The following article is a press release  by UK-based NGO, The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), of 20120124 entitled ‘Conservation on the Front Line – Muara Tae’s Last Stand Against Big Palm Oil’

Their ancient rainforest home clearfelled for bloody Palm Oil,

now these Orang-utans are homeless in their own homeland

[Source: ^http://www.pdnphotooftheday.com/2010/05/4673]

(Click photo to enlarge)

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MUARA TAE, EAST KALIMANTAN (Borneo, Indonesia):

The fate of a Dayak indigenous community, deep in the interior of East Kalimantan (Borneo) demonstrates how Indonesia must safeguard the rights of indigenous people if it is to meet ambitious targets to reduce emissions from deforestation.

Cleared land at Muara Tae

(c) EIA/Telapak

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The Dayak Benuaq of Muara Tae, in West Kutai Kabupaten (Indonesia), today face a two-pronged assault from palm oil companies aggressively expanding into their ancestral forests. Together with Indonesian NGO Telapak, the community is manning a forest outpost around the clock in a last ditch attempt to save it from destruction.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has witnessed at first-hand the Dayak Benuaq’s struggle, and how their sustainable use of forests could help Indonesia deliver on its ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

EIA Forests Team Leader Faith Doherty said: “There are more than 800 families in Muara Tae relying on the forests for their food, water, medicine, culture and identity. Put simply, they have to keep this forest in order to survive.

Villagers on cleared land at Muara Tae

(c) EIA/Telapak

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“The rhetoric from the President of Indonesia on curbing emissions by reducing deforestation is strong but on the front line, where indigenous communities are putting their lives at risk to protect forests, action is sorely missing.

“Giving these communities, such as the Dayak Benuaq, the rights they deserve is a vital step to reduce catastrophic levels of deforestation in Indonesia.”

President Yudhoyono has pledged to reduce carbon emissions across the archipelago by 26 per cent by 2020 against a business-as-usual baseline, alongside delivering substantial economic growth.

Self-serving bullshit artist

– take your pick

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Plantation expansion will inevitably be a significant element of growth, but it has historically been a major driver of emissions and it is widely acknowledged that in order avoid them, expansion must now be directed to ‘degraded’ lands.

As a result of weak spatial planning, however, the forests of Muara Tae are identified as ‘APL’, a designation meaning they are not part of the national forest area and are open to exploitation. The theft of indigenous forests also raises serious questions as to what form of ‘development’ these plantations offer.

In indigenous communities such as the Dayak Benuaq of Muara Tae, Indonesia has perhaps its most valuable forest resource. It is due to their sustainable methods, honed over generations, that the forest even remains.

Benuaq girl and ncap payang tree

(c) EIA/Telapak

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Telapak president Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto said:

“Together with the community, we have not only been protecting the last forests but also planting new Ulin and Meranti saplings to enhance it. These people are the true guardians of the forest and their fate is entwined with it.”

Muara Tae has lost more than half of its land and forests during the past 20 years to mining companies. The impact has been tangible; the villagers’ water source has dried up and they must now routinely make a 1km journey to collect clean water.

The remaining forest is home to a large number of bird species including hornbills, the emblem of Borneo. There are about 20 species of reptiles and it is also a habitat for both proboscis monkeys and honey bears.

Indonesia’s Environment Minister Gusti Hatta,

all talk..so…’what does an Orang-Utan look like?‘

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The latest land-grabs have taken place since January 2010, when the local Bupati (regional government official), Ismail Thomas, issued plantation permits to two palm oil companies: Malaysian-owned PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (PT MWJP) and PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya, a subsidiary of Sumatran logging, mining and plantation conglomerate Surya Dumai.

While the Norwegian Government has been instrumental in financially backing efforts to reduce deforestation in Indonesia through the REDD+ initiative, it has also invested in the parent company of PT MWJP through its sovereign wealth fund.

Pak Singko, a leader of the Dayak Benuaq of Muara Tae, said: “We are calling for help from people everywhere in protecting our forests and ancestral land. We are being squeezed from all sides by mining and plantation companies.

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“This is the last remaining forests that we have and the only land we have to survive. 

If my forests are gone, our lives will end.”

Cargill’s ecological facism for its self-serving Palm Oil

The destruction of primary rainforest by Duta Palma. West Kalimantan, Borneo.

Cargill was a key purchaser of palm oil from this notorious rainforest destroyer up until 2008.
[Source:  Photo: David Gilbert/RAN, ^http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/5551935164/]

(Click photo to enlarge)

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The above photo is from an investigative report from Rainforest Action Network that presents evidence that (US conglomerate) Cargill is operating two undisclosed palm oil plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Cargill’s pathetic claim of its Corporate Responsibility in Indonesia

[Source:  Cargill corporate website:  ^http://www.cargill.com.au/en/index.jsp].

