RAN sent a delegation of four staff to lobby for human rights and rainforest protections at the 9th Annual RSPO Meeting in Malaysia.

As the 9^thAnnual 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 Forest People’s Programme (FPP) released a comprehensive and scathing report that documents Cargill supplier and palm oil giant Wilmar’s complicity in the bulldozing of homes and the use of live ammunition to forcibly evict Indigenous community members on the island of Sumatra.

In a press conference on the human rights impacts of palm oil held during the RSPO meeting, Rukaiyah Rofiq, who goes by Uki and works with the human rights advocacy group Yayasan Setara Jambi, warned that companies producing palm oil under the RSPO umbrella are failing to resolve the social conflict caused by plantation expansion. In a November 24 article in the print version of the Borneo Post titled “RSPO Emboldens Violators of Indigenous Rights – NGO,” Uki said:

Ideally, we had hoped that with the RSPO, these conflicts would be stopped or at least reduced, and the rights of the communities be restored. But we’re not seeing any impact with the RSPO. This is evident in the ninth meeting we’ve had with the RSPO. There has not been any change; the conflicts have not decreased. The presence of RSPO has not reduced or resolved the conflicts.

Uki is referring to the more than 600 cases of social conflict related to palm oil in Indonesia documented by Sawit Watch. In the same press conference, Jefri Gideon of Sawit Watch said: “There is a big hope among everyone that the RSPO can help resolve these conflicts.” He urged RSPO members to go beyond talking about the RSPO principles and criteria and code of conduct and actually implement them.

During the same week, the Jakarta Globe published two articles, “Indonesian Palm Oil Dispute at ‘Crisis Point’” and “Paradise Lost at Hands of Palm Oil Companies“, about a separate conflict surrounding the village of Muara Tae on the island of Borneo.

Muara Tae is in a stand-off with a palm oil firm whose forest clearing threatens the villagers’ entire way of life. Community member Petrus Asuy issued an impassioned plea, saying, “Because of the palm oil plantations, our water has become polluted and many of our springs have dried up. We took our case to the local government, but they ignored us. We are completely against these companies because they have compromised our way of life. What hope is there now for our grandchildren? We are pleading for help for our situation and for this activity to stop.”

It has become abundantly clear that wherever massive international commodity corporations are granted huge forest concessions and allowed free reign to manage them, community conflict and environmental devastation quickly follow.

It is more imperative than ever that companies like Cargill and Wilmar immediately address the serious problems of human rights abuses and rainforest destruction in their supply chains and become a part of the solution to this crisis instead of indiscriminately trafficking palm oil into North American and European markets. Please take a moment to ask Cargill CEO Greg Page to adopt safeguards to keep controversial palm oil out of American food products.

An orangutan at the Singapore Zoo

Several weeks ago, three national parks in Sumatra, Indonesia were collectively labeled a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger. This inscription reiterates the urgency to issue full protections for the last remaining tracts of unspoiled rainforest on the island.

The Sumatran rainforest, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 for its wealth of biodiversity, contains 2.5 million hectares of tropical rainforest and features an incredible 10,000 plant species, 200 mammal species including the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and orangutan, and 580 bird species. The organization added Sumatra to its Danger List this year as a plea to increase awareness of the threats facing the Heritage Site, most notably “poaching, illegal logging, agricultural encroachment, and plans to build roads through the site.”

Although adding Sumatra to the list of Heritage Sites in Danger is certainly a positive step forward that will demonstrate the need for strict conservation of the area, the reality is that UNESCO’s actions may have come too late. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has urged UNESCO to put Sumatra on the Danger List ever since its initial inscription as a World Heritage Site in 2004. Since 2007 the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has been running hard-hitting campaigns targeting the palm oil and pulp and paper industries, warning the public about the dangers posed to this natural habitat long before its appearance on the Danger List. The palm oil and pulp and paper industries represent the largest drivers of rainforest destruction in Indonesia, posing a grave threat to Sumatra’s remaining forests, communities and endangered species.

Even those involved in placing Sumatra on the Danger List know that engendering awareness of the severity of the threats will not be enough to save this precious rainforest, or the orangutans that call it their home. Orangutans only live in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. These countries together are responsible for 85% of the world’s palm oil production, leaving little forest left for anyone or anything but the industry’s palm monoculture. According to Peter Shadie, the IUCN’s senior advisor on World Heritage, it must now be ensured that the listing “leads to real action on the ground to tackle long standing threats.” Wise words, Mr. Shadie.

Nevertheless, the addition of Sumatra to UNESCO’s Danger List demonstrates to the world that the island is in a severely fragile position, and that it is of paramount importance that we take action to halt destruction before this irreplaceable bastion of rainforest and culture has completely disappeared.

Will industries react to this listing? Will logging companies cease fire? Only time will tell. However, we do know for certain that the palm oil and pulp & paper industries will not stop destroying the diverse rainforests of Southeast Asia unless they are forced to stop by environmental and human rights organizations or the Indonesian government. Join the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign’s rapid responder team so that when we have an urgent call for action we can count on you to make a difference.

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.

Dear Mr. Page and employees of Cargill,

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) would like to extend a formal invitation for you and your employees at Cargill Inc. to attend a screening of your choice, at our expense, of the new IMAX 3D feature film Born To Be Wild.

This inspiring film features exquisite footage of young orangutans and baby elephants and tells the stories of the compassionate humans working to rehabilitate them back to the wild. The film is uplifting in spirit and focuses primarily on these two amazing animals and the heart-warming efforts of people trying to help them, while also highlighting serious but often overlooked issues central to the business operations of Cargill.

