Pak Rusni at PT ISK Photo: David Gilbert/RAN 2009

In a huge win for Indigenous and forest dwelling peoples throughout Indonesia who are struggling to assert their customary land rights in the face of massive palm oil expansion, Chief Justice Mahfud M.D. has ruled that two Articles of Indonesian law used to imprison community members are unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid.

Articles 21 and 47 of Indonesia’s Plantation Act are responsible for the widespread criminalization of forest community members who often end up in jail for defending their land rights against the ever-encroaching expansion of oil palm plantations. Since 2004, palm oil companies, police officers, courts and judges have based legal decisions on Articles 21 and 47. These articles allowed the police to persecute forest communities standing up for their rights, essentially deeming defense of human rights illegal.

Sawit Watch has documented more than 660 ongoing conflicts between Indigenous peoples and local communities with palm oil companies in Indonesia. Criminalization through Articles 21 and 47 led to the arrests and detentions of hundreds of community members. According to Norman Jiwan from Sawit Watch, the judicial review that led to this outcome came about in response to a request made by five victims of the Plantation Act’s concerned articles. The five victims are:

• Vitalis Andi and Japin are members of the Indigenous community from Silat Hulu in conflict with Sinar Mas in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan
• Ngatimin is chairperson of BPMP of Pergulaan village in conflict with London Sumatra
• Muhammad Rusdi, head of village Karang Mendapo community in conflict with PT Kresna Duta Agroindo, a Sinar Mas subsidiary oil palm plantation in Jambi
• Sakri, a farmer from East Java.

According to the Jakarta Globe:

Wahyu Wagiman from the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), who represented the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling as a relief to more than 600 traditional communities in the country that were threatened by the law. ‘Our next step is to spread the word as wide as possible and to find a way to release farmers currently charged under Articles 21 and 47, including Japin, Vitalis and Ngatimin.’

During my field visits in West Kalimantan last fall, I recorded video interviews of numerous community members fighting for justice, working around the clock to get their fellow community members out of jail. From the community of Long Teran Kanan drawing a line in the sand in response to IOI Corp. failing to recognize their native customary lands to the recent criminalization of community members in Jambi where Wilmar bulldozed Indigenous settlements for palm oil, this legal victory is a ray of hope in an otherwise dismal landscape for Indigenous rights in Indonesia. Criminalizing Indigenous peoples for taking a stand to protect their native customary land rights is unjust. This recent court ruling is a step in the right direction and bodes well for human rights.

Abandon ship!

You might not believe it, but apparently there is a point beyond which even the palm oil industry isn’t willing to stretch the truth. And Alan Oxley just blew right past it.

Last November, Alan Oxley was called out by a dozen scientists from leading academic and research institutions around the world for promoting industrial logging and oil palm plantations at the expense of the truth. According to those scientists’ analysis, Mr. Oxley lacks credibility and treads “a thin line between reality and a significant distortion of facts.”

This month, he has entire countries banning his rhetoric.

Alan Oxley makes more money than you and your mama combined under the guise of a “non-profit organization” called the World Growth Institute, which supports palm oil industry groups like the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and its new European lobby arm, the European Palm Oil Council (EPOC), in their mission to paint a bogus picture of reality in which palm oil plantations are somehow magically creating habitat for the species gravely endangered by their presence. Including unicorns.

Alan Oxley Doesn't Believe in Science

In a disturbing ad that almost made me barf, MPOC claims that palm oil “helps our planet to breathe, and gives home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna.” Clearly, the Malaysia Palm Oil Council does not use an inkling of science. According to a recent analysis of leading scientists, there are 85% less species in oil palm plantations than primary forest (the only exception: rats). Another recent study shows that the critically endangered orangutans of North Sumatra cannot survive in oil palm plantations at all. So what type of “science,” you may be wondering, does Alan Oxley use? I think the answer is: none.

A few weeks ago, we found out that not only scientists are speaking out against the dangers of letting one very privileged, habitually lying dude frame public opinion on palm oil — an issue that only impacts him because he wants to spread the scientific truth gets paid to lie and greenwash palm oil’s horrendous impact on the planet. This time, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a TV advertisements created by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (with help from its biggest cheerleader, Alan Oxley) for its misleading claims.

This advertisement was even attacked by a senior executive of a palm oil company who said, “some of the statements are so blatantly untrue that it undermines our credibility… environmental groups are going to focus on the obvious fallacies and use them against us.”

Enough said.

So, let’s get set the facts straight: Alan Oxley, chairman of the World Growth Institute, has longstanding connections with some of the largest, dirtiest palm oil companies in the world — including Sinar Mas. He has been accused by world renowned scientists of propagating “significant distortions, misrepresentations, or misinterpretations of fact… designed to defend the credibility of corporations… directly or indirectly supporting them financially.” Even palm oil company executives think he is too over the top to be taken seriously. And we should trust his absurd notion that palm oil will save us all from climate change? Um, how about no.

It seems like the work of forest communities and human rights and environmental organizations to educate the public about the devastating impacts of the palm oil industry on tropical rainforests, forest peoples, endangered species, and the climate is working. If it wasn’t, the multi-billion dollar palm oil industry wouldn’t need to hire people like Alan Oxley and task them with using an old and tired spin show to distort the truth through advertisements like the ones just banned in the UK. Win!

Organizations like Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Greenpeace and the World Resource Movement (WRM) represent one side of the palm oil debate. In March 2010, WRM released a damning report on the palm oil industry with a particular focus on the RSPO and its ability to let companies greenwash their practices. Greenpeace has echoed WRM’s position, and has released a handful of reports focused on companies that, despite RSPO membership, have been found to destroy rainforests and compromise social standards in producing palm oil.

RAN believes that palm oil certified by the RSPO can provide a certain level of assurance that non-certified/conventional palm oil can’t, but remains cautious about relying solely on the RSPO certification stamp of approval given several critical omissions, such as permissible standards around greenhouse gas emissions. The bottom line is that palm oil needs social, environmental and transparency safeguards, the RSPO can’t guarantee that these safeguards are consistently met, and therefore we believe corporations need to require these basic assurances on their own.

In the middle of the spectrum of this debate are groups like WWF, which advocates on behalf of the RSPO and certified palm oil while still sharing some of the same concerns as organizations with a stronger stance. WWF has worked within the RSPO since 2003 to ensure that compliance is monitored, and that standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of valuable forests. However, in reference to the RSPO WWF warned in May 2009: “One of the major solutions to halting deforestation of tropical forests is not catching on fast enough.” Some people remain so critical of the RSPO’s effectiveness that they have re-branded it as “Really Slow Progress Overall.”

