Campaign cuts Norway’s palm oil consumption 64%
27 July 2012 - Mongabay.com - A campaign run by environmental activists has helped lead to a 64 percent reduction in palm oil use by eight major food companies in Norway, reports Rainforest Foundation Norway, which led the effort.
Rainforest Foundation Norway and Green Living launched the palm oil campaign last fall highlight links between palm oil consumption and deforestation in Southeast Asia. It aimed to reduce demand for palm oil in the Scandinavian country, where palm oil consumption was roughly 3 kilogram per year, mostly through processed food products.
Charred Footprints
18 July 2012 - Tempo Interactive. The Tripa peat swamp, one with the largest capacity to store carbon in Aceh, is near complete ruin. Investigations carried out by a joint team continue to scour for criminal violations that destroyed the once rich peatland forest.
Fires in protected peat forest have companies feeling the heat
10 July 2012 - The Jakarta Globe - The Environment Ministry has found indications of arson in recent fires at the protected Tripa peat forest in Aceh, a senior ministry official said on Sunday.
“It baffles me. We are still investigating, but these fires keep occurring,” said Sudariyono, the ministry’s deputy for legal compliance.
Illegal Indonesian fires threaten great apes
5 July 2012 - Syndey Morning Herald. THE carbon-rich peat forests of northern Sumatra are burning again as palm oil companies break Indonesian law to clear the land for their plantations. Environmental groups have warned that the local population of critically endangered orang-utans are ”doomed” unless the fires are stopped.
2012 LP Jenkins Fellowship Awarded
5 June 2012 - Santa Monica, CA. The Orang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF), a Santa Monica-based conservation education nonprofit that supports the survival of wild orangutans in Indonesia, announced the recipient of its Lorraine P. Jenkins Memorial Fellowship program for 2012. For his study on the role of orangutan cheek pads in sexual selection and reproductive success, the fellowship is presented to Graham L. Banes, a doctoral graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
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