 

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When William Wallace Cargill founded our company in 1865, he deliberately set out to ensure that we earned and maintained a reputation for integrity, which he saw as a key differentiator in those times.

Corporate responsibility is part of everything we do. It is a company-wide commitment to apply our global knowledge and experience to help meet complex economic, environmental and social challenges wherever we do business. It is a process of continually improving our standards, our actions and our processes. Corporate responsibility extends not only to our own operations but to our wider communities and is based on four commitments:

• We will conduct our business with high levels of integrity, accountability and responsibility.
• We will develop ways of reducing our environmental impact and help conserve natural resources.
• We will treat people with dignity and respect.
• We will invest in and engage with communities where we live and work.

We recognize our continued success depends on the growth and health of our communities and partners, as well as the vitality and conservation of our natural resources. We are working with a diverse group of global, national and local organizations to support responsible economic development, help protect the environment and improve communities.

Forced eviction, forced immigration

Orang-Utan orphans fleeing their ravaged parents and their ravaged ancestral homes

Present us an American citizen accepting of  such home eviction!

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ED: Cargill’s eco-rape and eco-plunder policy across Indonesia’s vulnerable Borneo (Kalimantan) demonstrates that Cargill’s above public relations spiel is clearly crap!  This is a wealthy United States corporate exploiting a poor country’s  precious rainforest ecosystems, buggering local indigenous peoples and driving the extinction of the endangered Orang-Utan.  If you work for Cargill or have shares in Cargill yoiu may as well be associated with the arms suppliers to the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his regime.

Not just home invasion, but complete ecological erasion

Cargill is calling in the A-Bomb to Orang-Utans

What United States citizen would tolerate this?

911 is being inflicted on vulnerable species by the United States

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Cargill’s worldwide president and COO Gregory R. Page

His life won’t end in devastation, but he drives devastation in vulnerable Kalimantan – in secret!

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Further Reading:

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[1]   ‘Villagers face off against palm oil firm’s bulldozers‘,  by EIA, 20111123, ^http://www.eia-international.org/villagers-face-off-against-palm-oil-firms-bulldozers

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[2]   ‘Orangutan ‘killers’ on trial over slaughtering primates for pest control at palm oil plantation‘, by Damien Gayle, Daily Mail, 20120208, ^http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097946/Orangutan-killers-trial-slaughtering-primates-pest-control-palm-oil-plantation.html

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It’s a remarkable photograph: A pregnant Orang-utan protectively clutching her five-year-old child as death seems imminent at the hands of bounty hunters armed with knives.

Ordeal…the mother and baby Orang-utan, above, were lucky to have escaped

a group of juvenile Indonesian poachers (below)  in Kalimantan (Borneo)

(© Photo by Vier Pfoten of  Four Paws International, ^http://www.four-paws.org.uk/  and
PT Restorasi Habitat Orangutan Indonesia (RHOI)

 ^http://forest-carbon.org/project-list/first-project)

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At The Habitat Advocate we wish to emphasise and thank the vital role of wildlife photographers around the world whose photos continue to help convey the plight of wildlife at the hands of humans.  Without such photos, the truth would be less disseminated.

The following article was reproduced in The Sun-Herald newspaper (Sydney) on 20120129 on page 30.  The article was borrowed from the New York Daily News newspaper (New York) which published the article on 20120127.  The original source was the Daily MAIL (UK), written by Richard Shears, 20120127, under the long heading: ‘Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant Orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill‘.

The ultimate source is from the website of Four Paws UK.

Four Paws International is an international animal charity, campaigning to end animal suffering and cruelty.  Four Paws International was founded in 1988 in Austria to campaign against fur farms and against battery farmed eggs.

Visit their website (English office) : ^http://www.four-paws.org.uk/

The partner organisation based in Indonesia is PT Restorasi Habitat Orang-utan Indonesia (RHOI), which translates into English as the Borneo Orang-utan Survival (BOS).  Its name could not be more literal!  Humans are systematically exterminating a species – the Orang-utan.

BOS has developed an Ecosystem Restoration Concession with the intention of using the forest area as a release site for rehabilitated Orang-utans. The proposed concession is in East Kalimantan is comprised of the ex-PT Mugitriman International (MGI) timber concession. BOS would like to obtain sustainable funding for managing and safeguarding this forest and is currently exploring the option of an avoided deforestation/REDD project where the sale of carbon.

Visit their website: ^http://forest-carbon.org/project-list/first-project

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‘Pregnant Orang-utan mother and child rescued at last minute from knife-bearing bounty hunters in Borneo’,

by Rolando Pujol in the New York Daily News, Friday, 20120127, ^http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pregnant-orangutan-mother-child-rescued-minute-knife-bearing-bounty-hunters-borneo-article-1.1013270?]

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It’s a remarkable photograph: A pregnant Orang-utan protectively clutching her five-year-old child as death seems imminent at the hands of bounty hunters armed with knives.