I can’t help but wonder: will the efforts of the RSPO to make palm oil rainforest-friendly ever move fast enough to protect rainforests in Indonesia before it’s too late? Just last week, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee decided to place the remaining rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia on  the “List of World Heritage in Danger” to help overcome threats posed by illegal logging and agricultural encroachment.

Scientists such as William F. Laurence of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute think palm oil can only be “sustainable” if the RSPO makes badly needed changes to its certification system, such as fixing its pro-industry bias, developing a system to monitor members that has accountability mechanisms, and taking a stronger stand against peatland destruction. According to the Conservation Biology Journal, expansion of palm oil has greater impacts than acknowledged by the RSPO.

Then all the way at the farthest reaches of the spectrum from groups like RAN and Greenpeace there is the palm oil industry itself, which is represented by groups like Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s Palm Oil Associations (MPOC and GAPKI, respectively), whose interests are driven almost solely by the pursuit of profit. Somewhere on this end of the spectrum are global palm oil traders like Cargill. It appears that many of these groups hide behind the green veneer of their RSPO membership while continuing business-as-usual practices of expanding palm oil plantations and markets at any cost.

The RSPO attracted widespread criticism in November 2009 when it opted not to include greenhouse gas emissions standards as part of its criteria for ‘sustainable’ palm oil. There was a process to deal with this serious omission, but palm oil industry groups GAPKI and MPOC have continued to sideline that process, continuing to kill the Green House Gas Emissions Working Group every year at the RSPO. It’s becoming increasingly clear that their bottom line is expansion at any cost.

It is very clear that there are vast differences in opinion on the effectiveness of the RSPO as well as the question of sustainable palm oil. RAN seriously questions whether an oil that displaces rainforests and peatlands, with heavy ties to human rights abuses and slave labor, can ever be sustainable, but remains committed to working within this unsustainable global food system to protect our planet’s remaining imperiled forests, as well as the people and species who depend on them.

We’re working to reduce the impacts of climate change by taking action for one of the last great stands of tropical forests in the world — Indonesia’s forests — and we need your help.

Unfortunately, like any classic Disney tale, there is a darker side to this story, one that Disney does not want you to hear. Disney’s paper buying practices are driving some of Earth’s most iconic animals towards extinction, and so far the company is doing nothing about it.

Disney is the largest publisher of children’s books in the world, producing over 50 million books and 30 million magazines a year in the US alone. Last year, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) hired an independent lab to conduct tests on the fiber found in children’s books published by the top ten US publishers. Nine of the ten tested positive for fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction, Disney included. See Turning the Page on Rainforest Destruction: Children’s Books and the future of Indonesia’s rainforests.

RAN approached each of the companies before releasing the incriminating data to allow each a chance to address this serious problem. In the year that followed, RAN worked closely with these companies and eight of the original ten have now established commitments not to source their paper from controversial Indonesian fiber. Seven of the ten have agreed to specifically avoid purchasing from the notoriously destructive logging and paper companies APP (Asia Pulp and Paper) and APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited) altogether.

Sadly, Disney has lagged behind its peers and to date has offered only empty words that do nothing to ensure the company is not still purchasing paper driving rainforest destruction.

Indonesia is a real life Magic Kingdom, home to some of the most biologically and culturally diverse forest ecosystems on Earth. With only 1% of the planet’s land area, Indonesia’s rainforests are home to 16% of all bird species, 11% of all plants and 10% of all mammals. This wealth of life includes endangered tigers, orangutans and elephants, the real life characters featured in Disney’s Jungle Book.

Reckless logging, largely driven by demand for cheap paper products and palm oil, has threatened all of this by causing one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation. The carbon emissions from this large scale deforestation has made Indonesia the world’s 3rd largest greenhouse gas polluting country, behind only the US and China.

Indonesia’s forest products industry is internationally renowned for its corruption and high rates of illegal logging, as well as for its devastating impacts on biodiversity, forest communities and the climate. The vast majority of Indonesia’s pulp and paper — approximately 80% — is controlled by two large and controversial suppliers: APP and APRIL. Over the past decade both have become infamous for their widespread, rapacious demolition of Indonesia’s rainforests and communities.

It’s time for Disney to realize that rainforest destruction is no fairy tale. Rainforest Action Network is putting Disney on notice, and we hope you will join us to get the company to align its practices with the values it espouses and embeds in the stories it tells. Bulldozers and chainsaws have no place in the habitat of endangered species or in the production of storybooks for children. It’s time for Disney to stop doing business with nefarious bad actors like APP and APRIL and to adopt a comprehensive policy that can guarantee parents that reading bedtime stories to their kids will not make them unwitting participants in tiger and orangutan extinction.

Because in the end, it was Disney who helped many of us learn for the first time, it’s a small world, after all.

“Companies buying palm oil need to be aware that the only way to ensure sustainable sourcing is to buy certified sustainable palm oil from companies that have been assessed against the RSPO standards. Buying from RSPO members is not enough.” – WWF, August 2010

Thin Mints Contain Rainforest Destroying-Palm Oil

Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has actively resisted getting rainforest-destroying palm oil out of their cookies for years now. Instead, they tout the fact that their two cookie bakers are members of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

But Girl Scouts USA and anyone else touting RSPO membership as a green seal of approval — or anyone who even claims that RSPO membership makes a company’s products “orangutan friendly” — are gravely misleading the public with false claims.

Girl Scouts of America sold roughly 198 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies in 2009. One of the two cookie manufacturers, Little Brownie Bakers, bakes over 4,500,000 Thin Mints per day during peak baking times. And guess what’s going into every single one of those cookies? Palm oil, a controversial commodity closely connected to widespread deforestation and social conflicts in Indonesia.

RSPO Members Have Been Documented Destroying Orangutan Habitat

For a cookie business raking in $714 million a year with a presence in all 50 states and 2.7 million young sales women, one would think that Girl Scouts USA would make sure that the ingredients they’re using are in line with the Girl Scout values and mission to make the world a better place and use resources wisely.

The RSPO is a body of stakeholders including palm oil producers, processors, traders, retailers, banks and NGOs working to promote the growth, production, distribution and use of sustainable palm oil. There is a very important distinction between RSPO membership and RSPO certification. RSPO certification is a seal of approval that is given to palm oil grown on a plantation that has been certified through a verification of the production process by accredited certifying agencies. In theory, the “certified sustainable” palm oil (RSPO oil) is traceable through the supply chain by certification of each facility along the supply chain that processes or uses the certified oil.