Many of the orangutans featured in the film were orphaned because their parents were killed when their rainforest habitat was cleared to make room for palm oil plantations. Orangutans are critically endangered and live only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Unfortunately, this is an all too common story. As the number one importer of palm oil into the United States, Cargill has a unique role to play to ensure that rampant palm oil development does not continue to result in rainforest destruction and orangutan extinction.

We understand that the forests of Indonesia are a long way from Wayzata, Minnesota, and it can be difficult to fully connect the dots between business decisions made here and the costs these incur to people and places literally a world away. There is a very real risk that iconic animals like the orangutan could be pushed into extinction within our lifetimes, but it does not have to be this way. Strangely enough, it may well be businessmen headquartered in places like the Twin Cities who ultimately decide their fate.

So please accept this opportunity to allow IMAX 3D to bring the rainforest to you. We feel so strongly that it is important for you to see this film that we are offering to pay for tickets for the first 100 Cargill employees who email keepuswild@ran.org. We will arrange for tickets to be reserved at the theater confidentially and with no strings attached. To view a trailer for the film and find other background materials on this issue, please visit www.ran.org/wild.

Sincerely,

Becky Tarbotton
Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network

Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas
Director, Orangutan Foundation International

The producers of DeforestACTION are searching the globe for 10 passionate, motivated and adventurous youth (age 18-35) to spend five months in Borneo working to save endangered orangutans in the jungles of Borneo. The chosen leaders will be the voice, eyes and ears of the project on the ground in Borneo, work to implement the project and be featured in the film.

Millions of acres of rainforest are sacrificed every year for wood pulp, paper, and land for monoculture palm oil plantations. The disastrous effects of deforestation include climate change, displacement of Indigenous and forest-dependent peoples, and the loss of life and critical habitat for animals such as endangered orangutans.

Hardi Baktiantoro, Director of the Center of Orangutan Protection shared this story from the front lines of deforestation in Asia:

“On paper, orangutans are one of the most ‘protected’ species in the world, yet this is not the case even in so called ‘protected’ areas. I have seen orangutans beaten with wooden sticks and many with crushed skulls. Right information leads to right action and therefore our aim is to investigate and expose crimes against orangutans through photo and video documentary.”

About 90 percent of orangutans live in Indonesia, between Sumatra and Borneo islands, while the remaining 10 percent can be found in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia. Both species of orangutans have been place on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with the Sumatran species listed as critically endangered.

Endangered species in Borneo need your help. You only have until March 18th to create and upload a 90 second video pitching DeforestACTION on why you should be one of their 10 project leaders. Getting excited just hearing about the possibility? Then go for it–when it comes to the world’s forests, there’s no time to lose!

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.

Farmer's Daughter in Indonesia. Photo: Night86mare

Last month I wrote a post telling the horrific stories of Ferdi, Volario, and Suroso and their personal accounts of being forced into slave labor on oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Some escaped after months without pay. Others were paid less than 40 cents/day for back-breaking work clearing forests and spraying pesticides.

Through visiting many controversial palm oil plantations and meeting with partners on the ground, my eyes were opened to the slavery that is a chilling reality of the global palm oil trade that, it turns out, is all-too common.

And now the United States Department of Labor is quite concerned, too.

Recently, palm oil cultivated in Indonesia was added to the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor.

According to the report, “Child labor’’ under international standards means all work performed by a person below the age of 15. “Forced labor’’ under international standards means all work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance. Under these definitions, Ferdi is a victim of child labor and all three men I interviewed were victims of forced labor on palm oil plantations.

Children in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Vanina W.

The International Labor Rights Forum is collaborating with RAN to spread the word about slave labor on palm oil plantations with the message: “Don’t Let Cargill Profit from Slave or Child Labor in Palm Oil.” Cargill’s 2008 revenues soared to over $120 billion, with palm oil being one of the company’s most important commodities. Meanwhile, underage children and indentured laborers are working  in Indonesia’s palm oil industry for pennies.

There is definitely something wrong with this picture.

Ferdi and Volario recently escaped from PT 198's palm oil plantations

Despite the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and successive volcanic eruptions from Mt. Merapi this November, I made my way to Indonesia to attend the 2010 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil conference, meet with allied organizations, and visit highly disputed palm oil plantations.

The rapid proliferation of palm oil plantations has had grave effects on Indonesian rainforests- loss of wildlife habitat, increased climate change, and mass infringements of Indigenous rights. These disturbing details I was already well aware of, but after meeting three young men in Java, my eyes were opened to a chilling facet of the global palm oil trade that turns out to be all too common- slavery.

Ferdi and Volario, 14 and 21-years-old respectively, are from neighboring communities in North Sumatra and experienced nearly identical stories. A representative from PT 198, a subsidiary of a Malaysian palm oil company Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK), came to their village offering jobs in the palm oil industry. The rep promised a good salary and work that suited their skill level, claiming those with driver’s licenses would take trucking positions and those with diplomas would work in the company offices. Both Ferdi and Volario seized on the opportunity of good work and good salaries. Much to their surprise, they were given the same job as all the other workers on that plantation upon arrival: fertilizer sprayers.

Palm Plantations in West Kalimantan. Photo: Ashley Schaeffer/RAN

The two worked grueling hours each day spraying oil palm trees with toxic chemical fertilizers, without any protection to shield their hands, face or lungs. After work, Ferdi and Volario were forced inside the camp where they’d stay overnight under lock and key, guarded by security. If they had to use the bathroom, they’d do their best to hold it until morning or relieve themselves in plastic bags or shoes.

After working under these conditions for several months without pay, Ferdi and Volario ran away from the palm oil plantation. To this day they have not been paid by PT 198.

