Mongabay founder wins the Henry Shaw Award

2 Dec 2025

Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler has been awarded the 2025 Henry Shaw Medal, given by the Missouri Botanical Garden to “individuals who have made a significant contribution to the Missouri Botanical Garden, botanical research, horticulture, conservation, or the museum community.”

While many recipients of this top award given annually since 1893 have been scientists, Butler joins a distinguished group of honorees from outside research including figures from the National Geographic Society and the U.K.’s Prince Charles (now King Charles III).

“Rhett Ayers Butler is a shining example of what the Henry Shaw Medal recognizes,” said Michael Stern, chair of the board of trustees for Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT).  “His commitment to environmental journalism has deepened the public’s understanding of the urgent need for conservation and inspired action around the world.”

“It is a tremendous honor to receive the Henry Shaw Medal from such an esteemed institution as the Missouri Botanical Garden,” Butler said. “The garden’s legacy of advancing science, conservation, and public understanding is an inspiration, and I am deeply grateful to be recognized alongside those who have contributed so much to protecting our planet.”

Butler started Mongabay as a passion project from his apartment in California in 1999, inspired by a personal encounter with an orangutan in a rainforest in Borneo.  “I vividly remember cooling my feet beside a jungle creek when a wild orangutan emerged in the canopy overhead. We made eye contact — just for a few seconds — but the moment stayed with me,” he said.

This award comes on the heels of Butler being named to the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders List, which honors 50 global leaders working to combat the climate crisis and includes luminaries such as Sir David Attenborough and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Laurene Allen.

Impact

Rhett Butler in his element, a tropical forest in Panama.
Rhett Butler in his element, a tropical forest in Panama.

At the award ceremony, Butler was invited to give a presentation about the strategy, vision and impact of Mongabay’s nonprofit journalism, and the audience was enthusiastic, as he told Mongabay’s podcast recently.

“The reception to my talk at the awards ceremony was really good — one of the best receptions I’ve ever gotten — which I didn’t expect. I don’t think the garden expected it either; they said it was the first time they’ve had people spontaneously want to ask questions at this event. I ended up taking about ten questions, and there were many more from the audience. It was wonderful to see that level of engagement,” he said.

The new accolade put Butler’s conservation leadership — and Mongabay’s reporting on important biological hotspots like Madagascar — in front of a new, highly-engaged and well-connected audience, a group which was also reminded of the important work that MOBOT has itself done for the spectacular nature of that island nation across many decades.

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Banner image: Rhett Butler inside the Singapore Botanical Garden. Image courtesy of Alyson Blume.