The Pressure is on the Girl Scouts about using Palm Oil in their cookies

About two months ago I received a phone call from my 6-year-old niece, asking me if I wanted to buy Girl Scout Cookies. Two words that have become associated with these popular cookies quickly came to mind: palm oil. But how could I resist? Not only would my niece not understand, but I do admit that I have been in love with Samoas since I sold Girl Scout Cookies. I caved and bought a few boxes.

It was after I received my cookies that I read an inspiring story about two young Girl Scouts who were determined to make a difference after they found out that their cookies contained unsustainable palm oil. As many know, palm oil production is the major cause of deforestation of rainforests. The shock came for young Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen was when they found out that the clearing of rainforests threatens the survival of orangutans.

Now there are advocates out there who are major proponents of sustainable palm oil, such as McDonald’s, but there are also major companies such as Burger King and HSBC that have both made big strides in no longer supporting Indonesian producers. So why are the Girl Scouts and their baking company, Little Brownie Bakers, still including the ingredient in their cookies? Madison and Rhiannon set out to find out and make a difference.

In 2008, inspired by both their Girl Scout training and the work of Dr. Jane Goodall, the two 11-year-old girls had a conference call with Barry Horowitz, Vice President and General Manager of Girl Scout Merchandise. They requested a switch from palm oil to a truly sustainable alternative. Horowitz seemed as though the issue concerned him and promised that he’d be in touch with next steps after contacting the cookie manufacturers.

According to the Girl Scouts website, palm oil is used because the “licensed cookie bakers tell us it continues to be necessary to use palm oil in specific cookies to ensure their shelf life, quality, and to serve as a healthful alternative to trans-fats. Many top bakers have tried to stop using palm oil, but without it, their products do not meet quality and production standards.”

As time passed, Madison and Rhiannon decided they wanted to do something more. They organized Girl Scout troops across the country to generate pressure on Girl Scouts of the USA and convinced Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Biological Diversity, Cultural Survival, Orangutan Foundation International, and Rainforest Action Network to send letters of concern on their behalf to the national Girl Scout headquarters in New York City.

Three years later, the young girls still haven’t given up and both take a strong stance on palm oil. Head on over to The Understory to read more about Madison and Rhiannon’s quest for a sustainable alternative.

The good news is the Girl Scouts website states “Effective in 2011, Little Brownie Bakers and its parent company, Kellogg, have committed to covering 100% of their global palm oil use through the purchase of GreenPalm certificates. Funds from GreenPalm certificates help growers invest in the transition to sustainable palm oil.”

Next year, the Girl Scouts will be celebrating 100 years of “building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” We can only hope that perhaps it will be on this celebratory year that a major change will be made once and for all.

Shown in the photo above: Rhiannon (left) and Madison (right) campaigning to save orangutans in seventh grade. Photo via: The Understory.
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2 girl scouts speak out about the palm oil used in their cookies

When Girl Scouts Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen of Ann Arbor, Michigan were in the sixth grade, they decided that for their Bronze Award Girl Scout community service project, they would raise public awareness about the plight of endangered orangutans.

With a little research, the girls soon discovered that orangutans' fragile rainforest habitat in Indonesia is directly threatened by unsustainable industrial farming of palm oil. Demand for palm oil -- a trans-fat free alternative to unhealthy partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening -- has risen drastically over the past decade.

In response, industrial farm operations seeking to cash in on rising palm oil prices have been all too quick to slash and burn acres of rainforest in Indonesia to make room for unsustainable palm oil plantations, seriously threatening already endangered populations of these highly intelligent great apes.

Unsustainably harvested palm oil, Rhiannon and Madison discovered, is a major ingredient in Girl Scout cookies baked in the United States. In fact, it can be found in every flavor.

The girls decided they could not in good conscience continue to participate in the traditional Girl Scout cookie sale fundraiser while working to save the endangered orangutan. So they boycotted their organization's famous Samoas and Thin Mints, and opted to sell magazines to raise funds for their troop instead.
But Madison and Rhiannon didn't stop with a personal cookie sale boycott. These intrepid young women, both just eleven at the time, launched a public campaign to convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to take unsustainably farmed palm oil out of their cookies.

That was four years ago. So far, Rhiannon and Madison, now high schoolers, have traveled to speak with Girl Scout executives, scored famed primatologist and animal rights activist Jane Goodall's signature on one of their petitions, had their activism featured in The Frisky, The Seattle Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Grist, and have been interviewed by Public Radio International.

Most recently, the girls have forged a partnership with Rainforest Action Network and successfully convinced corporate food giant Kelloggs, which owns one of the bakers of Girl Scout cookies, to announce that it will both move toward using sustainably-produced palm oil and donate to rainforest preservation efforts to mitigate the environmental damage caused by palm oil currently used in the Girl Scout cookies made in its factories.

But what Madison and Rhiannon haven't yet managed to do is convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to ban unsustainably-farmed palm oil from its cookies. So they haven't given up the fight to protect endangered wildlife by changing the Girl Scout organization from within.
Watch the girls make their case in this Rainforest Action Network video here

Say YES to putting Palm Oil on Labels

I believe that every industry that puts Palm Oil in their products should be legally responsible for putting that ingredient on their labels! This way for those of us that are aware that Palm Oil hurts the Wild Orangutans' habitats can decline in buying that product. For the products I know that have Palm Oil in it I have long stopped using them.

