Land Lost in Lies: Smallholder Schemes Gone Wrong

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 [...]

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The World’s Second Oldest Profession

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 [...]

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Top 10 Ways To Celebrate World Rainforest Week

Happy World Rainforest Week! 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 [...]

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Tale of a Thousand Sleuths

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 [...]

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Rainforests Or Big Business: Who Will Win In Jakarta?

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) 8th Annual Meeting is coming up November 8-11th 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, [...]

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Palm Oil Key Focus at General Mills Shareholder Meeting

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Hello, World! Love, Tiki

Hello? 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 [...]

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Cargill Destroys Rainforests at Twins-Rangers 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 [...]

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Cargill Back Pedals on Rainforest Track

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 [...]

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