tagged w/ Palm Plantations
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NineMSN At A Glance...
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Orang-utan protects baby from gang
AEST 11:40, Sat Jan 28 2012
3 images in this story
THIS PHOTO:
The petrified orang-utan hugs her daughter.
(All photos Four Paws/RHOI)
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A pregnant orang-utan protectively hugs her baby as a gang of bounty hunters surround the pair, hoping to cash in on a palm plantation's reward to get rid of the animals.
Luckily for the orang-utans, an international animal rescue group arrived in time to stop the slaughter in Borneo.
The mother and daughter were captured by members of the Four Paws group and taken to a remote and safe area of the rainforest, away from people trying to kill them for cash.
"Our arrival could not have been more timely," said Dr Signe Preuschoft, a Four Paws primate expert.
.NineMSN At A Glance...
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Orang-utan protects baby from gang
AEST 11:40, Sat Jan... more
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SEE VIDEO - http://www.3news.co.nz/Dairy-farmers-urged-to-stop-using-palm-oil-by-product/tabid/369/articleID/117808/cat/839/Default.aspx
Dairy farmers are being blamed for the destruction of tropical rain forests. New Zealand cows ate more than 1 million tonnes of palm kernels last year - a quarter of the world's total consumption of the palm oil by-product.
Environmentalists say the trade is a DEATH sentence for endangered orangutans.
New Zealand dairy farmers are now being held partly responsible for turning the once-lush Indonesian rainforest into a charred, smoking wasteland.
"Clear felling the rainforest, some of the last great rainforest, in order to feed dairy cows I think is environmental suicide," says Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.
Last year, local dairy farmers imported $300 million worth of palm kernel. It is a by-product of palm oil production, used to feed cattle.
"New Zealand dairy is sold overseas as clean and green, with cows on green pastures, and so if people realise that in fact those cows are being fed on a product of the destruction of the last of the great rainforest, it will be extremely damaging," says Mr Norman.
Pictures provided by Greenpeace show the devastation caused by the palm oil industry. It is also blamed for KILLING orangutans.
But farmers say they are not accountable, because palm kernel would be thrown away if not used as cattle feed, and dairy giant Fonterra claims much of what is imported here has no negative impact on the environment.
Palm oil products have already caused much controversy this month. Last week Cadbury bowed to public pressure and stopped using palm product in its chocolate.
Environmentalists say dairy farmers should follow the company's lead and find something else to feed their cows.SEE VIDEO -... more
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Tauranga, New Zealand — John Key’s Government today admitted that production of palm kernel animal feed is helping destroy Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests.
In response to questions in Parliament about palm kernel imports, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, speaking on behalf of Prime Minister John Key, admitted that the production of palm kernel harms the environment saying, "Of course, it has some impact; the Government does not deny that."
Mr English also sought to deflect attention from Fonterra’s use of palm kernel by twice challenging Greenpeace to picket the nation's supermarkets over palm-oil products such as margarine, processed foods and soap.
Greenpeace New Zealand climate campaigner Simon Boxer said Mr English’s statement showed that the government had moved its position.
“It’s clear that the Government has been poorly advised by Fonterra on the realities of the rainforest and climate destruction wrought by the palm industry. The Government knows New Zealand’s palm kernel imports impact the world’s climate and are damaging our clean, green reputation. John Key needs to stop listening to Fonterra and act to stop palm kernel imports.”
Following on from yesterday’s blockade of a palm kernel shipment by Greenpeace activists over 100 people, including farmers, gathered at a public rally outside the Port of Tauranga late today to demonstrate support for stopping palm kernel imports.
The 15 activists involved in yesterday’s blockade were arrested and charged with summary offences and will appear in Tauranga District Court next Wednesday.Tauranga, New Zealand — John Key’s Government today admitted that... more
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Palm oil (aka palmitate, palm kernel oil, and palm fruit oil) is hard on our planet’s lungs and then some. It’s a top-o-the-heap evil-doer when it comes to ubiquitous and environmentally-destructive ingredients.
Here’s a quick and unsettling lowdown: Palm oil’s bland versatility, shelf-stability and lack of trans fats make it highly desirable to those who seek processed-food ingredients to, well, make processed food. It’s in everything from chocolate to snack crackers to margarine. Remember the creamy center of Oreo cookies? Palm oil provides the famously unctuous mouthfeel.
It’s also in cosmetics, soaps, detergents and some plastics. Worldwide, it’s a popular cooking oil.
Last but certainly not least, it’s increasingly used for biodeisel production. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html
As you’ve heard, palm oil’s “moment” comes at the expense of the planet.
To keep up with demand, vast monocultures of oil palm are grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, where rainforests and peat forests are razed to make way for oil palm trees.
Indigenous people are uprooted and harassed, more carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere and precious habitat is lost, sending species such as the orangutan on the express train toward extinction.
The destruction caused by the demand for palm oil is truly unsettling at a visceral level, even for those who have seen worldwide deforestation.