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Do you have the right to know whether the chocolate bar you're munching on includes palm oil, which is blamed for vast deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia? How about that frozen pizza? According to a coalition of environmental and conservation groups it's time for food manufacturers to add palm oil to the label in Europe, instead of currently being listed as simply, and erroneously (palm kernels are fruits), 'vegetable oil'.

"Clearer labels will ensure that the consumer can be confident that they aren’t buying a product that is responsible for clearing globally important forest areas and the biodiversity contained therein," said Ashley Leiman, Director of the Orangutan Foundation, in a press released. While orangutans have become the de-facto symbol of palm oil critics, deforestation in the region also threatens Javan and Sumatran rhinos, Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, and thousands of little-known species.

SEE PHOTO HERE
Oil palm plantation in the foreground with rainforest-covered hills in the back on the island of Sumatra.

The Orangutan Foundation is being joined by the Sumatran Orangutan Society, Elephant Family, Save the Rhino, The Jane Goodall Institute—UK, and Ape Alliance in a campaign to amend a recent food bill, known as the Sommer Report, in the European Parliament to require that palm oil is listed on labels.

While palm oil is the world's most productive oil seed (far outstripping soy, which has been linked to deforestation in the Amazon), it is responsible for a significant percentage of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. For example, a study in Conservation Letters found that 55-59 percent of palm oil plantations in Malaysia built between 1990 and 2009 occurred on forested land. Such aggressive deforestation has contributed to an environmental crisis in the region: biodiversity loss in some of the world richest habitats, conflict with indigenous groups who depend on the forests for their livelihood, and substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Given such statistics, the coalition is urging the public to write to MEPs on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Parliamentary Committee and ask for clear palm oil labeling.

However, industry players want the European public to know that not all palm oil is created equal in environmental destruction.

"Any initiative to empower customers to make better buying decisions would be welcomed by any responsible company, " Puvan Jegaraj Selvanathan, palm oil giant Sime Darby's Chief Sustainability Officer, told mongabay.com. "Certainly if a label has to be applied at all for palm oil then it should clearly differentiate for [Certified Sustainable Palm Oil]. However, palm oil is only one of many ingredients found in many products on supermarket shelves. Any labeling seeking to promote ethical buying in a meaningful way should assure consumers that all the ingredients in the product […] are responsibly produced, not just the palm oil."

The campaign agrees that supporting sustainable palm oil is a part of the solution.

"We do not advocate a boycott of products containing palm oil. We are supporting this campaign because we believe this new legislation could be a crucial tool in helping us to drive the demand from Europe for certified sustainable palm oil," says Helen Buckland, UK Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Society.

The pressure campaign on the palm oil industry has recently pushed one of the most heavily criticized companies to promise change. Golden Agri-Resources Limited, which owns PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART), has promised to ban development on carbon-rich peatlands and in high conservation value (HCV) forests. Their newly announced policy also targets social problems linked to palm oil expansion, such as establishing free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous and local communities and complying with Indonesian laws and RSPO Principles and Criteria.

While environmentalists wait for government to act, some retailers, including Cole Supermarkets in Australia, have already started to voluntarily label palm oil as an ingredient on their private products. Other companies, including McDonalds, Walmart, Nestle, and Unilever have pledged to use only palm oil from certified sustainable sources by 2015.
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Orangutan Behavior during the Rehabilitation Process

A recent article “Fostering Appropriate Behavior in Rehabilitant Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)” published online in the International Journal of Primatology discusses research on the behavior of rehabilitant orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and P. abelii) at the Orangutan Care and Quarantine Centre in Pangkalan Bun, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Much past research has focused on postrelease behavior of rehabilitated orangutans and on the behavior of wild individuals; therefore, this research is especially timely and useful for the number of centers currently attempting to rehabilitate the ever-increasing number of displaced great apes and other fauna (Descovich et al., 2011).

Curious Orangutan in Sabah, Malaysia (Photo: Kristin Abt)Orangutans (n=40) in this study included males and females, mass classes ranging from 5 to 25 kg, and good, moderate, and poor health distinctions. Individuals were observed continuously for a period of 5 hours during 3 separate forest excursions each. A number of behaviors relevant to postrelease success in the forest habitat were recorded (type of locomotion, social behavior, such as play, human caretaker interaction, point of height in tree or on ground, feeding and food choice, grooming, etc.).

Results from this study showed that rehabilitant individuals’ masses were associated with the amount of time spent at the centre. Authors note this finding as a result of the early age of admittance to the centre for most individuals. Further, orangutans in better health spent an increased amount of time consuming food and less time resting than other categories. In terms of locomotion (>30% of overall time), quadrupedal movement in trees was the dominant method (again, with orangutans in better health doing so more often). Individuals who had been at the Care Centre longer spent more time on the ground rather than swinging or other locomotion. As the day in which focal individuals were observed continued, human interaction increased.

As rehabilitation of orphaned individuals is a component of the long-term species survival of orangutans, research regarding the behavior of these individuals is important for increasing the chance of postrelease survival and success. Additionally, as their habitat is lost as a result of a number of conservation threats, land protection is necessary to provide habitat in which the released individuals and their wild conspecifics can live.