I also spoke with a 42-year-old man named Suroso from Central Java. Suroso was approached by another oil palm company with the prospect of a well-paid career, along with promises of schooling, access to a local hospital, and all the protective gear necessary to take on the job of “opening the land,” or clearing natural forests to make way for rapidly expanding palm plantations. This company promised him 400,000 rupiah per hectare ($44US), and assured him that the land was flat, the trees small, and the work quick and easy.

After traveling by bus without food or water for 16 hours, Suroso found himself guarded by high security on his long boat journey to Borneo. When he finally arrived at his East Kalimantan work site, he was told he’d have to pay for his own protective gear–masks, gloves and hard hats–even though he wouldn’t be getting paid until he and his 20-man team team cleared 60 hectares (approximately 148 acres) of steep, thick forest. There wasn’t a school or a hospital for Suroso and the other men, very little food, and a stream used for drinking water, washing and human waste, which he described as “not suitable for human survival.”

After two months of backbreaking work and barely livable conditions, Suroso was paid 200,000 rupiah ($22US) for clearing 60 hectares of land.  He and several of the other workers made an escape plan. Suroso got some help from the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP) and ended up in Sawit Watch’s office, figuring out next steps and sharing his harrowing story with me.

While some industry pundits purport that the palm oil industry is an invaluable way to alleviate poverty, it couldn’t be further from the truth. The personal accounts highlighted here are just a few examples of dozens that I encountered on my travels in Indonesia. In addition to horrid health and safety conditions and slave wages, all who protest are deemed criminals both by the palm oil companies and the Indonesian government. Hundreds of workers have been arrested for protest on palm oil plantations.

Incredibly profitable for multinational companies and terribly damaging for people and planet, palm oil remains one of the most bitterly controversial commodities in 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!

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

C'mon Kraft, Make Today Delicious!

For those following the recent developments of palm oil in the news, you know that this hot commodity is becoming increasingly controversial and companies are starting to either push to get the tropical oil out of their supply chain altogether or to adopt a strong palm policy to ensure they are not contributing to rainforest destruction.

Either way, if you’re a U.S. company with palm oil in your supply chain it’s now quite clear that action is becoming inevitable. As Kyra Choucroun recently wrote in the The Guardian:

The commitment of companies like Unilever and Nestlé to sourcing greener supplies can serve as a lesson beyond the palm oil industry, by promoting the importance of ensuring an ethical supply chain. Whilst blacklisting unethical suppliers can have a positive impact on corporate image, failing to adopt a policy of in depth supply chain analysis can render companies vulnerable to attack from all angles, risking customer loyalty and ultimately business development.

And she’s right about that. The importance of ensuring an ethical supply chain is growing by the day as companies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to internal and external scrutiny from customers, NGOs, and even CEOs risking brand damage and profits.

Peatland cleared on Kampar Peninsula. Photo: Ahmad Zamroni/AFP

The most recent company announcing its commitment to responsible palm oil is Kraft Foods.  RAN has been in constructive dialogue with Kraft for almost a year and though the company still has a way to go in order to ensure it’s supply chain is free of rainforest destruction, it is taking small steps in the right direction. For starters, Kraft announced in April of 2010 that it was immediately canceling all direct palm oil contracts with Sinar Mas in an effort to disassociate themselves with the widely known forest destroyer. However, they haven’t cut indirect contracts with Sinar Mas; Kraft still sources palm oil from Cargill even though it’s widely known that Cargill still sources from Sinar Mas.

Kraft, among other customers of Cargill, is strongly urging Cargill to sever ties with Sinar Mas – another indicator that Kraft is taking a leadership role in engaging problematic suppliers to transform the industry. Additionally, Kraft is standing firm with Unilever and others in not falling for the recent Sinar Mas greenwash “audit” which tried to wipe the company clean of rainforest destruction and social controversy to convince companies who cut contracts earlier in the year that their business was now responsible.  

Rainforests smoldering for palm oil in Sumatra. Photo: Constance Cheng/CNN

In recent weeks Kraft sent a “Palm Oil Statement” to RAN, summarizing the food giant’s position on palm oil and highlighting what they’re doing to be a part of the solution short of adopting a palm oil policy. Here are some excerpts from their letter:

We decided to suspend our direct purchases from the Sinar Mas affiliate, Sinar Meadows effective April 1, 2010. The decision to suspend business with Sinar Mas and its affiliates will stay in effect until they clearly demonstrate they comply with local laws and are able to source palm oil sustainably.

In addition to the action described above, we continue to ask our suppliers, including Cargill, to address any indirect supply related to Sinar Mas or its affiliates. We are aware of the recent independent audit of some of Sinar Mas’ palm oil plantations. We are not changing our sourcing decisions in the light of this.

Our suppliers primarily source from Indonesia and Malaysia, with smaller quantities coming from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and West Africa. We are asking our suppliers to provide solutions and create consensus among stakeholders in addressing the deforestation issue in Indonesia, in particular with regard to strengthening RSPO standards.

When the issue was brought to our attention more than two years ago, we expressed our concern and support for the principle of a moratorium on further deforestation. This requires cooperation from producers (including farmers, cooperatives and post-harvest processors), the food industry, governments and civil society. We are planning to do our part to promote better production standards by purchasing palm oil certificates based on palm oil plantations certified under the RSPO.

Kraft foods supports the goals and efforts of RSPO. However, we believe more needs to be done to enforce guidelines and address deforestation.  RSPO needs to reach broad consensus on its certification standards, in particular with regard to climate change impacts of palm oil production.

