Girl Scouts fighting palm oil receive wider media coverage (video)
May24

Girl Scouts fighting palm oil receive wider media coverage (video)

After five years of campaigning, two Girl Scouts fighting palm oil in Girl Scout cookies are receiving wider media coverage this week after meeting with heads of Girl Scouts of the US. The organization has now agreed to research different options, such as sustainably-grown palm oil or using another ingredient, reports the Wall Street Journal. Above, the Girl Scout activists are interviewed on the CBS Early Show. For more information:...

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Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron visit indigenous community threatened by mega-dam (video)

Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron visit an Arara village on the Big Bend of the Xingu River, which is imperiled by Brazil’s mega-dam Belo Monte. For more information on the Belo Monte: Bill Clinton takes on Brazil’s megadams, James Cameron backs tribal groups (03/28/2011) Former US President, Bill Clinton, spoke out against Brazil’s megadams at the 2nd World Sustainability Forum, which was also attended by...

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Elementary school children urge KFC to stop cutting down forests (video)

With 6,000 hand-drawn postcards, four elementary school kids travel from Charlotte, North Carolina to Louisville, Kentucky (350 miles) to urge KFC to use recycled paper and stop endangering forests on North Carolina’s coast. Lead by 10-year-old forest activist, Cole Rasenberger, the group delivered the postcards to executives at KFC. “I had a second grade project to be an environmental activist,” Rasenberger explains. “I found...

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Series of films explore challenges in Monteverde cloud forest (videos)

A new series of 11 films looks back on the last 50 years of history in the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica, and looks forward to the future. According to Monteverde Now website: “‘Monteverde Now’ gives you access to place where change cannot be ignored-Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest. It is a collection of 11 short films about people who live and work in one of our planet’s most diverse and delicate...

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Trailer to John Muir in the New World (video)

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters. Trailer of PBS American Masters’ episode John Muir in the New World. In honor of upcoming Earth Day (April 22nd) and John Muir Day (April 20th) PBS has produced a new episode of American Masters celebrating renowned conservationist, John Muir. The episode airs Monday, April 18 at 9 pm (ET) on PBS in...

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Celebrating ten years of the Great Bear Rainforest (video)

Video by Greenpeace chronicling the fight to save the Great Bear Rainforest. According to the description, the fight to save the Great Bear Rainforest should inspire work to save forests around the world: “The Great Bear Rainforest campaign demonstrates that out of conflict and peaceful resistance, it is possible to work towards solutions. It inspires our work in the Amazon, the Congo and Indonesia...

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Trailer: When Two World’s Collide (video)

When Two Worlds Collide (trailer) from Yachaywasi Films on Vimeo. The film follows the struggle of indigenous people to save their Amazonian home from the Peruvian government and industrial corporations, especially focusing on the role of Alberto Pizango, hero and leader to indigenous people, who was arrested last year in Peru for sedition and rebellion. According to the film’s website: “The hazardous journey of an...

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Green dams in the Amazon? (video)
Apr03

Green dams in the Amazon? (video)

Video looks at how to save the Amazon in midst of rising pressure to build massive hydroelectric power in the region. WWF (with aid from Nature Conservancy) looks at what rivers must be preserved from hydroelectric power in order to keep the Amazon ecosystem thriving using ecosystem-wide modeling. For more information on dam projects in the Amazon: Bill Clinton takes on Brazil’s megadams, James Cameron backs tribal groups...

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Photos: illegal logging in Borneo

No pictures please: Illegal logger harvesting timber. On a recent trip to Borneo, Rhett Butler caught photographic evidence of illegal logging in Gunung Palung National Park. Shots taken from a recent visit to Gunung Palung National Park in Kalimantan. Photos by Rhett A. Butler, 2011. Illegally logged wood. Rainforest tree chopped down. Illegally logged timber in a pickup truck. Illegally logged...

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Trailer for Oka! Amerikee, eco-drama set in the Congo rainforest

Filmed in the Congo rainforest of the Central African Republic (CAR), a region rarely explored in film, the movie tells the story of an American ethnomusicologist living with the indigenous Bayaka people, also known as the pygmies, as loggers invade their land. According to the film’s website: “The movie is partly based on the life’s work of Louis Sarno, who has lived with and recorded the music of the Central African...

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Photos: some of our best rainforest shots

Sunset over Borneo rainforest . Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Fast-flowing creek forming the border of Bwindi park in Uganda. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Kapok tree towering over the forest in Costa Rica. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Giant dipterocarp tree on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Brownsberg reserve in Surianme. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Rainforest waterfall in Malaysian Borneo . Photo by Rhett A. Butler....

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Volunteer opportunity in the Peruvian Amazon
Mar06

Volunteer opportunity in the Peruvian Amazon

Chanti waterfall. Photo courtesy of: The Amazon Waterfalls Association. Have you ever dreamed of visiting the Amazon? How about touring little-seen jungle waterfalls—one of which is three times taller than the Eiffel Tower and 17 times taller than Niagara Falls? The Amazon Waterfalls Association is looking for a few good volunteers to help develop walking paths passing by a series of astounding waterfalls in Peru. “The trek...

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Activism: oil in Virunga National Park

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Male gorilla in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently considering allowing oil companies SOCO and Dominion into Virunga National Park for drilling. Home to a quarter of the world’s mountain gorillas, as well as...

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Activism: titanium mine approved in Cambodia
Feb17

Activism: titanium mine approved in Cambodia

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Asian elephants in Cambodia. Photo courtesy of Wildlife Alliance. Cambodia has approved a controversial titanium mine in the heart of the Cardamom Mountain forests. Home to many endangered species, critics say the open-pit mine will pollute waterways, destroy over 20,000 hectares of...

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Photo: world’s most threatened forest
Feb03

Photo: world’s most threatened forest

Forest along the Nam Ou river in Laos. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Deforestation for a rubber plantation in Laos. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Yesterday, Conservation International (CI) released a top 10 list of the world’s most threatened biodiverse forest. Number one were the forests of Indo-Burma, including Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), and parts of China and India. This landscape includes the forests in Laos...

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The view from the air

Angel Falls in Venezuela. Photo by Rhett A. Butler River in the lowlands of Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Rice fields in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Mountains in Western China. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Flowering trees in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. African buffalo in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Photo by Jeremy...

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New Guinea from above
Nov18

New Guinea from above

Winding river makes its way to the sea in the lowland rainforests of west New Guinea. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Click to see more photos of New...

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Which came first the forest or the rain?
Oct20

Which came first the forest or the rain?

By: Douglas Sheil Repost from Bwindi Researchers on Wildlife Direct During the rainy season in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, there’s an impressive storm and our water tanks overflow nearly every day. We’re in the equatorial rain forest after all: we have the location, trees and weather to prove it. But is the forest here because of the rain or is it the other way around? Being in a highland area we probably get...

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Iracambi – Protecting the Beauty of the Atlantic Rainforest

A few weeks ago on Mongabay we featured an interview with Robin and Binka LeBreton, Directors of a Research Centre situated in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The following is an excerpt from the diary kept by Clare Emily Raybould, a volunteer in January 2010…

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Liberally Green

Conservation is traditionally associated with left-wing politics. The distinction between left and right dates back to the days of the French revolution when those supporting radical changes in society where seated on the left side of parliament. Left-wing politics tend to strive for a more egalitarian society, achieved through cooperative, mutually respectful collaboration.Right-wing politics may see social and economic hierarchies...

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