Reference
Descovich, K. A., Galdikas, B. M., Tribe, A., Lisle, A., & Phillips, C. J. 2011. Fostering appropriate behavior in rehabilitant orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). International Journal of Primatology. doi:10.1007/s10764-011-9491-1


Orangutan Foundation International (a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization) supports the work of the Orangutan Care and Quarantine Centre and other crucial efforts to promote orangutan conservation, including land protection, research, and education. Visit www.orangutan.org to donate directly to OFI. If you would like to donate items specifically to enhance the lives of individuals at the Care Centre, visit this wishlist to select items that orangutans, such as those in this study, will greatly benefit from. If you would like to learn more, look for the upcoming IMAX© movie Born to Be Wild to be released in theaters April 8, 2011.
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G&D Ice Cream launching ice cream to help the Orangutans

A NEW ice cream set to raise cash for orangutans promises to be the “King of the Zingers”.

G&D ice cream parlours have linked up with Cowley Road charity Sumatran Orangutan Society to launch a one-off flavour, Zingy Mandarin, for conservation work abroad. Twenty pence from every £2.10 scoop will go to the charity.

The launch, at their St Aldate’s store, left shoppers bemused as a giant cow and an oversized orangutan danced hand-in-hand through the city centre.

G&D production manager Marcus Allen said: “I have been making ice cream for so long I get quite blasé about it, but I’m really pleased with this new flavour.

“I’ve tried to use oranges in the past, and never quite got it right, but this is terrific.”

The charity works in Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia, to help restore rainforest and set up “conservation villages” which protect habitats and provide sustainable income for the population.

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3 Orangutans released back into the wild

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian researchers are testing whether three young orangutans reared in captivity can adapt to life in the wild outside Borneo, while activists insisted Wednesday the experiment was a flawed way of trying to help the endangered primates.

The project is spearheaded by a private foundation that runs Orangutan Island, a research center and tourist attraction in northern peninsular Malaysia. The facility has bred orangutans in captivity over the past decade despite criticism by animal rights groups that conservation programs should focus instead on protecting existing orangutans in the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra.

D. Sabapathy, the center's senior manager, said researchers released three captive orangutans on a neighboring island last week. They are expected to remain there for up to six years before officials determine whether they can be let loose, either in peninsular Malaysia or Borneo.

The project marks the first time that orangutans have been allowed to roam on their own in peninsular Malaysia. Activists estimate some 50,000 orangutans live in the wild in Malaysian and Indonesian territory in Borneo, while another 7,000 can be found on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

The three apes include Sonia, born at the center eight years ago, and two others - Ah Ling, 17, and Nicky, 23 - found by wildlife authorities in Borneo a decade ago and brought to the center. Sabapathy said he was not sure whether Ah Ling and Nicky had lost their mothers or were rescued from poachers.

"It's a rehabilitation program," Sabapathy said. "It's not that we simply will release them anywhere."
The orangutans' lives are expected to change dramatically. On Orangutan Island, they were kept in a 5-acre (2-hectare) enclosure, where they were fed by workers and observed by tourists.
During their stay on the neighboring island, they will enjoy freedom across a 14-acre (6-hectare) forested area, where workers have hidden bananas and tapioca for them to find until they are accustomed to obtaining food such as wild fruit and termites on their own.

Researchers are using binoculars to monitor their behavior, including how they build nests and interact with their environment without human contact.

Marc Ancrenaz, co-founder of French-based conservation group Hutan, said however that resources for orangutan conservation research could be used more effectively elsewhere.
"There's no reason why they should do this. ... We (already) have a wild population" of orangutans in Borneo, Ancrenaz said.

Orangutans in the wild face threats such as the loss of habitat due to illegal logging and agriculture, as well as illegal hunting of the apes for private collections or use in traditional medicine.

The Orangutan Island center houses 25 orangutans, including 17 born there. Orangutans are known to live up to 60 years in captivity, but not as long in the wild.
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Girl Scout Cookies have palm oil which hurts the Orangutans

Girl Scout cookie season, but Michigan scouts Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva are finding other ways to support the organization’s mission of "building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place" than selling those famous Thin Mints and Tagalongs. Many varieties of Girl Scout cookies include palm oil, the No. 1 culprit behind deforestation in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia.
When Madison and Rhiannon found out that Girl Scout cookies were destroying the forest homes of endangered wildlife like orangutans, pygmy elephants, and Sumatran tigers -- and displacing indigenous people -- they sprung into action. First, they stopped selling the cookies, and then launched an effort to encourage the Girl Scouts to switch to more environmentally friendly (and healthier) alternatives like canola oil. The Girl Scouts USA and their CEO Kathy Clonginer, however, have refused to act despite efforts by Girl Scouts across the country and the encouragement of organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists and Center for Biological Diversity.

Now, thanks to a post on the animal welfare blog Please Do Not Tap on the Glass, we learned that the Girl Scouts’ British sister organization, the Girl Guides, have eliminated palm oil from their cookies, and are offering to help the Girl Scouts USA and Girl Guides Canada do the same. The English bakers also found, unsurprisingly, that replacing unhealthy palm oil with olive oil and canola oil doesn’t only save forests, it also resulted in a 60 to 70 percent reduction in saturated fat.

I hope the Girl Scouts USA do the same. When you read about the effects of palm oil cultivation on orangutans and other wildlife, it’s pretty horrifying. Here’s a recent report from Rhett Butler at MongaBay on the effects of palm oil expansion:
Michelle Desilets, executive director of the Orangutan Land Trust, says she started to see the shift about five years ago. Relegated to ever smaller fragments of forest, wild orangutans began to face starvation as their food sources were depleted, forcing them to venture into newly established oil palm plantations where they feed on the young shoots of palms, destroying the tree before it produces any oil seeds.