At the last minute, however, members of Four Paws International, an international animal-rescue group, swooped in last week and prevented their killings in Borneo, the Daily Mail reported.

“A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead,” said Dr. Signe Preuschoft, a primate expert with the British-based organization, according to the Daily Mail. “We discovered a gang of young men surrounding them and both victims were clearly petrified.”

The incident showcases the threat Orang-utans are facing as they are targeted for slaughter with a price on their heads.

“The gang meanwhile were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals.”

The incident, compellingly captured in a dramatic photo of the mother cradling her child for dear life, casts a fresh light on the disturbing plight of Orang-utans, who were once common throughout Southeast Asia but now mostly live in Borneo and other areas in Indonesia.

The mother, estimated to be between 25 and 30, and the child were the only Orang-utans the team found alive in the area surrounding a palm-oil plantation. The group said it was scouting the area after reports of mass Orang-utan slaughter.

The spread of palm oil plantations, the group said, is accelerating the demise of the already endangered animals, which are losing native habitat because of widespread deforestation. The very name Orang-utan means “person of the forest,” as they spend most of their time in trees.

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The palm-oil companies, the group said, are allegedly making matters worse by offering rewards of about $100 per dead Orang-utan, because they see the animals as nuisances.

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“These massacres must not be allowed to continue,” Preuschoft said to the Daily Mail.

The rescued animals have since been released back in the wild in an area far from where they almost met death. The mother was fitted with a radio transmitter to help ensure the apes stay safe, the group said.

“Tens of thousands of adult Orang-utans have been slaughtered, while their orphaned offspring is frequently being sold off as pets or left behind to die, if they aren’t killed on the spot as well“, Four Paws International posted on its website.

The slaughter of Orang-utans is illegal in Indonesia, but enforcement has stepped up only recently, the group said.

“Mass graves that were discovered last September triggered the first few serious arrests, including a senior plantation manager“, the group wrote.

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A similar article (in more detail) by the Daily Mail (UK):

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‘Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant Orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill’

[Source: ”Don’t hurt my baby! Pregnant Orang-utan protectively hugs her daughter as ruthless Borneo bounty hunters move in for the kill’, by Richard Shears, 20120127, Daily Mail (UK), ^http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092722/Pregnant-orang-utan-hugs-daughter-bounty-hunters-Borneo-in.html] .

• Pair saved at last minute by UK-based animal rescue group

• Palm oil firms trying to clear plantations said to be offering £70 for each Orang-utan killed on the Borneo palm oil plantations

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As bounty hunters with bush knives entrapped them in a circle and moved in for the kill, the only thing this mother Orang-utan could think to do was to wrap a giant protective arm around her daughter.  The pair seemed to be facing a certain death as a gang of hunters surrounded them in Borneo, keen to cash in on the palm oil plantations’ bid to be rid of the animals.

But, happily, a team from the British-based international animal rescue group Four Paws International arrived in time to stop the slaughter and saved their lives.

The pregnant mother and daughter were captured and moved to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released back into the wild – but not before the mother was equipped with a radio device so she and her young can be tracked to ensure they remain safe.

‘Our arrival could not have been more timely,’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert.  ‘A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead.’

‘We discovered a gang of young men surrounding them and both victims were clearly petrified.

‘The gang meanwhile were jubilant in anticipation of their rewards for catching and killing the animals. These massacres must not be allowed to continue.’
Saved: ‘Our arrival could not have been more timely. A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert

‘A few minutes later and the Orang-utans could have been dead.’ said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws International primate expert

Mother and daughter were captured and moved to a remote and safe area of the rainforest and released back into the wild – but not before the mother was equipped with a radio device so she and her young can be tracked to ensure they remain safe.

Mother and baby rescued and placed into the wild.

But with their rainforest wilderness rapidly being destroyed how long have these Orang-utans got?   What happened to the father?

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Before the rescue, a Four Paws International team had scoured the area on the Indonesian side of Borneo, which is shared with Malaysia, but found no other Orangutans which had survived an earlier slaughter.

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Deforestation has dramatically reduced their habitat and their numbers have dropped from 250,000 a few decades ago to only 50,000 in the wild.  And while the loss of their habitat by logging companies has created a major threat to their existence, a more brutal form of reducing their numbers has emerged in recent years – direct slaughter.

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Palm oil is used in hundreds of products from chocolate to oven chips, but the demand for buying it at a low price has resulted in significant deforestation as habitats are being destroyed to make way for plantations.  Some palm oil companies see Orang-utans as pests, a threat to their lucrative business, and have placed a bounty on their heads.

Company executives are reported to be offering up to £70 to employees for each Orang-utan killed on the palm oil plantations.  While such stories were at first denied, proof of the slaughter emerged last September when graves and bones were found by investigators.