RSPO membership, on the other hand, is much different. As we recently advised Girl Scouts USA CEO Kathy Cloninger in a letter of concern about the palm oil in Girl Scout cookies:

Although Girl Scout cookie bakers have RSPO membership, RSPO membership does not provide any assurance that palm oil supplied by member companies is sustainable. Member companies have been documented clearing forest, peatland and critical wildlife habitat while ignoring human rights — all of which are prohibited in the RSPO principles and criteria. In essence RSPO membership does not ensure that deforestation, orangutan extinction, and climate change are not found in Girl Scout cookies.

According to an independent audit commissioned by Unilever, RSPO member Sinar Mas has contributed to the opening up of deep peatland, deforestation of orangutan habitat, and occurrences of fire hot spots.

Mongabay reports, “The [RSPO] has been battered over the past year with revelations that some members have continued to destroy ecologically sensitive habitats. Prominent members, including Unilever and Nestle, have had to act outside the RSPO process to address misconduct by RSPO-member suppliers.”

Sinar Mas is not the only RSPO member that has been caught red-handed. There are many cases that illustrate the fact that RSPO members regularly violate the principles and criteria they have agreed to respect with their membership. Take the example of RSPO Member IOI Group. While it has some RSPO-certified plantations, the same company has others that are the source of major social conflict.

Conservation scientists report critical habitat protection weaknesses in the RSPO system. William Laurance of James Cook University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute argues that the initiative’s objectives are undermined by the composition of its membership, which is dominated by palm oil industry growers, processors, and traders. He says:

[T]his conflict of interest results in lax requirements for membership, a cumbersome complaints process for reporting violations, and lack of oversight and enforcement. It needs to get tougher with member companies that are destroying large swaths of primary forest. Otherwise, it risks becoming an apologist for an environmentally destructive industry.

Until RSPO membership means more than simply paying a few thousand dollars a year in membership fees, any company or organization that claims any product made by an RSPO member is orangutan or forest friendly is grossly misleading the public. Orangutans and forests will only be truly protected in Sumatra and Borneo once expansion of palm oil in fragile tropical forests ceases and a moratorium on deforestation for palm oil is both adopted and implemented.

The West Kalimantan province of Borneo, Indonesia. Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images

As we applaud the new forest conservation policy announced by Sinar Mas subsidiary Golden Agri Resources, it’s important to remember that the big challenge facing palm oil traders like Cargill, watchdog groups, and international customers is to make sure that GAR’s promises to protect Indonesian rainforests on paper are turned into real change on the ground.

The Tropical Forest Trust, which will be working as consultants with GAR on this, will certainly have their hands full.

Key to building confidence with stakeholders  will be high transparency and regular independently-verified and robust reporting throughout 2011 and beyond that demonstrates if GAR is in actual conformance with their policy goals or not. GAR is not known for following through on its commitments and it has failed to follow RSPO criteria where required in the past. An independent audit in 2010 found numerous problems and serious violations of many GAR commitments, leading to the first ever censure of a member by the RSPO.

GAR’s business plan, meanwhile, calls for continued expansion by 40-50,000 hectares a year of its current 435,000 ha palm oil plantation estate in Indonesia. GAR has stated that it does not believe the new conservation agreement will have any material impact on its business. Indonesian government figures calculate the area of degraded and deforested lands in Indonesia that could be planted to palm oil as up to twice the size of the total area in the country currently under palm oil production. Clearly implementing a no deforestation and peatland expansion policy is feasible, even by palm oil companies with ambitious expansion plans. Nonetheless, GAR’s ongoing palm oil expansion will need to be closely monitored both in terms of how degraded lands are selected for planting and the potential for social conflict in cases where these “degraded lands” in fact are being used to meet basic livelihood needs of local communities.

GAR also just announced it will invest $500 million to build two new crude palm oil refining plants in Indonesia with 740,000 tons capacity per year, which will be on top of the one million tons per year plus that it is processing in its three current plants. About 30% of the palm oil it crushes comes from third party growers. Like Cargill, therefore, the impacts of GAR’s palm oil business encompass two roles: as plantation grower and as purchaser, processor and trader of palm oil. In this latter role, it is important that GAR, like Cargill and other major palm oil traders, move to clean up its supply chains if it is to effect the system-wide change in palm oil production practices it claims it wants to promote.

GAR is considering investments in palm oil plantation expansion projects in other countries as well, including a $1.6 billion joint venture involving a 200,000 ha palm oil expansion project in Africa. GAR should apply its rainforest conservation policy across all its plantation operations and expansion plans wherever they occur, not just in Indonesia.

In November 2010, Brimob was implicated in another killing that took place in Jambi associated with a pulp and paper plantation. Photo Courtesy of: CAPPA

The land grab crisis in Indonesia is getting worse — with tragic consequences.

On Tuesday, six unarmed villagers were shot while harvesting palm oil fruit on their own land.

Jakarta Globe’s Jan. 16 article reports the villagers had an ongoing conflict with Kresna Duta Agroindo, a palm oil subsidiary of Sinar Mas, when they were attacked by the notorious National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) in Jambi province last Saturday.

In Indonesia there are constant complaints of corrupt, militia-like police brigades. One can’t help but wonder the extent to which land-hungry pulp & paper and palm oil corporations are willing to manipulate the situation in order to evict communities from their traditional lands and clear the way for corporate industrial expansion, all in the name of producing cheap commodities for global markets.

What can we do here in the US to counter these terrible human rights violations?

A decent start is for US companies to only do business with suppliers that can provide products free of social and environmental controversy. Our allies on the ground in Indonesia are petitioning the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to (once again) attempt to revoke the membership of Sinar Mas — perhaps Indonesia’s leading land grabber and forest destroyer.

Click this image to tell Cargill to stop sourcing Palm Oil from Sinar Mas!

It’s disappointing that Sinar Mas has only received a tacit “probation” status in the RSPO while doing bad business as usual.

But regardless of the (in)action of the RSPO, this serious problem is something US companies should not be exacerbating. No company should be sourcing palm oil from such unethical suppliers, period. Cargill Incorporated, as the #1 importer of palm oil to the US, must stop importing palm oil tainted with the blood of innocent people.

This isn’t the first time the palm oil and pulp & paper industries are associated with the deaths of Indonesian civilians.

But shouldn’t it be the last?

Tell Cargill CEO Greg Page to stop allowing his company to support human rights abuses in Indonesia.

Leave it to the folks at Rainforest Action Network to make anything fun. As an intern with RAN, my job is basically to do whatever task I’m presented, so when Hillary Lehr asked the interns, Lindsay, Lola, and I, to do our own Roar at the Store at the local Barnes & Noble, I thought, “Yeah, I can hand out a few pocket guides and help spread the word.”  When she mentioned someone wearing our full Tiki the Tiger costume, however, I became way more excited about the idea of our own roar and volunteered right away.