The tide is turning.  As a senior Unilever executive put it in a recent speech to the Consumer Goods Forum in London, to persuade the 300 or so members of the Forum to work together to end deforestation, “Whether we like it or not it is very largely our industry which is providing the economic incentives for individuals and companies to chop down trees….Between us, we spend billions of dollars buying these commodities. We can make a difference if we buy them differently and better.”

With oil gushing in the gulf, activists locking down in boardrooms, the ball of financial reform being thrown from Wall Street to Washington and back again, and Indonesia announcing a two year freeze on the parceling out of its forests to international corporations, the world’s focus seems to be on corporations.

But in the struggle to hold onto the last of Indonesia’s rainforests – and the biodiversity, culture, livelihoods, and global climate stability these threatened forests provide – recent actions by the multilateral institutions International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the World Bank (WB) must not be ignored.

Multilateral institutions, funded by nations worldwide to implement projects, give loans, and steer ‘underperforming’ economies into globalized capitalism, are big, powerful, and active in Indonesia’s forests. The World Bank and its private investment arm, the IFC, have long seen agribusiness as a key growth sector in the tropics. In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, both groups have given huge loans to encourage the expansion of palm oil and pulp wood plantations, to the benefit of multi-billion dollar corporations like Cargill and Wilmar.

After developing plantations with World Bank aid money, Cargill sold their PNG palm oil plantations for a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Encouraged by the palm oil boom in Malaysia that created enormous wealth in that tropical country, the World Bank and IFC began giving out tens of millions of dollars to encourage the same process of industrialization in Indonesia’s forests.

But rather than work directly with Indonesia’s 30 million forest peoples and those that were concerned with the rational use of Indonesia’s natural resource wealth, the World Bank made the decision to fund some of the world’s largest agribusiness corporations, and trust that Wilmar and Cargill would act responsibly and with concern for the common good.

Today, after thirty years of World Bank and IFC’s support for the palm oil and pulp and paper industry, the social and environmental consequences of their trust in agribusiness is clear. The rich forests of Sumatra are now almost completely parceled out and in the control of corporations clear cutting the forest to produce forest commodities. The Orang Rimba, one of the world’s last truly nomadic cultures, are undergoing a mass exodus because their forest homes have been cleared for palm oil.

Gumpa, and all of the Orang Rimba, are threatened by palm oil expansion

Newly cleared forests to make way for the planting of palm oil and pulp wood burn, releasing smoke plumes that travel for thousands of miles. In Papua New Guinea social unrest and upheaval created by the first industrial monoculture plantations is threatening to tear communities apart.

After thousands of media articles, exposes, research projects, and political appeals, The Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch, supported by hundreds of additional environmental, social, and development groups, convinced the World Bank and IFC to freeze all of their projects supporting oil palm plantations. The process started with the Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch filing a complaint with the IFC’s own internal auditing office over the destructive and dangerous practices of the palm oil producer Wilmar, which received a loan from the IFC for expansion.

Oil palm plantations destroy globally important rainforests

The evidence of open burning and social conflict at Wilmar plantations was enough for the IFC to initiate a freeze on their support for oil palm while they carried out a review of their funding policies. Mounting evidence of the negative impacts of their oil palm plantation projects in Papua New Guinea combined with the IFC’s internal review to push the World Bank to declare their own moratorium on support for palm oil projects while they undergo their own review of the dangers of palm oil expansion.

The decision was one of the biggest wins to protect Indonesia’s forests in memory, as much for the implication on the ground for World Bank and IFC expansion projects as for the strong signal the moratorium send to private banks and agribusiness companies. The World Bank’s current moratorium serves as a warning to the private sector: the palm oil industry as a whole needs to be treated with great caution.

As the multilateral institutions proceed with consultations and internal reviews, and a final decision on palm oil funding is expected soon, almost two hundred leading Indonesian and International voices have called for the World Bank and IFC to implement significant reforms before the Bank returns to funding oil palm.

“Major reforms are needed in places like Sarawak and Indonesia to stop oil palm development doing further harm, including land tenure reforms, recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, a halt to land-grabbing and a ban on clearance of forests and peatlands” says Marcus Colchester of the Forest Peoples Programme.

The thirty years of damage from the World Bank and the IFC’s support of the oil palm and pulp and paper sectors can not be undone, but immediately implementing needed reforms throughout the entire World Bank Group will be a positive step for Indonesia’s forests, forest peoples, and the climate.

**This blog post previously mis-characterized the nature and details of the demands put forward by Forest Peoples Program, Sawit Watch, and their allies.  These groups have never called for a permanent moratorium on World Bank funding of palm oil projects; this mis-characterization of their position was the authors mistake. The text of the blog post has been changed to more accurately reflect these groups demands.**

Below is the list of environmental and social groups that have submitted and endorsed a statement urging the IFC and World Bank to freeze the funding of oil palm:

Submitted by:

Forest Peoples Programme

Sawit Watch

Lembaga Gemawan

Scale Up

Lestari Negri, Provinsi Riau

Serikat Tani Serumpun Damai (STSD), Kabupaten Sambas, Kalimantan Barat

SAD Kelompok 113 Sungai Bahar, Kabupaten Batanghari, Provinsi Jambi

DebtWatch Indonesia

Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS)

Jaringan Kerja Pemetaan Partisipatif (JKPP)

ELAW Indonesia

Setara, Jambi

Yayasan PADI Indonesia, Provinsi Kalimantan Timur

Supported by:

