Nature Alert: Thank you

Monday 18 August 2008

Thank you

I wish to thank all of you who have sent me kind and encouraging emails concerning my disclosures below.

Sadly, there are more disclosures to come. If I had the time I'd write a book, but I'm not convinced many people want to know what happens with their money once they make a donation - which I find extraordinary. It's what you might call AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

The ineffectiveness of some conservation groups is simply breathtaking. It appears to me the more money they have, the less effective they become. And if someone like me did not alert people to such things, how would you ever know?

If there are any doubters still out there, please could you just reflect on this for a few moments: if big budget groups like WWF, etc. were actually saving any orangutans - why does the population still keep crashing? The only answer some groups seem to have is to ask people like you for more money.

If you have not already done so, please could you write to Mark Rose and Terry Irwin as mentioned below - for the reasons indicated?

If all you do is to read this Blog - know this, reading will not change a thing. Rather than give you this news and leave you feeling helpless, I am trying to empower everyone to help and - make a difference.

There are people who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.

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.