Chris Wille, chief of sustainable agriculture for the Rainforest Alliance,http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/ told me this: “It’s just mind boggling. I’ve been in this business for a long time and I feel like I’m pretty tough. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of burning forests, but what’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia - it shocks even us veterans.”
If you need a visual of the rainforest being hacked into a moonscape, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7fFeJyXkBk
So, can you do right by buying organic palm oil?
Sadly, in this case the organic label may not be sufficient.
Organic certification (ONLY) bans the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, but has NOTHING to say about rainforest management.
That’s right—you could burn down pristine rainforest, plant it with a palms, and STILL GET ORGANIC certification. Industry and green groups are trying to hammer about a certified-sustainable label that ensures responsible forest management. But right now, sustainable palm oil is both hard to find and controversial.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an international 'organization' of producers, distributors and conservationists, came up with 'standards' to address deforestation and managed to get 1.3 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil onto the market last year.
Critics of this “green” palm oil cried foul (AND THEY ARE RIGHT ON!), alleging GREENWASH and weak certification standards... most of that oil has languished on the global market because many of the big players won’t pony up the extra money for it. (Surprisingly, CHINEASE buyers recently stepped up to the plate.)
Hoping to spur interest with a good old-fashioned public shaming, the WWF will soon issue a scorecard to show which major palm oil buyers have made commitments to sustainable palm oil.
THE WWF "SUSTAINABLE PALM SCORECARD" http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2009/WWFPresitem12330.html
LIST OF COMPANIES THAT ARE LARGE USERS OF PALM: http://ran.org/the_problem_with_palm_oil/take_action/sticker/palm_oil_companies/
The Rainforest Alliance is also currently working with some palm plantations in Latin help them meet standards to earn sustainable certification. Within a year consumers will be able to find language on certain food products that will identify palm oil that came from Rain Forest Alliance-certified farms.
Right now there are no official seals or labels that you can rely on and sustainable certification for palm oil (how about 'Native Tribe & Orangutan Friendly')Palm oil (aka palmitate, palm kernel oil, and palm fruit oil) is hard on our... more
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Many Orang-utans and gibbons are are kept in zoos in appalling conditions.
Illegal-trade devastates Sumatran orangutan population.
Lack of law enforcement against illegal trade in Indonesia threatens the survival of orangutans and gibbons on Sumatra, a new study by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC shows.
Despite considerable investment in wildlife conservation, numbers of the critically endangered orangutans captured, mainly for the pet trade, exceeded the levels of the 1970s. A lack of adequate law enforcement is to blame, TRAFFIC says.
Just 7,300 orangutans left on Sumatra -
Records of orangutans and gibbons put into rehabilitation centres serve as an indicator of how many of these animals were illegally held. Meanwhile numbers continue to decline in the wild, with the most recent estimate of just 7,300 Sumatran orangutans surviving.
Orangutans, which can weigh up to around 90 kilograms and reach 1.5 metres in length, end up in such centres after they become too old and big to be held as pets. But owners of the reddish-brown coloured apes do not face any legal consequences.
"Confiscating these animals without prosecuting the owners is futile," said Chris R Shepherd, Acting Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
"There is no deterrent for those committing these crimes if they go unpunished. Indonesia has adequate laws, but without serious penalties, this illegal trade will continue, and these species will continue to spiral towards extinction."
Other threats -
The report recommends that the root causes of trade be examined and that laws be better implemented for the protection of orangutans, gibbons and the island's other wildlife. Sumatra's wildlife is also threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation, logging, land conversion, encroachment, and forest fires.
WWF is working to reduce the destruction of wildlife habitat in Sumatra by working with industry to ensure High Conservation Value Forests are not converted for agriculture, empowering local communities to manage natural resources in a sustainable way, and providing alternatives.Many Orang-utans and gibbons are are kept in zoos in appalling conditions.... more
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The Burning Season
Video: Full Episode
Every hour in Indonesian rainforests, an area the size of 300 soccer fields is mowed down and burned. Often this clearing is done to make way for oil palm plantations. The resulting palm oil is used for cooking, cleaning and even as a biofuel. But the fires farmers set to clear their land have helped to make Indonesia the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide — exceeded only by the U.S. and China.
A 29-year-old Australian “green” entrepreneur named Dorjee Sun believes he has a solution to reduce those harmful greenhouse gas emissions. He has canvassed the world pitching the sale of Indonesia’s carbon credits to polluters in the West.
His business model would maintain the standing swaths of Indonesia’s rainforests by selling their carbon credits. Burning Season follows Dorjee Sun on a whirlwind trip into boardrooms around the world – from Starbucks to eBay to Merrill Lynch – as he tries to convince skeptical financiers that his proposal is viable.
To carry out his plan, local political leaders in Indonesia must also agree that their forests are worth more alive than dead. Small farmers like Achmadi, who makes a living by cutting down trees to plant oil palms, fear the layers of government officials will be the only profiteers from the carbon credit sale.
Burning Season kindles both sides of the climate divide and explores whether capitalism can step in where altruism has so far failed to succeed.The Burning Season
Video: Full Episode
Every hour in Indonesian rainforests, an... more
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