Nature Alert: Losing Ground (The Human Cost Of Palm Oil Expansion)

Monday 25 February 2008

Losing Ground (The Human Cost Of Palm Oil Expansion)

Losing Ground (The Human Cost Of Palm Oil Expansion)

Executive Summary – Losing Groundhttp://www.sawitwatch.or.id
February 2008

In Brief: The challenge of tackling climate change has created a growing world market for agrofuels – vegetable crops which can be used to produce fuel for transport and power stations.

As a result, many developing countries are turning to crops such as oil palm to feed this demand. Indonesia, currently the world’s biggest producer of crude palm oil, is continuing a massive expansion of its palm oil industry, despite serious concerns about the impact of oil palm on the environment.

Now a new report by Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosaic has revealed how Indonesian government policies and palm oil industry practices are harming the rights of local communities and indigenous people. This summary highlights the importance of these findings to policy makers in Europe and argues that in the face of such evidence, targets to increase agrofuel use in the UK and the rest of the EU are misguided, risking environmental damage and human rights abuses on an even bigger scale.

Contact :Sawit watch : Jefry Saragih (jefry@sawitwatch.or.id)FoE EWNI : alison dilworth (alison.dilworth@foe.co.uk)Life Mosaic : serge marti (serge@lifemosaic.net)

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.