Viewing the wild orangutans as pests, plantation managers started paying $10 to $20 for each dead orangutan -- a strong incentive for a migrant worker who may earn just $10 per day.

"Our rescue teams began to be informed of wandering wild orangutans in human settlements," Desilets told me, while cradling a baby orangutan in Nyaru Menteng. "We have found orangutans beaten to death with wooden planks and iron bars, butchered by machetes, beaten unconscious and buried alive, and doused with petrol and set alight. Since 2004, more and more orangutans in our centers have been rescued from areas within or near oil palm plantations, and over 90 percent of the infants up to three years of age come from these areas."

I think even the Cookie Monster would pass on that one. Unfortunately, so far, the Girl Scouts seem to be engaging in the type of greenwashing that one expects from giant food conglomerates like Cargill, instead of an organization that’s supposed to be cultivating honesty and strong values in our nation’s youth.
The Girl Scouts could be a great organization that, among other things, cultivates a love for nature and the outdoors. But it should follow the lead of its British sister organization and find a way to support itself in a way that doesn’t undermine its values, or the survival of our fellow creatures. Until then, no Peanut Butter Patties, Thank U Berry Muches, or Daisy Go Rounds for me!
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Conservationists say releasing 1000 Orangutans is like going into a Killing Field

More than 1,000 captive orangutans set for release into the wild on Borneo island are being sent into a "killing field" of illegal logging and poaching, conservationists say.

Dr. Karmele Llano Sanchez from International Animal Rescue checks Monte, a 13-year-old pet orangutan, after members of the West Kalimantan Conservation and Natural Resources Board (BKSDA) seized him from a residence in Bengkayan in West Kalimantan province.

Photograph by: STRINGER/INDONESIA

Credit: REUTERS

Indonesia has reserved 86,450 hectares (214,000 acres) of forest in Muara Wahau, East Kalimantan province, for the rehabilitation of 1,200 captive big apes over the next four years.

But the independent Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) warned that the endangered mammals were being sent to their deaths unless the government also managed to stop illegal logging and poaching, which is rampant in the region.

"Without law enforcement and security guarantees from the government, releasing them to the forest is like sending them to a killing field," COP chief Hardi Baktiantoro told reporters.

He said local communities were responsible for most of the destruction of flora and fauna in Muara Wahau.
In the last three months of 2010, the COP rescued four orangutans which locals had caught and were offering for sale for up to 2.5 million rupiah ($280) each.
"The forestry ministry should deploy the forestry police to protect orangutans in the wild from poaching and save their habitat from illegal logging," Baktiantoro said.

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

They are faced with extinction due to poaching and the rapid destruction of their habitat.

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Chimpanzees produce more sperm that any other Ape

Chimpanzees produce 200 times more sperm than gorillas, the world's largest primates, and 14 times more than orangutans, scientists based in Japan reveal.

Promiscuous ape species have bigger testicles, and the latest discovery finally provides evidence that they also produce more sperm.

Scientists previously proposed that chimps have large testicles because several males mate with a single female, and so have to produce more sperm in order to compete.

Our data indicated that a chimpanzee usually produces about two hundred times more sperm than a gorilla
Hideko Fujii-Hanamoto

For their research, published in the American Journal of Primatology, scientists studied chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas from zoos in Japan and Indonesia.

Analysing samples of testicular tissues at a microscopic level, researchers found remarkable variation between the apes.

They found that the sperm-producing tissue lining gorillas' testes was much thinner than that of orangutans and chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees were found to produce 14 times more sperm than orangutans and even more than the world's largest primates.

"Our data indicated that a chimpanzee usually produces about two hundred times more sperm than a gorilla," explained researcher Hideko Fujii-Hanamoto.
For these three species of ape, the scientists have now proven that testes size is proportionate to sperm production.
The researchers claim that these findings also support theories that sperm production relates directly to reproductive competition and mating behaviour.

Previous studies proposed that testes are smaller in polygynous species such as gorillas where one alpha male monopolises mating with multiple females.
In promiscuous species such as chimps however, there is greater competition between males as several copulate with one female.

APE SEX FACTS

Dominant gorillas are known as "silverbacks" because their coats change colour to highlight their status as alpha male

Adult male orangutans develop facial flanges and issue long calls to attract females

This competition is thought to be the driving factor for sperm production and larger testes are thought to produce more sperm.

However, practical limitations meant sperm production in apes was difficult to accurately measure.

"It is generally difficult to get semen from the animals even if they [are] kept in zoological gardens," said Ms Fujii-Hanamoto.

"Therefore, the testis weight or the ratio of testis weight [to] body weight was used to estimate the ability of sperm production."

Visual observations confirmed that chimpanzees have larger testes compared to their body size than gorillas but it was not clear whether they actually produced more sperm.
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47 babysitters brought in from nearby Villages to sit with orphaned Orangutans

Conservationists hoping to save orphaned orangutans in Borneo have enlisted the help of 47 babysitters to help care for the infant apes.

