It is becoming increasingly difficult to separate “natural” disasters from human-caused climate change disasters, but the events themselves are not inherently different. Natural disasters are more extreme and/or longer-lasting elemental events. They leave in their wake death and destruction that can reverberate for months, years or even forever. …

The Brazilian Amazon is under siege by commercial interests that have been destroying it for profit through land-grabbing for illegal mining, logging and the expansion of agriculture and cattle farming. The rate of deforestation in the Amazon jumped a shocking 59.5% …

Ecuador is home to more hummingbird species than any other place on Earth. The Endangered Black-breasted Puffleg is one of the most rare, found only in the high, humid montane forests hugging the ridges around Pichincha volcano in northwestern Ecuador. With its notable white feathered legs, the Black-breasted Puffleg migrates short distances between lower and higher elevations when seasonal weather shifts occur. Favoring the cooler, higher climes above 10,000 feet during the rainy season and dipping to 7,000 feet between April and September, the Puffleg follows flowering vines and trees…

Muscular webbed feet, long, flexible bodies, and strong, rudder-like tails make the Endangered Giant Otter a powerful swimmer. In fact, these agile “Olympians” can reach a top swimming speed of 8.7 miles per hour — almost twice the speed of the fastest human swimmer in history, Michael Phelps. Endemic to…

Water is life. In the hottest and driest biome in northeastern Brazil, there is a distinctive region of shrubland and thorn forest known as “Caatinga,” a Tupi word meaning “white forest” or “white vegetation.” This is the 2.4 million-acre Araripe Plateau, which lay beneath an ocean many millions of years…

Caleb Ofori-Boateng, Ph.D. of HERP Conservation Ghana Dr. Caleb Ofori-Boateng grew up in national parks in Ghana with baboons and elephants. His father was passionate about conservation and worked as a ranger and then assistant park manager at Mole National Park. …

Dr. James C. Deutsch, CEO Rainforest Trust — When renowned conservation author David Quammen agreed to join our board last summer, I bought a used hard copy of his most famous book, The Song of the Dodo, which I had never read. About two-thirds of the way through, Quammen describes visiting the Brazilian Amazon with Tom Lovejoy, the…

By James Deutsch, Rainforest Trust CEO When I was a zoology student, my supervisor used to say that being a conservationist was like being a dentist — the best you could hope for was to slow the rate of decay. …

Will Cooper When I was a young child, I couldn’t wait for my birthday. Aside from the celebration of me with my friends, it also meant I was growing taller, getting stronger, and could go more places without a parent supervising. I was so excited to turn 12 and get…