1.      Nordin, Save Our Borneo, Provinsi Kalimantan Tengah

2.      Rivanni Noor, CAPPA

3.      Hendi Blasius Candra, WALHI Kalimantan Barat

4.      Andi Kiki, Individu

5.      Korinna Horta, Ph.D., Urgewald, Germany

6.      Nasahar, Dewan AMAN NTB

7.      Jelson Garcia, Asia Program Manager, Bank Information Center

8.      Erwin Usman, WALHI Eksekutif Nasional/Ketua Badan Pengurus Nasional Koalisi Anti Utang-KAU)

9.      Victor Mambor, Koordinator PJIK Foker LSM Papua

10.     Dadang Sudardja, Aliansi Rakyat Untuk Citarum – ARUM

11.     Rebecca Tarbotton, Executive Director (Acting), Rainforest Action Network

12.     M. Zulficar Mochtar, Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia

13.     Virginia Ifeadiro, Nigeria

14.     Titi Soentoro, Manila

15.     Hisma Kahman, Individu

16.     Kamardi, Direktorat Perluasan Partisipasi Politik Masyarakat Adat, AMAN

17.     Natalie Bridgeman, Accountability Counsel, USA

18.     Dedi Ratih, WALHI Eksekutif Nasional

19.     Khalid Saifullah, Direktur Eksekutif WALHI Sumatra Barat

20.     Among, KRuHA

21.     Bustar Maitar, Forest Campaign, Team Leader, GREENPEACE South-east Asia

22.     Tri Wibowo, individu

23.     Anuradha Mittal, the Oakland Institute, Oakland, CA, USA

24.     Molly Clinehens, International Accountability Project

25.     Yon Thayrun, Executive Editor, Voice of Human Right Media

26.     Kristen Genovese, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law

27.     Edy Subahani, POKKER SHK, Kalimantan Tengah

28.     Nasution Camang, Yayasan Merah Putih (YMP) Sulawesi Tengah

29.     Ibrahim A. Hafid, Institut Transformasi Lokal (INSTAL)

30.     Rizal Mahfud, Individu

31.     Sirajuddin, Ketua BPH AMAN Sulawesi Selatan

32.     Mahir Takaka, Wakil Sekretaris Jendral, AMAN

33.     Haitami, Pengurus AMAN Bengkulu

34.     Suryati Simanjuntak, KSPPM Parapat, Sumatra Utara

35.     Arifin Saleh, Pengurus AMAN

36.     Shaban Stiawan, Individu, Kalimantan Barat

37.     Fien Jarangga, Individu, Papua

38.     Frida Klasin, Individu, Papua

39.     Anike Th Sabami, Individu, Papua

40.     Bernadetha Mahuse, Individu, Papua

41.     Bata Manurun, BPH Wilayah AMAN Tana Luwu

42.     Irsyadul Halim, Kaliptra Sumatera, Riau

43.     Don K. Marut, Direktur Eksekutif INFID

44.     Arie Rompas, Walhi Kalimantan Tengah

45.     Ahmad SJA, PADI Indonesia, Balikpapan, Kalimantan Timur

46.     Thomas Wanly, Sampit, Kalimantan Tengah

47.     Datuk Usman Gumanti, Ketua BPH AMAN Wilayah Jambi

48.     Itan, Mitra Lingkungan Hidup Kalimantan Tengah

49.     Chabibullah, Serikat Tani Merdeka (SeTAM)

50.     Asmuni, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Paser, Kalimantan Timur

51.     Jazuri, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Tanjabar

52.     Lamhot Sihotang, Sekretaris Jenrdal, SPKS Rokan Hulu Riau

53.     Zuki, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Kabupaten Sekadau

54.     Riko Kurniawan, Perkumpulan Elang Riau

55.     Rano Rahman, Yayasan Betang Borneo, Kalimantan Tengah

56.     Risma Umar, Solidaritas Perempuan (SP), Jakarta

57.     Abdi Hayat, PERKUMPULAN SERABUT (SEKOLAH RAKYAT BUTUNI)

58.     Mohammad Djauhari, Koordinator KpSHK, Bogor

59.     Diana Gultom, Debtwatch Indonesia

60.     Suzanne Jasper, First Peoples Human Rights Coalition, United States of America.

61.     Jaya Nofyandry, Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Lingkungan, Jambi

62.     Jason Pan, TARA-Ping Pu, Taiwan

63.     Thaifa Herizal, ST, Direktur Eksekutif, Atjeh Int’l Development

64.     Hegar Wahyu Hidayat, Eksekutif Daerah WALHI Kalimantan Selatan

65.     Fabby Tumiwa, Institute for Essential Services Reform (IeSR)

66.     Puspa Dewy, Solidaritas Perempuan

67.     Giorgio Budi Indrarto, Koordinator, Indonesia Civil Society Forum on Climate Justice

68.     The Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa/NZ

69.     Puspa Dewy, Solidaritas Perempuan

70.     Leonardus Bagus, lPPSLH purwokerto

71.     Chandra, WALHI Riau

72.     Heny Soelistyowati, Program Manager – Komunitas Indonesia untuk Demokrasi

73.     Agung Wardana, Nottingham

74.     Haryanto, Belitung

75.     M. Ali Akbar, Eknas WALHI

76.     Mardiyah Chamim, Tempo Institute

77.     Tandiono Bawor Purbaya, PHR Perkumpulan Huma

78.     Arif Munandar, WALHI Jambi

79.     Wirendro Sumargo, Forest Watch Indonesia

80.     TM Zulfikar, individu

81.     Hariansyah Usman, Direktur Eksekutif WALHI Riau

82.     Ida Zubaidah, Direktur, Wahana peduli Perempuan Jambi/WPPJ

83.     Ismet Soelaiman, Direktur, WALHI MALUT

84.     Koesnadi Wirasapoetra, Sekretaris Jendral, Sarekat Hijau Indonesia

85.     Teddy Hardiyansyah, Kabut Riau

86.     Edo Rakhman, Direktur WALHI Sulawesi Utara

87.     Asman Saelan, LBH Buton Raya

88.     Wilianita Selviana, Direktur WALHI Sulawesi Tengah

89.     R. Yando Zakaria, Lingkar Pembaruan Desa dan Agraria./KARSA, Yogyakarta

90.     Adrian Banie Lasimbang, President, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS)/ Indigenous Peoples’ Network of Malaysia

