Cargill Admits Buying Palm Oil from Illegally Cleared Orangutan Habitat

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 [...]

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From The Field: Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park And The High Stakes Of The Palm Oil Crisis

Since joining RAN’s forest program over two years ago, I have read and written about the many dire consequences of industrial scale palm oil plantations in Indonesia: one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans destroyed, gross human rights abuses and labor conditions, and social conflict between [...]

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RAN Staff Finds Deforestation And Violence For Palm Oil Unchecked By The RSPO

As the 9thAnnual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting wrapped up on the island of Borneo, the crisis stemming from the uncontrolled expansion of palm oil plantations into rainforests and communities reached a fever pitch. Consider this: In the few days that RAN’s four staff-member delegation attended the RSPO meeting in SE Asia, the [...]

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A Lonely Voice For Forests, People, And The Climate

In an interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz of HUTAN notes that oil palm plantations cover a staggering 14,000 square kilometers of Sabah, one of the two states in Malaysian Borneo and the number one producer of Malaysian palm oil. This is equal to 20 Singapores planted solely with palm! In the same interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz [...]

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The Human Cost Of Palm Oil Expansion

“Before we had a happy life,” Ms. Gaong said she tells her grandchildren. “Now it’s a difficult life. There’s nothing left for them.” The recent story in the New York Times titled “Clashes Between Tribes and Agribusiness Increase in Malaysia” tells an all-too common story. It’s not a happy story. It’s the story of farming [...]

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Cargill: Keep Slave Labor Out of US Grocery Stores

Did you know that palm oil—a pervasive vegetable oil widely known for its disastrous effect on rainforests—is found in about half of the goods at your local grocery store? Palm oil is now also linked to slave labor. You can thank Cargill for that. Cargill is the largest importer of palm oil into the US, [...]

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Does the RSPO Care About Forests and People?

Yesterday was the deadline given to IOI Corporation by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to resolve its social conflict with the community of Long Teran Kanan or else face penalties. And guess what? The RSPO again failed to take decisive action against IOI. Meanwhile, IOI is sticking to its guns and defending its [...]

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RAN Invites 100 Cargill Employees to Born To Be Wild

On the eve of the global premier of Born To Be Wild, we sent this invitation to Cargill CEO Greg Page. We hope he and many of his Cargill employees will take us up on this generous offer! Dear Mr. Page and employees of Cargill, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) would [...]

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Reclaiming Stolen Lands: Indigenous Community Stands up to Global Palm Oil Giant

After fighting for the return of their ancestral lands for more than a decade, the people of Long Teran Kenan in Malaysian Borneo took a stand earlier this month and reclaimed part of their homeland with a decisive and peaceful act of collective resistance. Their territory had been taken from them and converted into oil [...]

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Call for Rainforest Action Heroes in Borneo: Deadline March 18th

In collaboration with Dr. Willy Smits and Orangutan Outreach, DeforestACTION is launching an exciting global project to save the world’s forests. And they want YOU to be an action star in their new 3D documentary from Australian film company Virgo Productions in collaboration with National Geographic Entertainment. The producers of DeforestACTION are searching the globe [...]

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