Really, who wouldn’t want to spend two hours dancing in a tiger suit, especially for such a good cause! I got some funny looks on the bus as we made our way to the store, but as soon as we took our positions outside and began handing out the awesome Rainforest Safe pocket guides, we got a much better reception and the fun began!  Although we hadn’t brought an awesome boombox or radio, I was blessed with the ability to entertain myself easily and was able to dance to the beat in my head.  Thanks to my super sweet moves, the pocket guides were going like hot cakes!

People would slow down or stop by to read my sign or take a picture with me, and it gave Lindsey and Lola a chance to explain what we were about and how children’s books can play a part in destroying the rainforest.

What I learned from my day as Tiki the Tiger is that participating in actions can be fun! I was nervous about going out on the street and “bothering” people, but when you’re having fun with it, others have fun with it, too! That great day turned out to be one of my favorite days with RAN.

Would you give these little guys up for a bar of soap?

Most of us practice personal hygiene at least every couple of days, and because many contain synthetic chemicals, a portion of those end up in our bodies and in our earth.  For the last few months, I’ve been trying to green-up my beauty routine.  If I wouldn’t put something in my body, why would I want to put it on my body?  Standing in the body care aisle at the local Whole Foods, however, I ran into a problem.

Palm Oil.  It is literally in every single soap on the shelf, and because it doesn’t always have to be labeled as such, even “vegetable oil” makes me nervous. Palm Oil is the number one cause of deforestation in Indonesia, where giant swathes of forest are cleared for plantations.  Endangered species like the Orangutan and the Sumatran Tiger (of which there are less than 500 in the wild) are losing their habitats at a terrifying rate, and if it isn’t stopped, the only place we’ll be able to find them will be zoos.  Until palm oil production is sustainable and destruction-free, I’ll be purchasing products without it.

After scouring the Bay Area for palm oil free soap, my search finally paid off. While wandering aimlessly at GreenFest in San Francisco, I came across Diggin’ Livin’ Farm and Apiary‘s booth and was drawn in by the promise of palm oil free soap.  Jackpot! I bought a bar of the Bioregional Mint” for $6, as much as I’d been paying anywhere else.

After using the product and doing some research on Diggin’ Livin’ Farms, I’m excited to say that I have found my rainforest-safe soap! The soap smells great and keeps skin soft, which is really all I was looking for.  The makers, the McEwen family, are dedicated to getting the word out about palm oil and rainforest destruction, even going so far as to sponsor an “adopted” orangutan, Kesi.  Kesi, who lost her mother and her left hand on a palm oil plantation, lives at the BOS Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center and is funded partially by the purchase of Diggin’ Livin’ products.

What better time to make greener shopping choices than the Holiday season?  These destruction-free soaps can be purchased online and will make a great eco-and-orangutan-friendly stocking-stuffer.  I know a few lucky people who will be getting soap from me!

The palm oil company operating on Pak Suez' traditional lands have made him a criminal for trying to stop this destruction. Photo: Hendi/Walhi Kalbar

I’ve spent the past week visiting our partners in Indonesia and interviewing frontline communities directly impacted by the palm oil industry. The stories I’ve heard are haunting — tales of human rights abuses, negligent environmental destruction and the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples for trying to maintain some connection to their ancestral lands despite degradation caused by palm oil companies.

For example, just two weeks ago Sinar Mas converted 20,000 hectares of forest into palm oil plantations in the Sintang District of Borneo, and as a result 32,000 people became refugees — something that happens all the time here and rarely gets reported on in the U.S.

When companies like Cargill, Sinar Mas or Duta Palma bulldoze rubber plantations or community farms owned by Indigenous communities, the village leaders call Walhi for support. As I was hanging out in Walhi Kalbar last week, a car full of Dayak men (Indigenous Peoples of Indonesia) arrived at the office with their lawyer. They were just returning from the local jail where Pak Josef Suez, their community leader, was being held due to a land dispute case with the palm oil company in his community, Borneo Ketapang Permai (BKP). Both KML and BKP are subsidiaries of First Resources Limited palm oil company through a  joint venture.

Pak Suez' Community Members in Agony Seeing their Village Chief Criminalized after the Company Stole their Land. Photo: Hendi/Walhi Kalbar

Pak Miguel Deban and Pak Sariano shared their struggle with me:

In 2000, the palm oil company Karya Mufakat Lestari (KML) came to our village, Sei Ilai, in the Sanggau District [in northern Borneo near the border with Sarawak/Malaysia], promising us a better life. They promised to bring our kids a better education, new houses, a new church, and new streets.

So we made a smallholder scheme agreement with KML in which we gave our ancestral lands to the company to develop oil palm plantations and we would manage a portion of them. In our district the people agreed to give KML 7,000 hectares of land, and that for every 10 hectares of land, 4 hectares would be cared for by the people and 6 by the company. But after we gave our land to KML, the company collapsed.

Our village leader, Pak Suez, saw that KML was neglecting their palm plantations on his ancestral land. Seeing that the palm plantations were dying, Pak Suez took the initiative of caring for the plantations because he felt it was his own land so he replanted 1,000 oil palm plants on his own. He spent 500 million Rupiah.

Another palm oil company, BKP, bought out KML but this was not communicated to any of the Indigenous Peoples in the area, not by the company nor by the Bupati [district head]. As far as we knew, the company changed their name to BKP. When the new company, BKP, took over, the communities didn’t understand that KML and BKP had different smallholder scheme rules. For example, BKP didn’t honor the 4/6 hectare people/company ownership ratio. BKP never sat down with the community to make a new agreement and yet they have put Pak Suez in jail because they claim he has taken over 40 hectares of land without permission. Pak Suez feels cheated by the company since he spent 500 million Rupiah replanting his palm plantations and the company only wants to pay him 175 million Rupiah. Pak Suez would be cheated out of what BKP owes him if he had silently settled.

Pak Suez has now been in jail for almost two weeks. Photo: Hendi/Walhi Kalbar

On May 27, 2010 the Bupati called a meeting between BKP and the community, but there was no resolution. On August 26 there was another meeting and BKP tried to reach a new agreement with the community but, fearing more lies, the community did not budge. Pak Suez has now been in jail for almost two weeks.

Pak Miguel Deban, Pak Sariano, Pak Suez’s 16 year-old son, and the other community members I met yesterday traveled 7 hours from their rural village to visit Pak Suez in the Pontianak jail and to meet with his lawyer.

