Mongabay (mongabay.com) is an American conservation news web portal that reports on environmental science, energy, and green design, and features extensive information on tropical rainforests, including pictures and deforestation statistics for countries of the world.

It was founded in 1999 by economist Rhett Ayers Butler in order to increase "interest in and appreciation of wildlands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging local and global trends in technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development".

[1] In recent years, to complement its US-based team, Mongabay has opened bureaus in Indonesia, Latin America, and India, reporting daily in Indonesian, Spanish and English respectively.

In an interview with Conjour, Butler said his passion for rainforests drove him to start Mongabay: "I was intrigued by the complexity of these ecosystems and how every species seemed to play a part.

"[2] The founder of the website explains that "mongabay" originated from an anglicized spelling and pronunciation of Nosy Mangabe, an island off the coast of Madagascar.

[15] The Mongabayorg Corporation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California that raises awareness about social and environmental issues relating to forests and other ecosystems.

[22] Butler established the non-profit due to his desire to expand the scope of Mongabay's environmental science and conservation news service.

Butler applied the Mongabay-Indonesia model to Mongabay's global operation in 2014, launching a network-based approach to covering environmental stories in English.

[27][28] After the nine-month pilot produced over 180 stories in more than 40 countries, including articles that generated significant interest in policy circles,[29] the project was expanded to a range of other topics.

Mongabay.org also provides small grants to journalists to help with travel and reporting costs for stories published in high-profile third party media.

In September 2022, Mongabay founder Rhett Butler was selected as a winner of the 27th Heinz Award[35] for advancing environmental journalism worldwide.

[43] As of April 29, 2021, Mongabay.org had a 100/100 score on Charity Navigator's Encompass Rating System, which evaluates a nonprofit organization’s financial health including measures of stability, efficiency and sustainability as well as its accountability and transparency policies.