91.     Ramananda Wangkheirakpam, North East Peoples Alliance, North East India

92.     Joan Carling, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Thailand

93.     Sandra Moniaga, Jakarta, Indonesia

94.     Muliadi SE, Diretktur PETAK DANUM Kalimantan Tengah

95.     Idham Arsyad, Konsorsium Pembaruan Agraria (KPA)

96.     Mukri Friatna, Eksekutif Nasional WALHI

97.     Sanday Gauntlett, PIPEC (Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition)

98.     Rizki Anggriana Arimbi, Deputi WALHI Sulawesi Selatan

99.     Javier M. Claparols, Director, Ecological Society of the Philippines

100.    Agustinus Agus, LBBT, Pontianak

101.    Endah Karyani, individu

102.    Happy Hendrawan, Komunitas Transformatif Kalimantan Barat

103.    Maharani Caroline, Direktur, YLBHI – LBH Manado

104.    Budi Karyawan, AMAN-NTB

105.    Taufiqul Mujib, Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS)

106.    Giring, Perkumpulan Pancur Kasih, Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat

107.    Hironimus Pala, Yayasan Tananua Flores Ende NTT

108.    Philipus Kami, JAGAT,  NTT

109.    Nikolaus Rima, AMATT Ende, NTT

110.    Agus Sarwono,TiLe, Individu

111.    Dickson Aritonang, Yayasan Ulayat Bengkulu

112.    Mina Susana Setra, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)

113.    Alma Adventa, PhD, University of Manchester, UK

114.    Marianne Klute, Watch Indonesia!, Jerman

115.    Aidil Fitri, Yayasan Wahana Bumi Hijau – Sumatera Selatan, Indonesia

116.    Anja Lillegraven, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN)

117.    Judith Mayer, Ph.D., Coordinator, The Borneo Project, Earth Island Institute

118.    Septer Manufandu, Forum Kerjasama  LSM di Tanah Papua

119.    Andik Hardiyanto, The Indonesian Social and Economic Rights Action Network

120.    Hartono, WALHI Sulawesi Utara

121.    Stephanie Fried, `Ulu Foundation

122.    Sarah Lery Mboik, Individu (Anggota DPD RI Daerah Pemilihan NTT)

123.    Julia Kam, Pontianak-Indonesia

124.    Jupran Abbasri, Ketua Lembage Jurai Tue-Semende

125.    Agapitus, AMAN Kalimantan Barat

126.    Sainal Abidin, Perkumpulan WALLACEA Palopo

127.    Macx Binur, Belantara Papua-Sorong

128.    Sri Hartini, Walhi Kalimantan Barat

129.    Ecologistas en Acción (Spain)

130.    Muhammad Juaini, GEMA ALAM NTB

131.    Budi Arianto, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

132.    Solihin, Individu

133.    Aylian Shiau, Kahabu Culture and Education Association of Nantou County

134.    Sultan Darampa, Sulawesi Channel

135.    Thomas Irawan Sihombing, Perkumpulan KABAN, KalBar

136.    Yohanes RJ, Sintang, Kalbar Indonesia

137.    Ranto Sibarani, Sekretaris Eksekutif, KOTIB

138.    Nikmah, INFID

139.    Ahmad, Deputy Director, ED. Walhi Sulteng

140.    Sarma Hutajulu, Koordinator, Jaringan Aktifis Perempuan/Pendukung Penguatan Pr Sumut

141.    Hamsuri, Individu, Balikpapan, Indonesia

142.    Imanche Al Rachman, Koordinator Eksekutif Komnasdesa-Sultra

143.    Asep Yunan Firdaus, HuMa

144.    Juliade, Individu, Banjarmasin, Kalimantan Selatan

145.    Arief Candra S Hut, Kelompok Studi Konservasi (KSK) HIMBA

146.    Chia Tek-khiam, Director, Takao Indigenous Kakatao Council, Taiwan

147.    Serge Marti – LifeMosaic

148.    Betty Tiominar, Bogor

149.    Rukmini Paata Toheke, AMAN

150.    Carolyn Marr, UK Coordinator, Down to Earth

151.    Yuni Riawati, Ketua BEK SP Komunitas Mataram

152.    Geert Ritsema, Coordinator International Affairs, Friends of the Earth Netherlands

153.    Gindo Nadapdap, Kelompok Pelita Sejahtera  (KPS) Medan, Sumatra Utara

154.    Eko Waskito, Lembaga Tiga Beradik Merangin, Jambi Sumatera Indonesia

155.    Haryanto Ramli, Tanjungpandan – Belitung, Provinsi Kep. Bangka Belitung

156.    Benget Silitonga, Sekretaris Eksekutif Perhimpunan BAKUMSU

157.    Yuyun Kurniawan, Yayasan Titian

158.    M. Rafli Kaitora, Ketua PD.AMAN Enggano

159.    Ronny Christianto, Sahabat Masyarakat Pantai (SAMPAN), Kalimantan Barat

Sago is a starch extracted from the pith of sago palm stems. These palms grow in tropical lowland forest and freshwater swamps across Southeast Asia and serve as a major food staple for people in the region. In Tebing Tinggi, their sago farm is owned and run by hundreds of families and provides both food and a good source of income to the community.