‘Killing of Orang-utans is illegal in Indonesia but the law is lacking enforcement,’ said a Four Paws UK spokesman.

‘Before November last year only two low-level arrests had ever been made.  But in the last two months 10 more arrests have taken place including the arrest of the senior manager of the plantation where the worst graves have been found.’

In an equally tragic scenario, babies left alive after adult Orang-utans have been slaughtered have been put up for sale in the Pet Trade by hunters.

When traumatised babies are found by Four Paws International and other animal rescue teams they are taken to a sanctuary and taught skills they will need in order to return to the wild.

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Selected comments from readers:

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‘Boycott any product with palm oil!!!’

~ maninthemiddle, 20120128.
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“Let’s find the corporate entities who are paying for the palm oil,then boycott,very sad story,very touching”

~ olefan_is_a_moron, 20120128.

olefan_is_a_moron (20120128):.
“The real problem in the world is overpopulation. Natural resources replace themselves unless they are overburdened by excessive demand due to a big population. Cutting down 1% of a forest will not harm it since trees will just grow back but when you’re destroying too much at once you’re just striping the land bare.”

~ DocPaul (20120128)

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“Soon man shall be the only “animal” left for hunting.”

~ 3 VULTURES  (20120128).

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“Orang-utans are critically endangered in the wild because of rapid deforestation and the expansion of palm oil plantations into their rainforest home. The situation described in this article is all too common unfortunately. If nothing is done to protect these amazing creatures, they will be extinct in just a few years. Visit the Orangutan Outreach website to learn more and make a difference! http://redapes.org   Reach out and save the orangutans! Adopt an orangutan today! {:(|}”

~ OrangutanOutreach (20120128).

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“How about a bounty of $150 per dead bounty hunter?”

~ Meowmeister, 20120128.

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“This is what happens when you have: 1. People believing that the so-called phrase “and man shall have dominion over the beasts” means they can be killed at will and 2. When human beings believe nothing absolutely nothing is more important than profit.”

~ itsallinperception, 20120128.

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“Farmers are being killed in south America for the same reason, land. Plantation owners want the land to get money for carbon credits…”

~ nlohu, 20120128.

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“So sad. Palm oil is not just used in food. It is also used in cosmetics. I think it is called retinyl palmitate, something like that. Any ingredient that has “palmitate (ie: palm) is from palm oil. It is a form of vitamin A, used in skin creams alot.”

~ ana63, 20120128.

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“These companies should not be allowed to trade in the UK. We shouldn’t be trading with any company that doesn’t respect life and the environment.”

~ Lo, cheshire, UK, 20120128.

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“Everything that is wrong with the world is due to humans. We will continue to destroy our world unless something radical happens to reduce the human population and to change the greedy mindset of the human population. This makes me so incredibly sad!”

~ GB, UK, 20120128.

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“…I think what would be more helpful is to have the names of the food manufacturers who are purchasing the palm oil from those companies. I suspect we would see major names such as Nabisco, Kraft, etc.”

~ InfoOverload, 20120128.

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ANSWER:   The largest palm oil company worldwide is ‘Wilmar International’

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One of the most powerful opponents of our ‘Save our Borneo’ activists is Wilmar International, the largest palm oil company worldwide, based in Singapore.

“Wilmar International Limited, founded in 1991, is Asia’s leading agribusiness group.

“We are amongst the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange.  Our business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseeds crushing, edible oils refining, sugar, specialty fats, oleochemicals and biodiesel manufacturing and grains processing. Headquartered in Singapore, Wilmar has over 300 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia and some 50 other countries to support a well established processing and merchandising business. Wilmar also manufactures and distributes fertilisers and owns a fleet of vessels. The Group is backed by a multi-national workforce of approximately 90,000 people.”

“We are today:

• The largest global processor and merchandiser of palm and lauric oils
• One of the largest plantation companies in Indonesia/Malaysia
• The largest palm biodiesel manufacturer in the world
• A leading consumer pack edible oils producer, oilseeds crusher, edible oils refiner, specialty fats and oleochemicals manufacturer in China
• One of the largest edible oils refiners and a leading producer of consumer pack edible oils in India
• The largest edible oils refiner in Ukraine
• The leading importer of edible oils into East Africa and one of the largest importers of edible oils into South-east Africa.

‘We will continue to leverage on the scale and strengths of our business model to benefit from the long term growth potential of the agricultural commodity business, especially in Asia.”

Visit website:  ^http://www.wilmar-international.com/

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Cyclone Yasi 2011 destruction sees Wilmar take over Australia’s CSR’s Sucrogen

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[Source: ‘Proserpine creditors approve sale of mill to Sucrogen‘, 20111209, ^http://www.sucrogen.com/media/news]

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‘Sucrogen, the Australian-based sugar subsidiary of Singapore-listed Wilmar International Limited, looks forward to an exciting future as the new owner of Proserpine Sugar Mill after a majority of Proserpine creditors, by number and value, voted today to approve Sucrogen’s purchase of the mill.