According to the community members, the company’s strategy is to use intimidation to make the families in the Sanggau District fear them. Hundreds of families are now blockading their lands from palm oil companies, and Pak Miguel says that the company will only free Pak Suez from jail if the families stop blocking their land.

It turns out that this smallholder case of social conflict in the Sanggau District is a template for what’s going on across Borneo between palm oil smallholders or non-palm oil traditional land holders and palm oil companies. (In particular it sounds a lot like what happened to the community of Semunying Jaya.) The process of establishing large-scale oil palm plantations is irreversible: Indigenous Peoples contribute their lands and labor to oil palm schemes but lose sovereignty over those lands and natural resources that are central to their identity as Indigenous Peoples.

The notorious Alan Oxley.

Some people will say anything for money.

Sometimes, this comes back to bite you, especially when you get called out. By famous scientists, no less.

Take for example the great call-out of Alan Oxley, the corporate equivalent of Lindsay Lohan’s publicist. His job is to make the reckless and incredibly destructive actions of exploitative corporations like APP and Sinar Mas look like gestures of Mother Theresa, existing to charitably benefit the world’s poor through no-holds-barred development. And boy, does his job pay well.

Alan Oxley is finally discovering that if you lie, people don’t believe you. Especially scientists, who base collaborative conclusions on objective evidence. In the past several months Oxley has asserted that environmental organizations are hurting the world’s poor through stymieing development by asserting such preposterous demands as advocating for palm oil customers to develop policies that include FPIC standards (Free Prior, and Informed Consent from affected communities) and commitments to uphold moratoriums on clearing of rainforest to make way for monoculture palm oil plantations that enforce slave-labor-like conditions. We even went as far as to demand that corporations like Sinar Mas stop illegally clearing forests. The nerve!

While Oxley masquerades his claims with nice letterhead from the World Growth Institute, the real paper to pay attention to is his pay stub. It seems that the villainous corporations Oxley defends are the very ones bankrolling his claim. When asked directly about this, Oxley declines to comment. Hmmm.

However, don’t just read my opinionated, snarky gloating over Oxley getting called out. Read “An Open Letter About Scientific Credibility and the Conservation of Tropical Forests” and decide for yourself who you want to believe: a conservative think-tank industrial lobbyist or an impressive collection of Nobel-level scientists from around the world.

Indonesian Rainforest, Sumatra. Photo courtesy of RAN

How will YOU celebrate rainforests from October 17-24? Please add your ideas, activities, and commitments as a comment to this blog to keep our thoughts and actions fresh with new ways to think global and act local.

Here are some ideas from our staff, friends, and activist like YOU about how they will be honoring and sharing the beauty and importance of our world’s precious rainforests all week (and beyond!)

1 Be A Rainforest Hero

Visit RainforestHeroes.com with the kids and youth in your life to learn about rainforests and their awesome inhabitants. Sign up for yourself or your class to be Rainforest Heroes today!

Rainforest Heroes

2 Watch Green

Watch the films GREEN and Orang-Rimba: Happiness Lies in the Forest with your friends or family. GREEN is a powerful, beautiful film that documents orangutan habitat loss in Indonesia through the eyes of one of its victims. The second film documents the impacts of deforestation on Indigenous Peoples, such as the nomadic Orang Rimba who live in the Jambi and Riau provinces of Sumatra. Then, write a letter to one of the companies destroying Indonesia’s rainforests telling them to change their practices.

3 Breathe

Take a deep breath. Know that rainforests produce 20% of the oxygen we breath. Say thanks!

4 Meet Tiki

• Become friends with Tiki the Tiger on Facebook
• Follow Tiki on Twitter
• Sign Tiki the Tiny Tiger’s petition
• Visit TikiTheTiger.com to learn about the cutest, tiniest Sumatran Tiger in the whole wide world- and how YOU can help save his rainforest home.

5 Eat Rainforest Food

Incorporate sustainably-harvested rainforest foods into a meal and savor a taste of what incredible (and delicious) plants have evolved in such biodiverse tropical areas!

6 Love Indonesia’s Rainforests

Join our We Love Indonesia’s Rainforests Facebook fan page

Zapara Elder, Ecuador. Photo courtesty of RAN.

7 Protect An Acre

Donate to RAN’s Protect-an-Acre fund. PAA is a small grants program which contributes directly to forest communities struggling to protect their rainforest homelands and the natural-resource base on which these communities rely. Learn about the Zapara People of the Ecuadorian Amazon, our featured PAA grant.

8 Sleuth at the Store

Sleuth out Rainforest-Safe Books at your local bookstore with our free, easy-to-download Sleuth toolkit.

9 Get There Without Chevron

Skip the gas station (especially Chevron), ride your bike, walk or take the bus.  Learn about what Chevron has dumped in the Amazon and tell Chevron to take responsibility and  CLEAN UP ECUADOR.

10 Be Brilliant

We want to hear your ideas for how to celebrate World Rainforest Week. Please comment below and let us know how you intend to especially celebrate rainforests this week!

RAN Interns Sleuthing Around... Shhh!

Fellow detectives and friends, it’s not every day you get to bust out your magnifying glass and scope out your local bookstore, but next week that is what over a thousand sleuths around the world will be doing.

What are these sleuths snooping out exactly?

Rainforest-safe books!

In honor of World Rainforest Week, over a thousand sleuths will be heading to bookstores around the country to research the recycled, post-consumer recycled and FSC-certified paper content of some of the most popular titles on bookstore shelves.

Can You Spot Tiki?

When rainforest-safe books (or books of paper made of destroyed rainforests) are detected, these sleuths will be uploading their findings into a rainforest-safe database.

You -and booklovers everywhere- will able to use this database as a consumer guide so that you can choose books that are rainforest-safe.

Now that’s something worth scoping out.

Want to sign up to be one of over a thousand of sleuths around the world? You can download a PDF packet and starting sleuthing today!

Sustainable Palm Production? Photo: Lon & Queta

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) 8^th Annual Meeting is coming up November 8-11^th in Jakarta. RAN’s rainforest agribusiness team will be there.

Indonesia is the world’s 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter, after the U.S. and China, due to the rapid conversion of the forest country’s valuable rainforests for the expansion of two insatiable, destructive industries: palm oil & pulp and paper.

So why would RAN attend a mostly pro-palm oil industry meeting? Well, for starters, we’re going to make sure that Cargill feels the heat for breaking it’s promise and continuing business as usual with rainforest destroyer Sinar Mas.

What will happen between the RSPO and the palm oil producer, rainforest destroyer, and RSPO member: Sinar Mas? And what will Cargill do if one of their key suppliers gets kicked out of the RSPO? This could be one juicy show!

