“We only get so much time on this planet, and I want to make the most of it.” That sense of urgency has driven Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler since his teens, when he visited a rainforest in Borneo. Later on, he learned that what had once been a teeming ecosystem full of the sounds of orangutans and hornbills had been completely destroyed. This experience marked a turning point that led him to establish Mongabay in 1999. “I wanted to help people see the connection between their own lives and what was happening in faraway forests, and to do it through credible information rather than advocacy,” he says. Butler envisioned Mongabay as more than a news outlet, but as a tool for protecting nature. “The idea was to make knowledge accessible and free, and to show that credible reporting could be a form of conservation in itself,” he says. In 2025, Butler received two honors for his work at Mongabay. First, a place on the Forbes Sustainability Leaders list – which honors 50 global leaders working to combat the climate crisis, alongside figures such as naturalist David Attenborough, Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva and Kenyan climate leader Wanjira Mathai. And second, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Henry Shaw Medal, one of the oldest and most prestigious awards to recognize significant contributions to botanical research, horticulture and conservation. Missouri Botanical Garden Board of Trustees chair Michael Stern, left, and president and director Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann, right, presenting Butler with…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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