Sucrogen CEO Ian Glasson said the creditors’ vote was a great outcome and paved the way for the sale transaction to be completed immediately.

“The positive result means creditors will be paid, in full, before Christmas,” Mr Glasson said.  “We are grateful to have received such strong support from creditors, who have clearly shown faith in us and our plans for the Proserpine region.”

Sucrogen’s offer comprised a headline price of A$120 million, plus a working capital adjustment, normal settlement adjustments, as well as absorption of the mill’s normal operating costs and certain critical capital expenditure incurred from 31 October 2011.

Mr Glasson said while Sucrogen was pleased to finally purchase the mill, it was disappointing the sale was not possible before the Co-operative was placed into voluntary administration.

“The negative campaign Tully ran to derail the first two member votes has, ultimately, cost members a substantial amount of money in administration and legal fees,” he said.  Critically, it has also delayed capital and maintenance at the mill.”

However, the transition to Sucrogen management and leadership will begin immediately and we will hit the ground running next week and do our best to ensure the mill is ready for the start of 2012 season, despite the lengthy delays.”

Mr Glasson said Wilmar had expressed a strong interest in working with growers to help expand Proserpine’s sugar industry.

“We look forward to a long and productive relationship with local growers, Proserpine Sugar Mill employees and the whole Proserpine community.”

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So the company that is behind the palm plantation clearing destroying Orang-utan habitat and encouraging Oran-gutans to be slaughtered, is the parent company that sells CSR Sugar across Australia and Chelsea Sugar across New Zealand and the artificial sweetener ‘Equal‘.

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The palm oil industry says: ‘Orang-utans are pests!’

[Source: ^http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/newsletter/1267/282c3e5ec03e375e7afa82c63564ae41]

 

This juvenile Orang-utang’s mother was killed on one of the palm oil plantations
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“Dear friends of the rainforest, the BBC reports that Orang-utans are treated as “pest” and exterminated on Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil plantations. In the last year alone, up to 1,800 Orang-utans were killed in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo).  They wander hungry through the plantations as though in a daze, looking for food and thus eat the palm seedlings. Palm oil plantation workers are paid to kill Orang-utans either before a forest is cleared or, if they see any in a plantation. Either way, it is totally illegal to harass, harm or kill any Orang-utans.”

[Source: ”Borneo: Environmentalists need help for preserving the rainforest’, ^https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/donate/90/borneo-environmentalists-need-help-for-preserving-the-rainforest]

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“The current trend of converting rainforest into palm oil plantations is devastating our country. Our people cannot provide for themselves any longer; and endangered species such as the Orang-utans are doomed to die. It is high time for us to join forces and jointly put a stop to the palm oil industry’s  illegal activities on all levels.“

Nordin, head and founder of our partner organisation ‘Save our Borneo’ (SOB) has lately experienced a great deal of suffering caused by the destruction of tropical rainforest in his home province Central Kalimantan in Borneo – including his own family. His little son Mirza was born when wildfires were raging for several months, obscuring the sky over Central Kalimantan and making breathing truly agonizing. Due to his chronic breathing difficulties, Mirza had to be hospitalised often. Even though slash and burn clearing methods are prohibited in Indonesia, fires are started again and again in order to gain more space for palm oil plantations.

One of the most powerful opponents of our ‘Save our Borneo’ activists is Wilmar International, the largest palm oil company worldwide.

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(Wilmar International) act as if no rules apply to them. This company has the rainforest illegally logged and new plantations set up; they drive peasants off their land and arrest them if they defend themselves. Wilmar keeps founding new subsidiaries, and bribes officials to side-step the law.

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Therefore, Save Our Borneo’s boss Nordin sent ‘Rainforest Rescue’ a strategic plan in order to unite our efforts and take action against Wilmar: We are also supported by regional environmentalists of ‘Walhi’, the Indonesian branch of ‘Friends of the Earth’.

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“We want to sue the Wilmar Group at their headquarters in Singapore for their crimes committed against humans and nature,“ says Nordin. “However, first we will have to gather enough detailed facts and evidence for an absolutely watertight lawsuit.”

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Their strategic plan is set to run for 18 months and works on all levels, including:

1. Workshops with affected peasant families to discuss land rights and, possibly, draw up maps. Another goal is to inform the population about Wilmar’s modus operandi and how to defend themselves.
2. Training in Forest Management and Land Rights
3. Research and data gathering regarding activities of Wilmar subsidiaries.
4. Workshops on corruption
5. Public relations activities disclosing Wilmar’s law violations as well as any political involvement (multimedia campaign on TV, radio or the internet such as facebook, brochures etc.)
6. Public dialogues between all the parties involved, having politicians, scientists, journalists, environmentalists and victims of the palm oil industry all sit together at one table.