At the Nyaru Menteng centre women have been recruited from nearby villages in central Borneo to help the 650 orangutans as they move through nursery, Forest School One and Forest School Two. When fully ‘educated’ they are hopefully able to head out for a new life in the jungle.
The little apes are often driven out of the forest by loggers or killed by villagers who see them as pests. Sadly, surviving infants left clinging to their dead mothers are then sometimes sold as pets.

The centre was set up 12 years ago by ­Danish conservationist Lone Dröscher-Nielsen who came up with the new system to give the traumatised young apes the care they need to survive.

Orangutans share 97% of the same DNA as humans and often behave just like children. “They know we protect and take care of them,” 24-year-old sitter Mia Puspita told the Reader’s Digest. “When they want attention, they come to you with a pitiful face, cry for a touch or sit next to you and put their arm on your lap. But our greatest joy is to see baby orangutans smile.”
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The Growing Palm Oil Industry is putting the Orangutans in a crisis

Surrounded by the South China Sea to the north and northwest, the Sulu Sea to the north east, the Celebes Sea and the Makassar Strait to the east, and the Java Sea and Karimata Strait to the south, Borneo is, at 743,330 Km2, the world’s third largest island, and lies to the east of Sumatra. Borneo is divided between three countries; the state of Brunei-Darussalam, the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, and the Indonesian territory of Kalimantan, and has a human population of around 16,000,000 , with the majority of settlements and cities lying near to, or along, the coastline or Borneo’s extensive river system (Smith, 2007).

Like Sumatra, Borneo is extraordinarily rich in biodiversity. The major forest type throughout the island is evergreen lowland diptercarp rainforest, with hill diptercarp, mangrove, fresh water, peat swamp, ironwood, heathland and montane forests all also found (Rautner at al, 2005), and harbouring 3,000 species of trees, 15,000 species of flowering plants, 221 species of terrestrial mammals, including 13 species of primate, and 420 species of birds (Mackinnon et al, 1997). However, also like Sumatra, widespread logging, which began under the period of European colonization and has accelerated in the last 40 years, and the growing palm oil industry and related forest conversion, has seen the islands forest cover decrease by around 50% (Matthews, 2002). It is now estimated that the area under concession for logging and oil palm cultivation in Borneo is larger than that of the remaining forest (Rijsken & Meijaard, 1999).

The most recent estimates put the population of Bornean orangutans at around 54,000 (Wich et al, 2008), and the species, better known and generally better studied than its Sumatran cousin, has benefited from both a strong international NGO presence, and Borneo’s series of national parks, which, despite massive incursions and continued threats, today harbor significant populations of orangutans.

Kalimantan is divided in to four provinces, Central, West, East and South. The two national parks with the largest orangutan populations are found in Central Kalimantan. The most famous, Tanjung Puting, is a 400,000 hectare park renowned for its long term wild orangutan study and rehabilitation program. Despite its high profile and strong NGO presence, the park has been subjected to widespread illegal logging, conversion, for both palm oil production and agriculture, forest fires and illegal gold mining, and studies conducted in 2009 showed that just 66% of the park remains under some kind of forest cover (Infinite Earth, 2009). If current plans by the local government to decrease the size of the park by 25% take place, thousands of orangutans will be lost. Sebangau National Park was created as a national park in 2004 and covers an area of 568,700 hectares. Like Tanjung Puting, the park has been subjected to incursions, and historic draining of the parks’ peat swamps, to aid the extraction of logs from the forest, has left it prone to almost annual fires. Despite this, the two parks have a combined orangutan population of around 12,000 orangutans (Singleton et al, 2004).

Gunung Palung National Park is a 90,000 hectare park in West Kalimantan known for its high biodiversity and mixture of habitat types. Despite being the site of a long term wild orangutan study, having a strong international NGO presence and being one of the provinces most popular tourist destinations, the park has been heavily logged, and its 2500 wild orangutans are under constant threat. Two other national parks in West Kalimantan, Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun , have also suffered from logging, and studies indicate that the former contains an orangutan population of just 500 individuals (Singleton et al, 2004), and the latter has suffered from widespread poaching, with an unknown population (WWF, 2010). Although NGO presence and conservation initiatives in these parks are increasing, efforts are hampered by the fact that large numbers of orangutans occur in legally unprotected forests outside the park borders.

Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan was once one of the most pristine and bio-diverse parks in Indonesia, but in the last few decades, the park has been invaded by logging concessions, industrial complexes, open pit coalmines and settlements, ravaged by forest fires, and it is likely that just 10% of the park remains forested, with an orangutan population of just 500 (Singleton et al, 2004). Media reports in 2009 suggested the population could be even lower, and reported that the park now contains an airport, gas stations and even a prostitution complex (Mongabay, 2009).

As national parks throughout the island continue to struggle against the onslaught of huge palm oil expansion and logging, attention is being increasingly focused on the areas of forest outside of the national park system. In Central Kalimantan, conservationists are working to protect the 76,000 hectare Lamandau Nature Reserve, an expired logging concession comprised mainly of peat swamp, which acts as an rehabilitated orangutan release site, and the Belantikan Hulu region, which is home to an estimated 6,000 orangutans, the largest population outside of a protected area. NGO’s have also been working to protect the 377,000 hectare Mawas Reserve, home to 3,500 orangutans, in Central Kalimantan, and an ambitious plan by WWF to conserve 22 million hectares of land, an area that encompasses protected areas, reserves, sustainably managed buffer zones and wildlife corridors, called the ‘Heart of Borneo’, would, if successful, protect thousands of orangutans in the centre of the island. The publicity surrounding this scheme seems to have thwarted a plan by the Indonesian and Malaysian governments to establish the world’s largest palm oil plantation in this area, but the threat remains ever present.