Tebing Tinggi’s sago farm is being threatened by Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry.

The village head told us that their community’s sago farm was under threat by Indonesia’s second largest pulp and paper company, Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL). He told us that APRIL had received a cutting permit from the Indonesian government to clear the forest where their sago palms grow. With this permit, APRIL had entered the area with bulldozers and logging machinery and started cutting. However, the community had not agreed to this. In fact, the community actively opposes APRIL’s presence, and they have declared their opposition to the government, the company, and through banners hung on their main streets.

The people of Tebing Tinggi continue to fight to keep APRIL out of their forests and to keep their sago farm productive. But they need our support to tell companies in the U.S. that we also oppose pulp and paper companies’ expansion into Indonesian forests and on community lands. APRIL and their competitor Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) produce paper from Indonesian rainforest destruction for books, copy paper, and toilet paper being sold in the U.S. and elsewhere.

A string of reports have shown that Sinar Mas is actively clear cutting Indonesia’s forests, home to the endangered Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger, and Elephant, in violation of Indonesian law. Not only is Sinar Mas’ palm oil dirty and dangerous, it is also illegal.

Sinar Mas is clearing rainforests in Borneo without proper government approval

With the world’s major buyers of palm oil, including Uniliver, Kraft, Sainsbury and now Nestle cutting  ties with Sinar Mas, Cargill’s support of Sinar Mas’ rainforest destruction and  chain of illegalities has become all the more unacceptable.

The world’s CEOs, environmental groups, and local Indonesian communities all agree: Sinar Mas is a critical threat to the world’s forests, forest peoples, and the climate. Those companies who buy from Sinar Mas have acted, and Sinar Mas is reeling from tens of millions of dollars of contract cancellations.

Sinar Mas built this logging road in primary rainforest without government approval, violating Indonesian law. PT WKS, Riau, Sumatra

Yet Cargill continues to stand by Sinar Mas. The Minnesota based agribusiness giant sells Sinar Mas palm oil worldwide, turning a profit as Sinar Mas illegally burns carbon rich peat forests and forcibly evicts local communities to make way for palm oil. Cargill has repeatedly refused to disclose the size of their palm oil contracts with Sinar Mas subsidiaries and affiliates, contracts  insiders believe Cargill pays Sinar Mas tens of millions of dollars a year for their dangerous palm oil.

Although Kraft and Nestle have canceled their contracts with Sinar Mas, these companies are still not free of Sinar Mas’ palm oil in their global supply chains. Both Kraft and Nestle are large buyers of palm oil from Cargill, and Cargill continues to supply palm oil to the global market from Sinar Mas. Until Cargill cancels with Sinar Mas, Nestle, Kraft, and USA companies such as General Mills, will be forced to support Sinar Mas’ untenable palm oil operations in Indonesia.

Business as usual has become unacceptable for buyers of palm oil. The top management of Unliver, Kraft, and Nestle have all acknowledged that systemic change is needed in Indonesia’s palm oil sector. But Cargill, with their business based on unsustainable clearing and burning of rainforests, refuses to act on the demands of their customers.

Over the past months, Cargill has repeatedly told RAN that they will change their ways if they ‘hear it from our customers’. Well, Cargill’s customers have spoken, and Cargill management must disassociate themselves with Sinar Mas, other worst-of-the-worst palm oil producers, and put an immediate end to deforestation at their own palm oil plantations, or risk being the next palm oil supplier that Uniliver, Kraft, and Nestle cut all ties with.

David Gilbert is a forest program research associate with RAN. He has lived and worked in the forests of the Amazon and Indonesia. He has a special focus on Indigenous rights and tropical forest conservation.

He can be reached at davidgilbert AT ran DOT org

Today, on the way to a meeting with the local NGO Elang, I passed villagers from the Kampar Peninsula, a carbon-rich and biodiverse ecoystem that is under attack by Sinar Mas’ oil palm operations and their timber division Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), on a hunger strike.

In front of the provincial parliament building, a group of men and women from the village of Kijang Kejo have set up a plastic tarp and banner, announcing to Riau’s elected officials that they will not eat until the oil palm plantation PT Arindo Tri Sejahtera, who stole their land and then paid thugs to kill three of their family members, is brought to justice.

10 days into their hunger strike, the villagers are pale and weak, sleeping while motor bikes and buses fly by them on the road. They told me they have not been able to meet with any members of the provincial government, and were not sure how much longer they could last without food.

The group that owns this particular plantation, Surya Dumai, might be on the nastier end of the scale of dirty, dangerous, and destructive oil palm and timber companies, but this is how the resource extraction game is played here in Riau, Sumatra; buy the military, government, and media and trample any local people that dare to stand up for their rights.

APP and Sinar Mas have been shown to violate Indonesian law and human rights, but with the authorities in their pocket, it is us, the consumers of timber and palm oil, that must demand  producers respect forests and the people who inhabit them.

David Gilbert is a Research Fellow at RAN. He has worked in the tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia, with a special focus on forest conservation and indigenous rights. He can be reached at davidgilbert@ran.org

Sumatra is ground zero for the oil palm and pulp-and-paper industries, and, like many tropical habitats, suffers from a severe lack of forest cover and deforestation data to inform natural resource use discourse.

The REDD project in Aceh, named ‘Reducing Carbon Emissions from Deforestation in the Ulu Masen Ecosystem’, is to be implemented by Flora and Fauna International, and Merrill Lynch signed on to fund the carbon project back in 2007.

Over the past two years, this project has been mired in political and practical considerations including uncertainty over the involvement of the Indonesian Government in a private and voluntary carbon project, as well as the status of project funding during Merrill Lynch’s financial implosion.