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Nordin calls his major offensive against Wilmar International an “Action Plan for a Better Life“.

Visit Rainforest Rescue website:  ^http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/

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In Indonesia, bulldozing rainforest for profitable palm oil plantations for western diets has become highly profitable due to western corporate demand…

 

In Indonesia’s Borneo (Kalimantan) the rainforest habitat of orangutans is being destroyed, largely to make way for palm oil plantations due to western diet demand

Arnott’s relies up on palm oil in its popular western ‘Tim Tam’ biscuit product

Just like these other western brands do:

The palm oil driven rainforest deforestation in Borneo (Kalimantan) thanks to unethical palm oil demand from the likes of Arnott’s…

Try finding a shrinking rainforest map on the wrapper of a packet of Tim Tams!

Indonesian unethical destruction of orangutan rainforest habitat continues to provide for palm oil plantations.

This is costing the lives of about 50 orangutans every week.

Arnott’s knows this, yet continues to buy the palm oil and drive the Indonesian palm oil deforestation.

Arnott’s is expanding its sales of palm oil Tim Tams with new product offerings:

2011 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Forests.

Arnott’s knows this.

It won’t be long before human demand for Tim Tams and other palm oil consumer products have driven the orangutan into extinction.

Tim Tams have become the western addiction driving orangutan extinction.

Arnott’s chocolate biscuits are more than a weight gaining guilt.

You eat them, you kill a species.

Will someone make clear to the Arnott’s Board that for Orangutans THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR QUALITY HABITAT.

‘General Sherman’ ~ just another sequoia?  (pronounced ‘sequoya’)

Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Sierra Nevada, California, USA

^http://www.nps.gov/seki/historyculture/gfgst.htm

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The General Sherman Tree

– the world’s largest tree, is the prime visitor attraction in the Giant Forest.

[Source: ^http://www.nps.gov/seki/historyculture/gfgst.htm]

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“Sequoia sempervirens’ common names include coast redwood, California redwood, and giant redwood. It is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1200–1800 years or more. This species includes the (current) tallest trees on Earth, reaching up to 379 feet (115.52 m) in height and up to 26 feet (7.9 m) diameter at breast height. Before commercial logging and clearing began by the 1850s, this massive tree occurred naturally in an estimated 2.1 million acres along much of coastal California (excluding southern California where rainfall is not abundant enough) and the southwestern corner of coastal Oregon within the United States.”  [Source:  ^Wikipedia – read more].

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“The Sierra Nevada is still growing today. The mountains gain height during earthquakes on the east side of the range. But the mountains are being shortened by erosion almost as quickly as they grow. This erosion has deposited sediments thousands of feet thick on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley.”

[Source:  ^http://www.nps.gov/seki/historyculture/gfgst.htm]

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‘Giant tree’ at Neerim (Gippsland, Victoria, Australia), forty feet girth c.1889

AUSTRALASIAN ART, Photo by Nicholas CAIRE, b.1837 Guernsey, United Kingdom – Australia d.1918[Gelatin silver photograph image 15.0 h x 20.2 w cm, Purchased 1983, Accession No: NGA 83.3083]

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“The men shown here measuring the diameter of a giant eucalypt were not loggers or tree-lovers. They were attempting to determine whether Australian trees were bigger than the famed 400-foot giant redwoods of California. It was mostly national pride surrounding the Australian Centennial of European settlement which motivated scientists and photographers in the 1880s to seek out the remaining giant trees in the more remote areas of Victoria. The Americans claimed that their redwoods were the greatest because of their combined height and girth. In the dense Australian bush, it

was easier to measure the girth than the height and presented a much more dramatic image for a photograph.

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The general public followed the giant tree debate in the papers and also purchased photographs of them and other idyllic bush scenes. By the late 19th century, the Australian population mostly lived and worked in the cities. They became day-trippers and used the new railway networks to take their recreation in the bush. Nicholas Caire, one of the most active photographers to seek out and record the giant trees, travelled over a number of years on the new rail line to Neerim town reserve.

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Australia’s giant trees were widely depicted in colonial art as mighty symbols of the pre-settlement and pioneer era. Caire, whilst accepting the desirability of logging and urban development, was also one of those who argued for the preservation of examples for future generations.

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Most of the awesome giant trees were felled or burnt in his lifetime. Now they are preserved only in photographs.”

~Anne O’Hehir

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Indeed…

“The largest tree on Planet Earth is not the California Redwood, but the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans).  The largest trees ever recorded were located in southern Australia near present day Melbourne.  The world’s largest tree was the Ferguson Tree at over 500 feet (154m). It was measured by Surveyor Ferguson in 1872 in the Watts River Catchment near Healesville.”