Like Kalimantan, the orangutans in the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah have long faced rapidly decreasing forests, and the spread of palm oil plantations has forced remaining orangutans in to small, isolated populations in heavily degraded forests. Sabah contains a population of just 11,000 orangutans, and around 60% of this number are living outside of protected areas, in secondary forests often exploited by indigenous communities and forest industries (Ancrenaz at al, 2007). In depth studies in the Kinabatangan flood plain, which harbors 1,100 orangutans, has shown that they can survive in high numbers in degraded secondary forest (Ancrenaz et al, 2007), and the formation of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in this area is a promising step for the survival of orangutans in Sabah.

The Batang Ai National Park, a 24,281 hectare tropical rainforest, and the nearby Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary are two of the last strongholds of the orangutan in Sarawak, with a combined population of around 1,500 (Singleton et al, 2004). Although these parks are generally well protected, hunting and illegal logging remains a problem in this area (McConkey et al, 2005), and the threat of these forests being converted in future to facilitate palm oil expansion remains strong.

The threats facing the forests of Kalimantan, Sabah and Sarawak, and the animals and people who depend on them, have never been greater. However, with continued environmental awareness, growing prosperity in both Malaysia and Indonesia and international pressure, it is hoped the future of these great forests can be ensured.
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The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation can use your help

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation focuses on three key areas in their work with Orangutans and by choosing Aware you are helping them to continue this great work. Read on to find out more.

Orangutan Orphanage

Nyaru Mentang is the largest Orangutan orphanage in the world. It currently looks after over 600 Orangutans of various ages who have been orphaned, left permanently scarred or injured as a result of some traumatic experience. The main goal of this centre is to rehabilitate these orangutans and hopefully reintroduce them back into a protected wild environment - the first planned release in over eight years to occur in 2011. This release is an exciting development for both BOS and the Orangutans themselves with a huge amount of planning, resources and financial support being invested to ensure its success
Orangutan Adoptions

As you can imagine, feeding and caring for orphan Orangutans is a costly project -but it is all part of the rehabilitation process and is essential if these animals are going to have a chance to make it back into the wild. However, we can all help this by adopting an Orangutan while it is living in the orangutan orphanage. It is through the adoption program, Orangutans are given a chance to go to school and learn through human carers what it means to be an Orangutan. Learning to climb trees, finding what food is ok to eat and building a nest for sleeping each day - this is what all Orangutans learn to do at Nyaru Mentang.

Land Protection and Rehabilitation

A big part of what BOS does is actually rehabilitating degradated land and trying to protect what is already there. Samboja Lestari is located in East Kalimantan and was once a barren wasteland - it was however brought back to life and now is a lush, reforested sanctuary - offering life for not only Orangutans but for the local community as well. Several activities are supported by the work done at Samboja Lestari including organic farming, community development programs like planting seedlings, research and providing clean water. Samboja Lestari also houses around 250 Orangutans which have been confiscated or left orphaned as a result of palm oil plantations, forest fires or the pet trade. It is hopeful that these Orangutans will also make it into the wild as part of the overall release strategy.

You are doing your part by supporting the Planet Palm Oil Free campaign. Please continue to support this great cause.

To find out how else you can join other Australians helping to secure a brighter future for the orangutans click here

Be Aware, Buy Aware And Save The Orangutans
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Baby Orangutan, Dewi ventures out at Melbourne Zoo

MELBOURNE Zoo's baby Sumatran orangutan Dewi has made a sleepy first public appearance with mum Miamunah.

One-month-old Dewi clung to her protective mother as they ventured outside for the first time today and spent most of the time dozing as Miamunah wandered languidly around their outdoor enclosure.

Having spent her first month indoors with Miamunah as keepers kept an eye on the pair since birth, Dewi, which means goddess in Indonesian, is already showing signs of intelligence.
"She has been very aware of her surroundings and very bright and alert, we think she's going to be a very intelligent girl," senior keeper Fleur Butcher said.

After her first venture outdoors, she will soon join her father Santan and seven-year-old brother Menyaru as a family.

Dewi is the second baby orangutan to be born at Melbourne Zoo and will be on display for the public sporadically as she grows over the coming months.

..Sumatran orangutans are increasingly endangered in the wild, with their natural habitat shrinking as palm-oil plantations rapidly expand.

video Here
Story credit Here

Baim, the baby Orangutan is the second to be rescued in a month

This is really sad what is happening to these wonderful indivuals. Man strikes again. Just look at his sweet little face, imagine what he saw if his mother was killed. What a horrible way to come into the world.

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Baim has precious little in common with his Indonesian celebrity namesake. He is tiny—less than two feet stretched end to end—and weighs scarcely more than the cardboard box that he clutches at with desperation. His face has traces of dried baby formula and his wrinkled frame is surrounded by a nimbus of soft rust red hair. His eyes hold the gaze of the humans peering down at him while he keens, terrified to find himself separated from his mother.
“Orangutan mothers never willingly give up their babies, so in most cases we must assume the worst—that the mother was killed by poachers in order to get the infant,” says Jimmy, WWF-Indonesia’s communications coordinator in West Kalimantan. “While I’m happy that this orangutan was rescued, it is a real tragedy to lose even a single member of this subspecies from the wild because their numbers are already dangerously low.”

