” Jeanne grew up in New York, where her connection to nature was sparked by spending many hours exploring the estuaries that feed Long Island Sound — from a tender age, she was captivated by seeing baby sharks, rays, horseshoe crabs, and all the rich bird life. She later studied at Stanford University and has lived in northern California ever since. Her interest in working on behalf of the natural world was catalyzed by a trip she took to Borneo with her husband in the early 1980s. The couple spent a week upriver trying to get back to an area where he had found interesting invertebrates on a prior trip, but when they finally arrived, they discovered that loggers for a foreign company had cut nearly every tree in the watershed, silting the river up and devastating wildlife that the Iban people depended on for their livelihood. The idea that a place this rich and remote could be so utterly ruined for short term profit set her on a trajectory to help change this narrative. As Director of the Conservation Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos, California, she oversaw the program’s growth from an annual grants budget of $500,000 in 1989 to over $100 million annually. She also has brought her passion to the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, for which she acted as chair, and also became a trustee for WildAid, a San Francisco-based organization working internationally to reduce demand for wildlife products. “It’s an honor to be part of such a high-quality, high-integrity news organization like Mongabay,” Jeanne said after officially joining its board. She is also vice chair of the Stanford Habitat Conservation Board, which oversees implementation of habitat plans that protect endangered species on Stanford University lands, and is a member of the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve Coordinating Council for the university. She lives in Woodside, CA, with her husband, where they’ve been enjoying the recent arrival of 40 great blue herons, who are busily setting up a rookery adjacent to their home. Banner image of a great blue heron courtesy of Rick McMeechan, US National Park...
Board member Holt Thrasher to receive Environmental Leadership Award
Mongabay board member Holt Thrasher is set to receive the 2018 Environmental Leadership Award from Audubon Connecticut, which he was a founding member of in 2001. Holt is an active conservationist with deep leadership in the sector, and also has decades of experience in investment banking, IT, and consulting. From the release: “Holt Thrasher will receive Audubon Connecticut’s Environmental Leadership Award. Holt has been an active conservationist and nature enthusiast for more than 25 years. He is 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. He currently serves as Trustee and Treasurer of the National Marine Sanctuaries Foundation and is a Director of Mongabay, an environmental media organization.”...
Mongabay in the news, December 2017
Mongabay’s reporting was quoted, discussed, and republished widely by other media outlets in December 2017, including our reporter being interviewed by National Public Radio’s “The Takeaway” in the U.S. for his feature about the country losing climate scientists to other countries, due to Donald Trump’s anti-science policies. The first part of our collaborative investigative series with the Gecko Project of the palm oil industry in Indonesia (“The palm oil fiefdom”) enjoyed further republication in peer outlets, including here in the ASEAN Post. Here’s a selection of where our work appeared in December, from Gizmodo to The Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald: ASEAN Post, The Age, Alternet, Asian Correspondent, Bangkok Post, Catch News, City Paper Bogota, El Diario Nacional, The Dodo, Down to Earth, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, El Espectador, Gizmodo Japan, Gizmodo Brasil, The Guardian, International News Lens, Iran Daily, Jornal do Brasil , Latin America Bureau, Metro Ecuador, La Mula, Publimetro, RPP Noticias, Saigoneer, Science, Scroll, La Semana, Sputnik-Brasil, Sydney Morning Herald, and The Takeaway. Mongabay publishes on a creative commons basis and encourages other outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn more about this here. Banner image of a wreathed hornbill courtesy of the Atlanta Zoo. ...
Mongabay Latam now hiring for an Editor
Mongabay Latam is hiring for a contributing editor in Peru or Colombia. The editor will commission, edit and publish Spanish-language environmental journalism articles on topics related to environment and conservation. Must be a native speaker of Spanish and have 6 years of experience in writing and editing + 1 in environmental issues. Knowledge of WordPress and HTML appreciated. Click here for a full detailed job description and how to apply (in Spanish). Deadline 5...
Mongabay-India is hiring for three new positions
Mongabay-India is a conservation and environment news and features service that aims to bring high quality, original reports from nature’s frontline in India. As the India-specific portal of the global news platform mongabay.com, this website follows the format of Mongabay’s dedicated Indonesia and Latin America news outlets. Mongabay-India is hiring for three new positions including a Staff Writer, Content Coordinator, and a Digital Content Editor. To learn more about the opportunity, position requirements, and how to apply, please visit our opportunities page under jobs for a full detailed job...
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....
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