NEW EARTH RISING 2008 UPDATE: $2,328 (3%) raised from 15 donors -- $67,672 or 97% to go. The next $13,850 in gifts matched 100%! This is a slow start and if participation does not increase we may go on strike (see below). This would be sad as we have just enjoyed our fourth campaign victory in six months. Donate now at: http://www.rainforestporal.org/donate/
ALERT VICTORY *********************************************** RAINFOREST PROTECTION NEWS TODAY Oil Palm Companies Pledge to Stay Out of Indonesian Rainforests *********************************************** Rainforest Portal a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. http://www.rainforestportal.org/ -- Rainforest Portal May 14, 2008 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet Palm oil companies operating in Indonesia have pledged to stop expanding plantations into rainforests. In late 2006 Ecological Internet was the first to launch a large international protest campaign on this matter -- bringing to the world's attention how oil palm plantations on carbon rich tropical rainforest peatlands were destroying biodiversity, global climate and orangutan habitat. Over 11,000 protestors from 114 countries sent one quarter of a million protest emails to the Indonesian government and many other responsible parties at http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=indonesia_peatland On another occasion similar numbers brought the matter to the attention of every UN climate change national focal point. Others including Greenpeace later followed our lead (below). Together we have achieved these pledges to keep oil palm out of rainforests, and this is a tremendous victory for rainforest and climate protection movement. Certainly more remains to be done. It is still questionable to use food for agrofuel. Indigenous and other local peoples may still lose their land to corporations. Already cleared peat soils that should be reflooded and restored to hold their carbon are likely to be developed. And the Indonesian government is notoriously fast and loose with promises to disarm environmental campaigns, and enforcement may well lag. Without continued monitoring, this pledge will be disregarded and oil palm will continue to expand even into protected areas and orangutan habitat (see below). Yet what makes this victory so savory is that it is the companies buying the palm oil themselves that have made the pledge -- it will be hard for them to renege. Ecological Internet brought Indonesian rainforest destruction for oil palm to the world and our key demand to keep production out of rainforests has been met. This makes four victories for our Earth Action Network in the past six months, six in the last year. From Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, the Congo to Australia, and all along the East Coast of the U.S., the message is being heard that ancient forest destruction and diminishment must end to maintain the world's biodiversity, ecosystems and climate. See more of what we have achieved together at http://www.rainforestportal.org/kudos/ . We are successful even though we are not afraid to confront difficult issues like FSC greenwash, and over-population and consumption. And realize action alerts are but one of the free services we supply; others including the only true green search engine, news tracking, biocentric blogging, exhaustive links and more. No one takes an ecological science based and sufficient green message to the world like Ecological Internet. And this is why it is so important that you make a donation to support our efforts now at http://www.rainforestportal.org/donate/ . We must achieve our $70K goal to remain operational. No longer can we creak by with inadequate computer hardware and unpaid staff. This is the minimum we must raise to cover basic costs, even as we have commenced applying for foundation grants for more stable funding to consolidate and expand our efforts. But this takes time and we need continued support from our members to stay operational now. Truly I mean this, if this fund-raiser flounders because each of the hundreds of thousands using Ecological Internet a month decide not to donate because they think the other guy will contribute, we may have to go on strike to reconsider our future, and to demonstrate how the world will be a less green place without us. Please donate now at http://www.rainforestportal.org/donate/ and let's avoid service disruptions. g.b. To comment: http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2008/05/oil_palm_companies_pledge_to_s.asp ******************************* RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE: ITEM #1 Title: Indonesia: Palm oil firms vow to stop using forests Source: Copyright 2008, Jakarta Post Date: May 14, 2008 Byline: Adianto P. Simamora http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20080513.A07&irec=6 Palm oil companies operating in Indonesia pledged to stop expanding plantations into forests in response to growing global criticism about deforestation and to promote more sustainable products. Executive director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI), Didiek Hadjar Goenadi, said here Monday palm oil companies would focus on utilizing idle land, including former forest concession areas, to maintain Indonesia as the world's largest crude palm oil producer. "We realize the environmental impacts by opening all our forests so we will stop touching the forest and just concentrate on abundant lands which have not been cultivated yet," Didiek told reporters during a break in a a seminar on climate change, agriculture and trade. There are currently 6.7 million hectares of oil palm plantations in the country -- half belonging to private firms, while the rest are operated by small-scale farmers. Only about 600,000 hectares are managed by state-owned enterprises. Didiek estimated there were about seven million hectares of idle land across the country that could be used to plant oil palms or rubber trees. He said the association's members had applied the so-called roundtable on sustainable palm oil (RSOP), an international initiative promoting sustainability up and down the palm oil supply chain. "But since many oil palm plantations are operated by farmers, many of them are still unaware about the RSOP regulations. It is the government's task to educate them," he said. Indonesia's crude palm oil production reached its highest-ever level of 17.2 million tons last year, passing Malaysia, which produced 16 million tons. Environmental activists have stepped up protests against the country's palm oil companies, accusing the firms of expanding their operations by clearing formerly forested land. The activists say the expansion, including in peatland forests, has killed thousands of orangutans and resulted in huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Didiek said the palm oil business in Indonesia dated back more than 150 years. "There have been standard operating procedures in implementing good agriculture procedures since the Dutch period," he said. "However, the booming of the commodity encourages the new planters to neglect these standard. This is the main cause of why land burning has become extensive and erosion has taken place." Didiek said demand for crude palm oil had accelerated with the rising popularity of biofuels in developed nations to substitute for fossil fuels. He also called on the country's oil palm producers to do more for the environment and people's welfare. "Conflict between food and fuels must be ended by