In what has been called the biggest climate decision of the year for the Obama Administration, the Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil industries are flexing their lobbying muscle to overturn a crucial, science-based decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In January of this year, the EPA issued an initial finding that biofuels made [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, May 17, 2012
The major tragedy that is still unfolding in Indonesia’s Tripa rainforest continues to threaten the survival of critically endangered Sumatran orangutans. As over 92 fires smolder, palm oil companies like Cargill are racing to deny the role they’ve played in the destruction and devastation of the Tripa forest. We’ve gathered thousands of petitions to Cargill [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 7, 2012
Although there are no major fires still tearing through the Tripa peat forest in Sumatra — the densest remaining Sumatran orangutan habitat in the world — updates from our allies on the ground tell us that Tripa is still gravely at risk. With one or two small fires still breaking out each day, combined with ongoing [...]
Continue reading...Monday, April 23, 2012
While many of us realize on some fleeting, uncomfortable level that our generation holds the future of countless species and ecosystems in our hands, rarely is the choice to allow extinction to happen – or to fight like hell to stop it – so clear as it is right now with humankind’s closest relative, the [...]
Continue reading...Monday, 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...Friday, 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...Thursday, February 23, 2012
Just days before the massive global day of action to Occupy our Food Supply, I thought I’d take a look at just who some of these agribusiness thugs really are. The deeper you dig the more clear it becomes that two corporate giants are responsible for a large part of the poisoning of our food [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, December 13, 2011
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 [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, November 10, 2011
“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 [...]
Continue reading...Monday, November 7, 2011
Unlike 2008′s showdown, nobody from RAN attended this year’s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) shareholder meeting to hold CEO Patricia Woertz’ ass to the fire. Nonetheless, ADM did not get away without responding to tough questions about the company’s irresponsible palm oil supply chain. ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors with operations in more [...]
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Monday, June 4, 2012
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