Baim belongs to the most threatened subspecies of Bornean orangutans. Experts estimate less than 4,500 Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus are left in the fast disappearing forests of West Kalimantan (Indonesia) and Sarawak (Malaysia). Disappearing forest homes and a rabid demand for baby orangutans to supply the illegal wildlife pet trade are taking their toll.
The baby Bornean orangutan is the second to be rescued by villagers in the remote hamlet of Lanjak in just a month. Forest ranger Andy Tarsita has already named the orangutan Baim when he shares the news at WWF’s project office in Lanjak.
“I think Baim is lucky because if we hadn’t found him then he would have been sold as a pet or abandoned, but at least now he has a chance of being released back into the wild,” says Tarsita. “Of course, the luckiest future for this little fellow would’ve been to live in peace with his mother in the forests.”
If Baim is truly lucky his journey will end where it began, back in the forests at the Heart of Borneo. But the way back home begins with the decision of district officials at Lanjak to entrust Baim’s care to WWF until he can be handed over to the correct authorities in faraway Pontianak.

Ahead lay a five-hour drive over rough roads and a noisy airplane ride into the provincial capital of West Kalimantan. There, among much fanfare, he will be given to the care of BKSDA (Natural Resources Conservation Office), and put in an already overcrowded orangutan rehabilitation center where he will live for a few months, a few years, or the rest of his life if he is not released back into the wild.
The lush, fertile alluvial plains and lowland valleys of Borneo are home not only to Bornean orangutans and other wildlife but to humans as well. The past few decades have seen an influx of migrants coupled with aggressive and ambitious economic development plans. A map of the last forests on the world’s third largest island are overlaid with a grid of interlocking concessions that the government has already parceled out to be cleared and replaced with vast plantations for oil palm and acacia.
Between 1980 and 2000, it is estimated that more timber was harvested from Borneo than was exported from the Amazon and Congo basins combined. As more of Borneo falls to the axe, orangutans are getting squeezed into ever shrinking forests.
Jimmy had come to Lanjak to meet community leaders from the Dayak tribes to assess forest restoration programs and the community-led monitoring of wild orangutans. Several villages in the forest corridor connecting Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun national parks are involved.

“The sad truth is that Baim is not the first or the last orangutan rescued as new roads open up the forests to illegal logging and poachers whose only concern is turning a profit,” says Jimmy. “We need to step up our anti-poaching work and redouble outreach to local people to show them that conservation pays through alternative income schemes and eco-tourism.”

In 2007, the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei signed an historic agreement to save the Heart of Borneo. WWF is working with these nations to conserve 220,000 km2 of rainforest, almost a third of the island, through a network of protected areas and sustainably-managed forests.

At the UN climate change conference in Bali that same year, Indonesian President Yudhoyono outlined a national strategy to protect orangutans, stating that by 2015 all orangutans still in rehabilitation centers would be returned to the wild.

“The good news is that it is possible to reintroduce rescued orangutans into the wild and we’ve seen it happen with success in some areas,” says Dr. Barney Long, WWF’s Asian species expert. “Unfortunately, in the bigger picture, rescue and rehabilitation doesn’t address the double threat facing wild orangutans—severely reduced habitat and the persistent demand for the illegal pet trade.”
Logging, land-clearing and conversion to oil palm plantations are the biggest threats for the remaining rainforests in Borneo and the species that inhabit them. The Heart of Borneo is a refuge to orangutans, elephants and rhinos, and lesser-known species such as the sunda clouded leopard, sun bear, banteng (wild ox) and endemic Muller Bornean gibbon, as well as indigenous Dayak people.

“Good intentions require committed action if they are to make a difference,” says Long. “If orangutans go the way of the Javan and Bali tiger, then Asia will lose its great apes, and humans will have put a full stop to the existence of one our closest relatives.”
For now, Baim resides at Ketapang Orangutan Centre of International Animal Rescue-Indonesia. He will grow to adulthood here and like the others, wait for a future that leads back home into the lush Heart of Borneo.

Story Credit Here and great information

Visit the Orangutan Outreach and see how you can help

See how you can help here
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Mankind may be one of the orangutans' closest relatives but he is also the greatest threat to their survival. Clear cutting, forest fires and hunting are reducing orangutan numbers to alarmingly low levels. Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely.

Orangutans used to live in many different parts of South East Asia, but the places where they can thrive and find food are vanishing. Even in Borneo and Sumatra, their last remaining homes, large parts of the old growth rainforest are gone, ripped up for farmland, palm oil plantations and urban development. And the precious little forest that is left is disappearing quickly as palm oil companies illegally clearcut enormous areas of forest.

It’s common practice to burn the land before building a palm oil plantation, and many of these planned fires have spread uncontrollably with devastating effects. Orangutans too often die because they can’t escape the flames. Trapped up in the forest canopy, they simply have nowhere to go.

In 1997 and 1998 the islands were hit by devastating forest fires. An area larger than Virginia was ravaged and this-- in combination with the drought that followed in the succeeding years-- is estimated by scientists to have killed about one third of all orangutans.

Many orangutans were killed directly by the fires, but many others were killed by humans. Many of those that escaped the fires ended up on plantations and in villages-- looking for food and protection from the fires. Starving, tired, wounded or sick, many became easy prey for poachers who saw an opportunity to make easy money selling the meat from the adults and putting the babies up for sale on the black market.