taking all necessary actions to minimize negative impacts both to the local people and the international community," he said. ITEM #2 Protected Areas Used to Expand Indonesian Oil Palm Plantations Source: Copyright 2008, Antara Date: May 12, 2008 http://au.biz.yahoo.com/080512/17/1ql4y.html The expansion of oil palm plantations in the regency of Kapuas Hulu in Indonesia's West Kalimantan has crossed the border into protected forests, the semi official news agency Antara reported. Expansion has entered the 200,000 hectare Heart Of Borneo, which has been agreed to be preserved between three neighboring countries Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, said Haryono, the coordinator for forest Communication Issue of the World Wide Fund for Nature in West Kalimantan. Nine subsidiaries of the Sinar Mas Group are believed to be involved in clearing 160,000 hectares of forests bordering the Betung Karihun National Park, Haryono said. Kapuas Hulu has 1.63 million hectares of protected forests and National Parks. By the end of 2007, West Kalimantan has 400,000 hectares of planted oil palm plantations said. ITEM #3 Title: Indonesia: Palm oil wiping out key orangutan habitat: activists Source: Copyright 2008, Agence France-Presse Date: May 10, 2008 http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=944bb22c-e485-44f3-9103-de0a5eddf587&k=96840 One of the biggest populations of wild orangutans on Borneo will be extinct in three years without drastic measures to stop the expansion of palm oil plantations, conservationists said Wednesday. "For Central Kalimantan, the species will be gone as soon as three years from now," Centre for Orangutan Protection director Hardi Bhaktiantoro told a press conference. More than 30,000 wild orangutans live in the forests of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, or more than half the entire orangutan population of Borneo island which is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Experts believe the overall extinction rate of Borneo orangutans is nine percent per year, but in Central Kalimantan they are disappearing even faster due to unchecked expansion of palm oil plantations. "The expansion of palm oil plantations is wiping out entire habitats and unless the government takes drastic measures to protect these orangutan sanctuaries there is no way to reverse the trend," Bhaktiantoro said. He showed pictures taken in November of dead orangutans being carried out of new plantations in Central Kalimantan, where they are hunted as pests to prevent them eating palm seedlings. Orangutans are found only on Borneo and Sumatra and are listed as endangered by the Swiss-based World Conservation Union, the paramount scientific authority on imperilled species. It says numbers of the ape have fallen by well over 50 percent in the past 60 years as a result of habitat loss, poaching and the pet trade. Indonesia has already lost 72 percent of its 123 million hectares (304 million acres) of ancient rain forest due to frenzied logging and burning of peatland for agriculture, according to Greenpeace figures. But the recent growth in demand for palm oil from food, cosmetic and biofuel companies is putting more pressure on orangutan habitats, swathes of which lie outside conversation areas. "The deforestation rate in the area (Central Kalimantan), especially for conversion to palm oil plantation is extremely high," Bhaktiantoro said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was keen to trumpet his government's efforts to save the orange apes as Indonesia hosted the UN-sponsored world climate conference in December. He used the occasion to unveil a scheme called the Orangutan Action Plan designed to stabilise orangutan populations and habitat by 2017 and promote sustainable forest management. ITEM #4 Title Indonesia: Unilever palm oil policy wins fans Source: Copyright 2008, Jakarta Post Date: May 5, 2008 Byline: Adianto P. Simamora http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20080505.H02&irec=1 Environmental group Greenpeace has echoed calls by consumer goods giant Unilever to impose a moratorium on deforestation in Indonesia in support for the company's pledge to purchase only certified sustainable palm oil. Greenpeace also urged the country's palm oil plantations to use sustainable forest management methods and stop expanding into peatland forests. "Unilever's calls for a moratorium on forest destruction in Indonesia should become an entry point for the government to stop the deforestation process," Greenpeace Southeast Asia political advisor Arif Wicaksono told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. "The government has to take action to reverse deforestation by initiating a moratorium on logging and forest conversion." Unilever has committed to using only palm oil from certified sustainable sources from the second half of this year. The company said it would ensure the palm oil it used in Europe was also certified as sustainable by 2012. "Now we need to take the next step," Unilever chief executive Patrick Cescau said in a statement in London on Thursday. "Suppliers need to move to meet the criteria, by getting certified both the palm oil from their own plantations and the palm oil they buy from elsewhere." Unilever is the world's biggest consumer of palm oil, which it uses in leading brands such as Dove, Persil and Flora. The company's decision came after a Greenpeace campaign revealed Unilever's suppliers are actively destroying orangutan habitat and clearing Indonesia's peatlands and rain forests. According to Greenpeace, destruction of peatland rain forests contributes 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions are considered the main contributor to climate change. The environmental group also said about 1,600 orangutans were killed on palm oil plantations during 2006. Arif said companies using palm oil and members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) should join forces with Unilever to stop ongoing forest destruction in Indonesia. The RSPO is an initiative of an association of palm oil producers to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil. "Even though the RSPO has existed since 2002, there is still no certified palm oil on the market," Greenpeace said. Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono ordered governors to stop awarding new permits for the palm oil industry in peatlands last year. The order was issued as Indonesia hosted the climate change conference in Bali, which directed all countries to cut carbon dioxide emissions. A 2006 report from Wetlands International found damage to Indonesia's peatlands resulted in 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, making the country the world's third largest emitter after the United States and China. "But we have seen no changes since the minister's order. Many regents still grant permits to dig in peatland forests," Arif said. "Greenpeace is not calling for an end to the palm oil industry but it is calling for an end to forest destruction." --- You are subscribed to ecological_internet as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Before unsubscribing, please consider modifying your list profile at: http://www.ecoearth.info/subscribe/[EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or click here: http://email.ecoearth.info/u?id=84041H&n=T&c=F&l=ecological_internet To subscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or visit here: http://www.ecoearth.info/subscribe/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