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is in charge of monitoring the actions of its members to make sure that they follow its required code of conduct.  In theory, if a member of the RSPO is violating that code, there is a grievance process to file a complaint, evaluate the grievance, and require action from the company or dismiss them from the RSPO. This grievance process is critical if membership in the RSPO is to have any meaning.

For the first time ever the RSPO seems to actually be doing its job. Now we’re all waiting and watching to see if they actually see it through and take a stand against some of the world’s biggest rainforest villains.

On September 16th, in the wake of an audit confirming accusations of environmental abuses by the controversial Indonesian palm oil supplier Sinar Mas, Cargill announced its decision to continue business as usual with the disgraced palm oil provider claiming that it was “satisfied” with the company.

Banners Dropped on Cargill the Morning RSPO Publicly Censured Sinar Mas. Photo: Linda Wells/RAN

To add insult to injury, on September 23rd (the same day we dropped two billboard sized banners outside of Cargill’s downtown Minneapolis Grain Exchange office) the RSPO announced that they are publicly censuring Sinar Mas – a decision that could lead to Sinar Mas getting kicked out of the RSPO.

As the Jakarta Globe reports:

“Members who have been found to not be in compliance and who continue to be in non-compliance with the RSPO regulations could ultimately face sanctions, including the suspension and, eventually, the termination, of their membership of the RSPO.”

Cargill has been under increased public scrutiny for continuing to purchase palm oil from Sinar Mas since this announcement that the RSPO is taking action to possibly sanction Sinar Mas for breaking the rules.

This is quite significant for two reasons. First, it marks the first time in history since it’s creation in 2003 that the RSPO is taking action to hold its member companies accountable for violating RSPO Principles and Criteria. Secondly, despite the announcement making clear Sinar Mas’ culpability for rainforest destruction, Cargill is failing to keep its promise, which was to drop Sinar Mas as a suppier if the company was found to be destroying rainforests.

Cargill’s lack of action on Sinar Mas has disappointed several U.S. companies who are actively seeking responsible sources of palm oil.

General Mills Joins Race to Protect Rainforests!

Yesterday marked a huge shift in the U.S. food industry – it’s now official that the world’s sixth largest food company is taking concrete action to address their controversial sourcing of palm oil from Cargill.

I attended General Mills’ annual shareholder meeting on Monday in Minneapolis, MN, and listened intently as CEO Ken Powell addressed several hundred of his company shareholders. After the usual 20 min. financial reports and marketing strategies overview, he addressed two two issues in his presentation that were of particular importance to the company: Palm Oil and Water Conservation.

CEO Ken Powell made it very clear that his company would work hard to push their palm oil suppliers (Cargill is their key palm oil supplier) to make real changes on the ground in Indonesia to prevent any further rainforest destruction, Indigenous community displacement or species extinction for palm oil expansion.

As I went inside the shareholder meeting with local community member and mother Sharon Sund to make a statement, 40 RAN activists and coalition partners rallied in front of the meeting, holding a big banner reading “General Mills Joins Race to Protect Rainforests” with matching yellow and black balloons and T-Shirts with backs that read “Can Cargill Catch Up?”

Sharon and I met Tom Forsythe, the General Mills rep we’ve been working with over the past 8 months, and he escorted us inside, introduced us to high level staff, and gave us seats at the front of the house.  Sharon and I together made a 4 minute statement inside the meeting and were thanked by two huge rounds of applause from shareholders.

After the meeting CEO Ken Powell came out and shook hands with us and thanked us for our work. Sharon read him a statement from her 11 year old daughter and it was very powerful.

After jointly releasing General Mills’ palm oil policy last Wednesday with a big media splash, marking an end to our public campaign targeting General Mills, we dropped a banner on the Grain Exchange skyway outside of Cargill’s downtown office last Thursday to let Cargill know that now the pressure is really on. Cargill’s palm oil customers are demanding responsible palm oil in the U.S. – will Cargill provide it?

You can watch our statements:

These are the statements we made inside the meeting:

ASHLEY SCHAEFFER, Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner, Rainforest Action Network:

“My name is Ashley Schaeffer and I am here today on behalf of Rainforest Action Network. As an individual responsible for RAN’s General Mills-focused palm oil campaign, I have been in communication with Tom Forsythe of General Mills since February of this year. I’m here today both to congratulate General Mills on the recent adoption of their benchmark palm oil policy and to express my enthusiasm about working together in the future on the implementation of this policy. But first I’d like to say a few words about why this policy is so important.

Palm oil is found in thousands of consumer products, from soap to cosmetics to breakfast cereal.  Its use is widespread and increasing around the world, but particularly in the U.S., where its consumption has tripled in the last five years. Unfortunately, palm oil is also tightly linked to the destruction of some of the world’s most valuable remaining rainforests, primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia. Increasing consumption has triggered expanded production, replacing once biodiverse rainforests with mono-cropped palm oil plantations.

This unsustainable agriculture model is causing extreme devastation in Indonesia, both socially and environmentally. It’s one of the primary reasons that unique species like Sumatran orangutans, tigers and elephants are almost extinct, why many waterways are heavily polluted, and why thousands of Indigenous peoples are displaced from their traditional lands every year.

With such reluctance from large suppliers like Sinar Mas and Cargill to address this issue properly, it’s really up to U.S. food companies who buy palm oil for their products to take leadership on this issue to push their supplier companies to make real changes on the ground in Indonesia.

The recent leadership that General Mills has demonstrated on this issue is a testament to the company’s values. The palm policy is important for General Mills as a company, and for the impact General Mills can have in moving suppliers forward.  There is a long way to go on the issue, and to completely stop the destruction fo the world’s rainforests will require companies like General Mills continuing to demand better standards from suppliers.  We are very much looking forward to working with General Mills on the implementation of this policy, and applaud the goal of 100 percent certified responsible palm oil by 2015.

SHARON SUND, Rainforest Action Network Twin Cities Member and Minneapolis resident:

As a local community member and a mother, I want to thank General Mills for their new policy on palm oil.  This issue is important to me because it is important to my daughter, Jade.  If all of our children knew that we were feeding them breakfast cereal at the expense of rainforests, they would never forgive us.

That is why I am so glad to see that General Mills is making these changes – so we don’t have to suffer the wrath of our children for letting rainforest destruction happen.

I would also like to encourage General Mills to go as deeply into this issue and your commitment as you can, to ensure that your suppliers follow through with the policies that you have endorsed.