Read More:   Click:  http://www.baddevelopers.green.net.au/Docs/talltrees.htm

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Source: Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010, Anne Gray (ed), Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002,  http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail-LRG.cfm?IRN=106546&View=LRG

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People and Horses on a Gigantic Redwood Log; about 1900.

“This photo is open for down loading for anyone wishing a free copy. Unknown Photo History. I’m fairly certain the tree was a Coast Redwood (Sequoia semperviren) or a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) from Central to Northern California or Oregon. I wish this one was still standing. The bark has already been stripped off of it.”   [Source: Photo of old photo by David Foster, http://www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2225069096/]

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Editor’s Comment:

I empathise with David Foster. – ‘I wish this one was still standing‘.  Every face in this 1900 photo conveys cultural achievement and exploitative pride.

Now in 2011, has human attitude and on-ground impact toward ‘Old Growth’ really changed any?

Consider ‘Merbau’ timber, readily available from local timber yards across Australia and in New Zealand as ‘Kwila’ (Botanical names: Intsia bijuga and Intsia palembanica).  Comparable old-growth rainforest hardwoods include Narra, Yakal, and Ipil.  These old growth giants continually to be currently logged illegally deep in rain forests of the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Australian and New Zealand households profit from SE Asian rain forest destruction.

The lost natural assets of giant trees, of old growth have diminished the Earth, and have diminished the value of humanity, and of humanity’s value to the Earth.  To forest habitat we are but marauders and rapists.

Humanity has become ‘Earth’s Pathogen’.

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SE Asia old growth Rainforest Kwila is marketed in Australia and New Zealand as ‘Merbau’

for use mainly in flooring and decking,because of its relative hardness (high Janka rating) and long term stability.

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Rimbunan Hijau Group of Companies

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“Malaysia’s largest timber group is Rimbunan Hijau (“Forever Green”) (Forbes, 1995). It has timber concessions in Sarawak of around 800,000 hectares (FT,1994), dominates Papua New Guinea’s forestry sector and has forestry interests in New Zealand and China, as well as diversifying into other activities such as the ownership of newspapers in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea (AsiaMoney, 1995). Rimbunan Hijau also owns a 40% share in Limgang Trading Sdn., which has a 310,000 hectares concession in Sarawak (55% of Limbang is owned by Sarawak’s Minister for the Environment and Tourism, James Wong Kim Min) It is privately owned and controlled by one family, headed by Tiong Hiew King. The family are estimated to be worth about US$2.5 billion (Forbes, 1995).”

“Whilst it remains largely a private group of companies, whose operations are veiled in secrecy, the Tiong family has sought to obtain a more public face through the reverse take-over of Berjaya Textiles Bhd (now renamed Jaya Tiasa Holdings Bhd), giving it a listing on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (FT 1994). Its overseas logging operations appear to remain under the control of the private parts of the group and in Papua New Guinea it is the dominant player through control of a number of associate and subsidiary companies. There are recent rumours that Rimbunan Hijau group owns, or is in the process of acquiring, Primegroup Holdings, a British Virgin Islands registered company with logging interests in Guyana and Papua New Guinea. If this is true, then Rimbunan Hijau group’s international logging interests are, or will shortly become, even more extensive, both geographically and in terms of size. Apart from its logging activities, the company has interests in banking, newspapers and oil-palm plantations. One of Hiew King’s younger brothers is a member of the Malaysian Parliament. Despite the company’s political connections, it has been caught for tax evasion, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported.”

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[Source: Greenpeace, 1997, http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/97/forest/asian_companies_malaysia.html, accessed 20110325].

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“Rimbunan Hijau is a Malaysian based global forest logger and controls around 60% of the forest industry in Papua New Guinea.  Rimbunan Hijau is Logging vast areas of virgin PNG forest against national opinion and local customs which infringes on the traditional rights of indigenous resource owners.

• (It is) accused in PNG Government reports of gross human rights abuses, labor abuses, sexual abuses and illegal logging.
• Causing destruction of ancient natural forest and associated systems.
• Conducting broad scale industrial logging operations that infringe on the rights of local people to establish and exploit alternative economic opportunies.
• Is influencing political and other processes to gain and maintain a near monopoly on PNGs forest resources and avoid adequate scrutiny and monitoring of its operations.
• Rimbunan Hijau uses the media to promote its operations to the PNG public – Rimbunan Hijau already OWNS The National newspaper and LEGAL THREATS against their only competitor, the Post Courier, have left it wary of criticising Rimbunan Hijau. These have been the only two print media outlets since The Independent was closed down.”

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[Source:  http://www.forestnetwork.net/rhw/]

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Rimbunan Hijau  is ultimately 50% owned by the Boral “Group” of Australia and 50% by Caltex.

[Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/24211537/2258-Christchurch-New]

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…so when Australians and New Zealanders buy Merbau timber from local timber yards, hardward stores and furniture retailers – they are driving South East Asian old growth rainforest deforestation.

