Chelsea Matthews - who has written 10 posts on Rainforest Action Network Blog.
Chelsea is the Forest Program Coordinator at Rainforest Action Network where she supports two campaigns fighting the top two drivers of deforestation in Indonesia: expansion of industrial palm oil and logging by the pulp & paper industry. Chelsea first got involved in the environmental non-profit realm while working as an intern on a food sovereignty campaign in Ecuador. Before coming to RAN in 2011, Chelsea spent time managing volunteers on a youth leadership and community development project in Peru. Chelsea holds a degree in International Studies with an emphasis on environment and development.Last week, RAN joined sixty environmental and social organizations, including a dozen Indonesian groups, in signing an open letter to banks and other financial institutions across the globe warning them to avoid investments in pulp and paper industry projects associated with deforestation and human right abuses in Indonesia. The letter highlights concern with companies associated [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, September 12 2012
UPDATE, 9.26.12: BREAKING: Within the next 24 hours, Kallista Alam, 1 of the 5 major palm oil companies operating in Tripa, will have their operating permit WITHDRAWN. This is a highly important precedent-setting case, as this is the first in Aceh’s (Sumatra, Indonesia) entire governmental history. RAN members like you have helped to keep the [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, July 20 2012
Last week, Cargill admitted to doing business with a very dodgy plantation company in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) that has illegally cleared thousands of hectares of orangutan habitat — and has even allegedly hired people to hunt down and kill orangutans. Cargill admitted to Reuters that it bought at least one shipment of palm oil [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, April 10 2012
Last week hundreds of fires blazed through the Tripa peat forest of Indonesia, threatening the survival of one of the largest remaining populations of wild Sumatran orangutans in the world. These fires rapidly got out of control after they were intentionally started by profit-hungry palm oil companies in order to clear rainforest for palm oil [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, April 3 2012
It’s a sad day today for the few remaining, critically endangered orangutans of Sumatra. In a much anticipated court ruling in the high-stakes case filed against palm oil plantation company PT Kallista Alam and the governor of the Province of Aceh for illegally draining and clearing the internationally renowned Tripa Peat Forest, the judges have [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, April 2 2012
This blog comes from our friends at End of the Icons. In an amazing global response to the tragedy in Tripa, thousands of people all around the world have emailed the President of Indonesia and key stakeholders calling for the law to be enforced and this precious peatland to be saved. We are happy to [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, March 30 2012
A global tragedy is unfolding in Indonesia this week as fires rage through Tripa Swamp, displacing local communities and threatening hundreds of critically endangered Sumatran orangutans. These fires, initially set by palm oil companies to clear land for more plantations, are pushing this population of orangutans to the edge of extinction. Conservation experts say the [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, February 21 2012
Here at Rainforest Action Network, I’m gearing up for the Occupy Our Food Supply global day of action on February 27th, 2012 and it reminded me of a story from Indonesia last month. On January 12, thousands of Indonesian farmers, workers, Indigenous community members, students, and people representing over 50 local non-profits flooded the streets [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, February 10 2012
Update: Occupy Cargill’s Phone Lines on #F27 If you can’t physically occupy a Cargill facility (see below), here is a quick and easy way to make a big difference just by picking up the phone. If you’d like to go into greater detail beyond the script, check out our new Cargill factsheet. 1) Call 1 [...]
Continue reading...By Chelsea Matthews, February 2 2012
Before I started doing environmental work, I’d assumed that biofuel use would have a positive effect on the climate. It turns out the truth about biofuels is much more complex than I’d originally thought. Not every biofuel on the market today has a positive impact on the environment, and some actually pose a major threat. [...]
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By Chelsea Matthews, November 14 2012
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