I have hope that in one year, we will have seen big changes on how palm oil is being produced in Indonesia, and that here in Minnesota we can feed our children while still sustaining the earth.”

In case you missed all the action last week, check out some of our best media hits below:

FAST COMPANY MAGAZINE:
General Mills Ditches Dirty Palm Oil
http://www.fastcompany.com/1690894/general-mills-ditches-dirty-palm-oil

MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Demonstrators dangle from skyway in protest against Cargill
http://www.startribune.com/local/103624319.html?elr=KArks:DCiUo3PD:3D_V_qD3L:c7cQKUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUl

USA TODAY:
General Mills boycotts palm oil that destroys rain forestsl
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/09/general-mills-palm-oil-rainforest-destruction/1-oil

ASSOCIATED PRESS:
General Mills changes palm oil policy
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5idaKBimL0u6hYVfIPrxPltIPSm1gD9IE7AIG0<http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/09/general-mills-palm-oil-rainforest-destruction/1-oil>

General Mills Moves Away from Rainforest Destruction!

It is with much gratitude, excitement and hope for our world’s remaining forests that I announce the end to Rainforest Action Network’s General Mills palm oil campaign. Our Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign has come a long way in 2010 with your help. Check out some campaign “best moments.”

Eight months ago, 42 activists braved the freezing cold weather of January to unfurl a massive banner reading “Warning: General Mills Destroys Rainforests!” on top of the frozen lake in front of General Mills’ Minneapolis Headquarters. At the time, not a single U.S. food company had a comprehensive palm oil policy.

Kids Thank General Mills: "We Can Eat Cheerios Again!"

Today, America’s favorite food company took a crucial step to protect rainforests.  General Mills (GIS) released a new palm oil policy that limits the company’s exposure to an increasingly controversial commodity. The company’s new policy, along with previous actions to eliminate problematic suppliers like Sinar Mas Group, puts them in the front of efforts by the U.S. food sector to address deforestation resulting from palm oil. Kraft and Burger King have also announced initial steps to ensure that they are not sourcing ingredients that damage the rainforest.

The new palm oil procurement policy includes specific commitments on critical issues including respect for the rights of Indigenous communities, prevention of further destruction of endangered rainforests and protection of peatlands, a major source of climate change causing emissions from palm oil production. In addition, General Mills has set a goal of “sourcing 100 percent responsible and sustainable palm oil” by 2015, setting a new bar for the American food industry.

See General Mills’ new palm oil policy in it’s entirety.

We hope that General Mills’ actions will serve as a wake-up call for others in the food industry, especially Cargill. America’s largest importer of palm oil, Cargill, has yet to take sufficient action to meet this demand or to clean up its own palm oil supply chain. Although the agribusiness giant has taken initial steps to do so in Europe, it has failed to bring RSPO certified segregated palm oil to the United States, and it continues to source palm oil from some of the worst suppliers in the business.

Today General Mills Sets Forward on the Right Path, Away from Rainforest Destruction; Now It's Cargill's Turn. Photo: David Gilbert

As a company with some of the most beloved brands in the nation, including Cheerios, Betty Crocker and Hamburger Helper, General Mills’ decision to address deforestation in its supply chain is a major industry signal that unsustainable palm oil expansion practices are a problem that can and should be addressed. RAN will continue working with General Mills on the ongoing implementation of the new policy.

Read General Mills’ press statement here.

Can you hear me??

Well, I hope you can hear me.

Hi Everybody! My name is Tiki. My friends call me Tiki the Tiny Tiger because I’m the smallest tiger cub in the whole wide world!

Will you be my friend?

They call me Tiki the Tiny Tiger because there are only five species of tigers left in the world, and Sumatran Tiger cubs are the smallest out of all of them. That’s right: since I’m a lil’ Sumatran tiger cub, that makes me the smallest, cutest tiger in the whole wide world. Now, I’m the new spokestiger for the Rainforest-Free Paper campaign with all my new friends at Rainforest Action Network. Gosh, those sure are some nice, smart people over at RAN! They said if I type this blog that I could meet more people that will want to help save my rainforest home.

There is something else tiny about Sumatran Tigers: our numbers. This makes me soooo sad but there are only 500 Sumatran Tigers left in the rainforest! Every day these big, loud, scary machines come and chop down our rainforest trees. Then we have less space to live in and find food, so my tiger species is great danger of going extinct… nooooooooo!

I just don’t know why those machines are cutting down the trees- me and my friends live here! I heard that people are taking some of these trees and turning them into paper for books. Now even though tiny tigers don’t read a whole lot, we still love books. We shouldn’t have to choose between books and rainforests… that’s silly!

My friends at Rainforest Action Network said they will start talking to ‘publishers’, the people who make books- and give them a chance to change their bad, rainforest-destroying habits. If they don’t, we have to get together and RAWR for the rainforests. Sometimes, some grow-ups don’t hear me roaring at all. But I met a lot of cool kids who can hear me, and they roar really load. At RAN, I even met some RAWRING grown-ups! Will you RAWR with me too?

Visit www.TikiTheTiger.com and you can be my friend on Facebook and Twitter. This whole world wide spider, i mean, world wide web makes it really easy to stay in touch with the whole wide world. And right now, that’s a great thing because I need the whole wide world to RAWR for rainforests with me!

Thank you for being my friend. Let’s save my rainforest home!

Love, Tiki

Cargill Destroys Rainforests: Banner Drop by Local MN Activists at Twins Game

This past Sunday in Minneapolis,  something unusual happened during the local Twins baseball game. Unhappy with the way one of their hometown corporations (and the largest privately owned in the world) is treating rainforests and its inhabitants, local activists unfurled a banner to spoof Cargill’s 8th inning sponsorship ad.

As the Twins pulled into the eighth inning of their closing home game against the Texas Rangers, the crowd was treated to a few unscheduled advertisements. Instead of Cargill’s usual announcements promoting hot dogs, a large banner, hung by activists from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Twin Cities, was unfurled from behind home plate, making Cargill’s usual advertisement change to read “Cargill Destroys Rainforests.” Fans started chattering in the stands as the banner was held until stadium officials took it down. No one was arrested.

Cargill regularly sponsors the Twins’ eighth inning at home games, and produces the meat for the stadium’s four types of hot dogs.

“As Minnesota residents, we want to be just as proud of our hometown companies as we are of our hometown team,” said Carrie Anne Johnson of RAN – Twin Cities Chapter. “Right now, Cargill is striking out on rainforests. It’s time for them to step up to the plate and take real action to protect the world’s last remaining rainforests.”