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(The following article from The Guardian in February 2011 is by forests officer for WWF Indonesia, Jimmy Bond, based in West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo)

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Complacency over deforestation pushes orang-utan closer to extinction

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“Illegal logging and hunting continues despite legal protection, so the WWF is raising awareness to help save the orang-utan.

The destruction of the world’s rainforests continues at an alarming rate. Where I’m from in Borneo, illegal logging, coupled with hunting, is driving species such as the orang-utan ever closer towards extinction.

Borneo male orang-utan Wandoo.

There are fewer than 2,000 wild orangutans left in the West Kalimantan province, Indonesia.

©Photograph: Attila Balazs/epa/Corbis

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There are three subspecies of orangutan in Borneo and we only have about 2,000 orangutans left in the wild in West Kalimantan province, and through deforestation and hunting their numbers continue to fall. Just last month I heard from villagers that some people are still killing and eating them even though they’re supposed to be protected by law.

I’ve just been travelling around the region in this part of Indonesia as I’ve been running a series of summer schools as part of a WWF awareness campaign to highlight the problems facing the orang-utan.

Over the past two years, the main focus for the campaign has been children because we’ve found it very difficult to change the minds and attitudes of older generations. We invite the kids to come along to these camps from nearby villages and at the last one more than 200 kids turned up. We do many different activities from drawing to tug-of-war competitions but the over-arching aim is to touch their hearts with stories about this wonderful creature and the rainforests in which they live. We want to leave them with the understanding that these unique creatures need protecting.

We’re also starting to join forces with local government officials and religious leaders to spread the message to communities that live in traditional longhouses. We tell them about a recent success story that acts as a warning against killing orang-utans. One trader in Pontianak, where I’m based, was recently jailed for two years for trading orang-utans.

Such discussion also helps us talk about their habitats and the need to protect them too. In West Kalimantan from 1995, large-scale illegal logging cut through a forest corridor that linked two national parks where one of three subspecies of orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus) lives. This meant they couldn’t migrate between the two areas and their numbers dropped significantly. This was made worse because the illegal loggers who came here to work also hunted meat from the forests and the orang-utans were in the firing line.

Over the past few years we’ve been trying to highlight these problems to the international media because some of the illegally logged timber was transported over the border to Malaysia where it is made into wood products that are shipped all over the world. Globally, we want people to become educated about where the timber that makes their furniture comes from and the harm it is doing to species and communities. When the forest disappears people no longer have access to food and medicines plus we have also seen more flooding as a result of deforestation. The international media focus also helps push our government to react because not so long ago they were doing nothing to help.

Recently, we’ve seen companies get permits from the government to develop palm oil plantations. But what’s worse is that the permits are just a smokescreen for the companies to get at the timber and leave without planting any palm oil.

So we’re working to make indigenous communities aware of this practice and the best way to do this is by bringing in others who have seen this happen on their land to warn them. If they are forewarned then they know not to allow it to happen to their own communities. These people need to have the forest in good condition because it’s not only home to different species, it’s also where they earn their livelihood.

Looking to the future, my big ambition is to set up an orang-utan rehabilitation centre here in West Kalimantan for subspecies Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus. At the moment, orphaned babies are taken to other parts of the country where they are kept with the two other subspecies. I want them to be able to breed with their own kind otherwise they could die out. And I fear that if the orangutan disappears, the rainforest won’t last much longer either.”

[Source: The Guardian newspaper (UK) , http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/feb/03/indonesia-deforestation-orangutan-extinction, accessed Feb 2011]

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Further Reading

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http://www.nps.gov/seki/historyculture/gfgst.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intsia_bijuga

http://www.indonesianrainforest.org/irf-news/373-campaign-against-kwila-imports-continues-.html

http://rainforest-action.blogspot.com/2010/09/end-sales-of-kwila-timber-products.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/illegal-kwila-timber-imports-f/

http://www.info-ri.com/indonesia/rainforest-action-end-sales-of-kwila-timber-products/

http://www.robcousens.com.au/files/D512143129.pdf

http://www.dansson.com/kwila.htm

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/planet-2/report/2008/7/merbau-report-2.pdf

Greenpeace, 1997, http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/97/forest/asian_companies_malaysia.html

http://www.coolearth.org/306/whats-new-32/news-155/illegal-logging-threatening-malaysian-wildlife-453.html

http://www.wwf.org.my/media_and_information/wwf_position_statements/?5741

http://www.ewp.asn.au/certification/certificationcoc.html

http://www.forestnetwork.net/rhw/

http://www.atif.asn.au/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24211537/2258-Christchurch-New

http://www.baddevelopers.green.net.au/Docs/talltrees.htm

The Guardian newspaper (UK) , http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/feb/03/indonesia-deforestation-orangutan-extinction

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