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 [...]
Continue reading...Friday, July 15, 2011
If you think this title sounds hyperbolic, you probably have not visited Sumatra lately. Before traveling here, I had heard stories about the oceans of oil palm that have been planted where rainforest once stood. But I was not prepared for this. The first sign that something is terribly wrong came before our plane even [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, July 13, 2011
It appears the Malaysian government has decided to allow its drive for industrialization to trump the preservation of some of the world’s most important natural resources. Do the two really have to be at odds in the 21st century? The county of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo, contains one of the oldest and most diverse rainforests [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, July 12, 2011
It’s a good thing RAN’s forest campaigner, Lafcadio Cortesi, speaks Bahasa Indonesian so well. Otherwise I almost certainly would have gotten in the car with the undercover intelligence agent who told me to come with him because he “wanted to practice his English.” We had just arrived in the small village of Siabu, in the [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, July 7, 2011
I’ve only been in Indonesia for a few days and already I’ve heard multiple accounts of intimidation, corruption, kidnapping, torture and even murder suffered by our allies here who have been bold enough to speak out and resist the destruction of their forests and villages by palm oil and pulp and paper companies. But I [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, May 4, 2011
As Canadians were casting their votes in the Federal Election, another important decision was playing out in the board rooms of Canada’s top banks: what to do with Enbridge, sponsor of the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Over the last several weeks, RAN teamed up with First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance to put senior banking [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 3, 2011
It’s pretty crazy to think that something as seemingly innocent as Girl Scout cookies could be contributing to rainforest destruction, the violation of Indigenous rights and the extinction of endangered species like orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. Unfortunately, because Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) chooses to use rainforest destroying palm oil in a large majority of [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Last Monday, IOI Group received an unexpected visit from a group of activists who delivered a large photo of the community of Long Teran Kanan, a community whose traditional lands have been converted to plantations by IOI Group. Along with this powerful photo, the group also delivered the following statement from Rainforest Action Network to [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, March 31, 2011
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 [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Kyana Jones, also known as Kitty Jones, started a small cleaning business to raise funds for nonprofits, and chose RAN as one of the beneficiaries. After hearing about Kitty’s selfless efforts to raise support and awareness about protecting the environment and wildlife, I asked her if she would share her story with the RAN community [...]
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Friday, December 2, 2011
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