Rainforsts Cleared for Plantations Next to Threatened Watershed. Photo: DesdemonaDespair.net

The banner was intended to highlight the poor environmental record of Cargill, the giant Minneapolis based agribusiness corporation, which is also one of the Twins most loyal hometown sponsors. Cargill is the nation’s leading importer of palm oil, which is destroying rainforests in Indonesia. Cargill owns their own palm oil plantations and is buying palm oil from some of the worst suppliers in Southeast Asia. They’ve been caught polluting waterways, taking land from local communities and destroying rainforests. Many of America’s biggest food companies buy palm oil from Cargill, so their palm oil is in much of America’s foods.

Although the company has agreed to take some steps to evaluate the impacts of its own plantations and supply chains, it has backed out of promises to cancel contracts with Sinar Mas Group, an Indonesian company widely considered to be one of the leading rainforest destroyers in Indonesia.

“Cargill’s been saying that they want to change incrementally,” said Jared Ingebretson of RAN- Twin Cities Chapter. “The rainforest isn’t being destroyed incrementally, however. Cargill needs to act now to stop cutting down rainforests and destroying people’s homes and livelihoods.”

Picked up on local television and seen by thousands of Twins fans, all eyes are now on Cargill. Will they do the right thing and adopt a socially and environmentally responsible palm oil policy?

See the full press release.

Rainforest Destruction in Jambi Province. Photo: Daniel Beltra

In response to Cargill’s recent announcement stating that they would ignore their promise to take action on widely known rainforest destroyer Sinar Mas, RAN sent out a press release calling Cargill out on failing to do the right thing. Both Reuters and Mongabay picked up the story.

PT SMART Audit in hand, Cargill ignores promise to take action on Sinar Mas

San Francisco – In the wake of an audit confirming accusations of environmental abuses by the controversial Indonesian palm oil supplier Sinar Mas, Cargill has announced a decision to continue business as usual relations with the disgraced palm oil provider. Posted only as an update to a section of their website, Cargill’s decision is an unexpected step after months of public expectation that the company would sever ties with the large Indonesian palm oil producer.

“It’s now clear that Greenpeace’s evidence against PT SMART was justified, and that Sinar Mas remains a controversial supplier,” said Ashley Schaeffer of Rainforest Action Network  (RAN). “If this company actually believes that Sinar Mas’ palm oil is not destroying rainforests, Cargill can’t tell fact from fiction.”

As a result of an international Greenpeace campaign against Nestle, a Cargill palm oil customer, Cargill had promised to reevaluate their relationship with Sinar Mas in March 2010, a promise widely reported by the media. Cargill pinned their re-evaluation on a third party “independent verification report” of claims made by Greenpeace against the Sinar Mas’ PT SMART and Golden Agri Resources Limited Holdings regarding deforestation and destruction of orangutan habitat, clearing forests without permits, destroying peatland and causing social conflict. The investigation was conducted by two certification bodies, CUC (Control Union Certifications) and BSI (BSI Group). SMART released the verification report to the media on August 10, 2010, claiming that the findings exonerated them from all charges.

Cargill's Destruction. Photo: David Gilbert

In a statement released on August 16, 2010, Cargill stated that the company is “satisfied that this has been an independent, detailed and thorough evaluation of the allegations,” and proclaims that they will continue to view PT Smart’s parent company, Golden Agri Resources as a partner in their quest for sustainable palm oil.

On August 19, 2010, however, PT SMART’s auditor BSI released their own statement, restating their findings because they said that, “there have been elements of the report that have been misreported as it has been published and presented.” The findings restatement confirmed that PT SMART had contravened the Principles and Criteria of the RSPO and failed to meet the legal requirements of Indonesian law. WWF, respected environmental group who is working with Cargill on their own palm oil supply chain audit, released a similar statement warning American companies away from PT SMART/Sinar Mas.

“Companies buying palm oil need to be aware that the only way to ensure sustainable sourcing is to buy certified sustainable palm oil from companies that have been assessed against the RSPO standards,” reads the WWF statement. “Buying from RSPO members is not enough.”

Despite this announcement making clear Sinar Mas’ culpability for rainforest destruction, Cargill is failing to keep its promise, which was to drop Sinar Mas as a supplier if the company was found to be destroying rainforests. Cargill’s lack of action on Sinar Mas is likely to disappoint several U.S. companies, including General Mills, Kraft and Nestle, who have been actively seeking a responsible source of palm oil.

“Cargill sells to most of America’s food companies and their palm oil is everywhere in U.S. grocery stores,” continued Schaeffer, “Other companies are relying on Cargill to start supplying sustainable palm oil to the US market. This announcement by Cargill is a sign that they’ll have to look elsewhere.”

Since 2007, RAN has been campaigning for the creation of responsible palm oil markets, focusing on Cargill. In May 2010, RAN released a report detailing rainforest clearing on Cargill’s own plantations. Full information on RAN’s campaign can be found at www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org.

Sumatran Tiger: Photo By Brimack/Creative Commons

This week the Jakarta Globe reported that a teenager named Ahmad Rafi was killed by a Sumatran tiger. He was mauled while he and his parents were tapping rubber trees in their plantation in Rimbo Melintang, a village in Riau province on the island of Sumatra.

When I first read this, I felt sick. I thought what a horrible way to die. What a horrible thing for your family to see. No one should have to die in such a way.

Then when processing this news on a deeper level, it made me angry. I realized that Rimbo Melintang is in the Senepis area, an area where Asia Pulp and Paper ( a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group) along with other Sinar Mas-associated companies have expanded their natural forest clearance operations in five concessions.

In 2009, Eyes on the Forests released a study that showed that most violent incidents between people and tigers in Sumatra’s Riau Province occurred near forests being cleared by paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and associated companies. Specifically, at least 147 of 245, or 60 percent, of all human-tiger conflicts in Riau occurred in the Senepis area.

As Asia Pulp and Paper clears and converts rainforests in the Senepis area and elsewhere in Indonesia, they eradicate tiger habitat, forcing tigers to roam into villages or onto plantations in search of food and setting off conflicts with unsuspecting humans like Ahmad Rafi.

While on the surface, the death of Amhad Rafi seems like a distant tragedy for most Americans, the reality is that there is a connection for all of us. Ahmad Rafi was a victim of deforestation and the unsustainable practices of Indonesian pulp and paper companies, and American demand for cheap paper products, like copy paper, toilet paper, and even books, is driving this deforestation.

As American consumers, we can try to honor Ahmad Rafi and his community by ensuring that our purchases don’t come from companies that are razing rainforests in the Senepis area or elsewhere in Indonesia. Find out more about our effect on Indonesian wildlife and what you can do about it by attending a Hot August Nights screening near you this month.