But many observers in Aceh and in the environmental community consider it a shining example of the positives REDD can potentially deliver to the protection of forests, local communities, and the world’s climate; California, along with two other US states, has committed to purchasing carbon offsets generated by the project.

With their paper, Gaveau et al. have produced the region’s first reliable deforestation maps, a critical tool for forest management and policy groups. These maps depict historical deforestation rates in Aceh and also serve as a model for future deforestation scenarios. This research is on the forefront of landscape ecology by not simply generating a ‘one-rate-fits-all’ model for deforestation in Aceh, but rather it evaluates the importance of factors such as road expansion and forest type – parameters that significantly impact the chance that any given block of forest is deforested.

REDD and deforestation scenarios in Aceh through 2030

The researchers used their new forest deforestation maps to examine the potential for Ulu Masen’s REDD project to effectively conserve Aceh’s forests. Using some basic assumptions of potential REDD scenarios, Gaveau et al conclude that the Ulu Masen project will only protect a small percentage of Aceh’s forest, and very little of Aceh’s highly threatened lowland forests.

The researchers are correct to point out that limiting REDD efforts to large protected areas of forest will not give any protection to many fragments of primary forest immediately threatened by oil palm concessions or other agribusiness throughout Aceh, and to focus on the giant role road expansion plays in deforestation.

The paper proposes an alternate REDD model, where these endangered forest fragments are protected with REDD-based revenues, which are paid directly to land owners to compensate for potential revenues earned through the conversion of forest to oil palm or other agriculture. This would be in place of Ulu Masen’s focus on funding law enforcement to protect the Ulu Masen Ecosystem Protected Area.

Road construction and deforestation risk

I commend Gaveau et al. for thinking big and working out the details of how to maximize forest conservation in Aceh with REDD revenues.  They realistically point out that the current price of carbon offsets will have trouble competing with oil palm development, and, in my opinion, this might indeed be a fatal flaw in the potential implementation of their ‘maximum forest protection’ model in Aceh.

Their work makes clear that the Ulu Masen REDD project is not sufficient to protect all of Aceh’s forests, which is a valid contention. But in my view, the Ulu Masen project is promising not because it attempts to conserve all of Aceh’s forests, but rather because it attempts to establish a novel pathway to securing long term funding for the protection of a single block of Aceh’s forest.

In fact, as deforestation rates recover to pre-tsunami and pre-conflict levels in the province, any measure that secures the protection of Aceh’s forests from oil palm and illegal loggers deserves support.

After a year and a half of taking a close look at the social and economic dynamics of illegal logging and oil palm expansion in Aceh, I have serious concerns if Gaveau et al’s maximum forest protection REDD scenario could ever be implemented in Aceh. While working with the Leuser International Foundation, I became acutely aware of the giant political and community support road building projects, in particular. Even with the implementation of a comprehensive REDD-based forest protection project in Aceh, efforts by Acehnese politicians and industry to expand Aceh’s limited road network will remain.

As Gaveau et al. point out, current carbon offset prices would have trouble competing with potential profits from oil palm and illegal logging revenues. An additional barrier would be the enormous technical challenge of monitoring a large patchwork of forest fragments for changes in carbon stocks over time. And the absolutely essential outreach needed to gain local communities support in any REDD project would become a logistical nightmare for even the largest and most capable of implementing partners, not to mention the financial distribution and reporting requirements of an REDD project spread through out rugged and isolated Aceh.

While many REDD mechanisms deserve attention for their potential to fund forest conservation, they must be viewed not as stand alone mechanisms, but as tools to influence the natural resource use debate currently raging in Aceh.  Intrinsic to this approach, REDD project design must be based in the social, economic, and political realities on the ground faced by forest management groups operating in Aceh, not just the carbon quantities or even blocks of forest potentially conserved.

David Gilbert is a Research Fellow at RAN. He has worked in the tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia, with a special focus on forest conservation and indigenous rights

TOWARDS RAPP COMPANY (APRIL)

Regarding: UPHOLDING TELUK MERANTI COMMUNITY RIGHTS

To the Honourable,

President Director of RAPP company (April)

With this, the community of Teluk Meranti subdistrict, based on our needs to the land located across the river or land intended to become a part of your company’s operational area, declares that it: REJECTS THE PRESENCE OF THE RAPP COMPANY.

This is done with regard to the below considerations:

1. The land is to be retained for our grandchildren’s future
2. Experiences by other surrounding villages or areas where RAPP company has operated which have impacted negatively on the local community’s rights
3. It has caused loss of agricultural and horticultural land belonging to the community
4. The community will lose the source of its livelihood (economic, social and cultural) from the forest which will be converted to an industrial timber plantation

We, the community of Teluk Meranti, have inhabited and utilised this area in a wise and traditional way far preceeding Indonesia’s independence.

Thus concludes this rejection letter, made with great consideration so that unwanted problems will be avoided in the future.

Respectfully yours,

The community of Teluk Meranti

The good news here is that, yes, in fact we have another species of big cat to examine. The bad news, for the scientists anyway, is that we’ve already been studying this cat for past few decades and no one really noticed the differences:

“The moment we started comparing the skins of the mainland clouded leopard and the leopard found on Borneo and Sumatra, it was clear we were comparing two different species,” said Dr Andrew Kitchener, from the Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland and lead author of the scientific paper that described the new species. “It’s incredible that no one has ever noticed these differences.”

Incredible indeed. Glad to hear that species like this are being discovered, but sad to know that like almost every sub-tropical mammal and organism, habitat destruction (i.e. forest destruction and agricultural development) is its greatest threat.