Hunting orangutans for the black market is a shameful and common practice-- but one that is still all too prevalent. Babies are sold for pets and adults are killed for their meat. The fact that it is illegal to sell, capture or kill orangutans does not deter unscrupulous black marketers and poachers, who know they can make easy money. The standard of living in Indonesia is such that an extra twenty dollars can feed a family for weeks. So the temptation to hunt, kill or sell an orangutan is simply too strong to resist.

There are many underlying causes for the loss of habitat. It is a combination of economic pressure, greed and ignorance, and natural disasters-- many coming as a result of previous deforestation. The population of Indonesia is growing at an astounding rate, and with more mouths to feed, forests are being replaced by farms. People and orangutans share the same space and in any conflict, the orangutan always loses.

What is even worse is that by the continued opening up of the forests with roads for commercial exploitation and insufficient protection of the opened up forest, further encroachment and slash and burn agriculture takes place, causing the formation of “forest islands” that become too small to support an orangutan population.

The opening up of the forests has made orangutans much more vulnerable to fires, with much highly flammable dead fuel wood laying around. Opening toads also leads to micro-climate changes, impacting fruiting in the forests. Orangutans have more difficulty finding fruit trees, and when food supplies dwindle so does their reproduction. As a result their numbers slowly decline, and population by population, they become too low for the orangutans to survive in the long term. Orangutans need large contiguous areas of suitable habitat to survive as the largest arboreal animal in the world. Roads restrict their movement, forcing them to come down to the ground where they are vulnerable to predators-- especially humans.
Story Credit Here and a great organization for the Orangutans. Please visit
or visit them on their facebook here

Vote to end the Bushmeat Trade for Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans and Monkeys

I received a comment in regards to the Bushmeat Industry and thought that it is important and should also be posted. This is one of the ways we can help. Just as Americans have had to be educated on the many plights of our Great Apes and Monkeys, people that participate in the Bushmeat trade also need to be educated. We have to remember that this has been their practices for many years, so they need to know and understand why and what the Bushmeat Trade is doing.

Comment-
Vote to help end the Bush meat trade! http://disney.go.com/projectgreen/explorevote.html Ecolife foundation is in a grant competition which if we will  give us $100,000 USD to help bring sustainable protein through aquaponics directly to bush meat hunters and their communities. Meeting their needs to reduce pressure on wildlife. ECOLIFE Foundation will build a Village Aquaponics System at the Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon. The Limbe Center is an oasis for orphans of the bush meat trade and also work to reduce poaching by holding classes to educated and provide other opportunities to bush meat hunters. This is a great opportunity to open new doors for micro-economic development and an alternative source of animal protein. $100,000 can ensure that at least three villages impacting endangered wildlife resources also have systems, training and the team to operate them. The competition ends on January 10th. for more info http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184472448231652& See  http://www.ecolifefoundation.org/

EVERY DAY GORILLAS AND OTHER PRIMATES ARE ORPHANED BY THE BUSHMEAT TRADE


Help us stop this tragic and unnecessary practice by helping us win $100,000.

ECOLIFE has been nominated to be a part of Disney's "Friends for Change." Please visit their site and vote for ECOLIFE's project, "Aquaponics Economics: Going Ape in Cameroon." You can help ECOLIFE win $100,000 to apply towards practical solutions such as an aquaponics systems for raising fish and vegetables.

Please go Here  and click on Explore & Vote to register and support our program
Eco life Foundation Website Here

Orangutan Conservancy

“The worst thing that can happen-will happen-is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The process ongoing in the 1980′s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendands are least likely to forgive us.” – Edward O. Wilson

Today it is estimated that in the world’s rainforests alone, 27,000 species are extinguished every year-74 species a day. Orangutans are found only in the rainforests of Borneo & Sumatra. The population of wild orangutans has declined by more than half in the last 20 years, and approximately 80% of its natural habitat has been lost in the last half century. The Orangutan Conservancy is dedicated to the conservation of orangutans and their habitat through preserving the remaining orangutan populations and by promoting the changes that are needed to preserve their natural habitat. By protecting orangutans in their natural environment, most other native species, including plants and insects will also survive.

The Orangutan Conservancy is an independent US nonprofit (501c3) organization. We are operated entirely by dedicated volunteers, and we strive to keep administrative costs to a bare minimum to ensure that your donations reach the projects in the field where they belong. Our formation was inspired by the Balikpapan Orangutan Society in Balikpapan, Indonesia, which was established in 1991 by Dr. Willie Smits in the town of Balikpapan to support the Wanariset Orangutan Reintroduction Program. We continue a close and supportive relationship with the BOS in Indonesia, now known as BOS Foundation. Become a member today and join us in our mission to protect orangutans and their rainforest home.
Story Credit Here

Dodo, the Orangutan is doing better at the Samboja Lestari Forest School

Little Dodo is not so little anymore… but he's still as naughty as before-- and still somewhat slower than most of the other orangutans his age.

Just before Christmas I joined Togu Manurung, the CEO of BOS Indonesia, and we visited the new Forest School. Dodo was far away from the other 17 orangutans playing in the trees of Samboja Lestari, but when he saw me he instantly recognized me and came straight into my arms, holding me tightly and looking deep into my eyes. After only a minute we were both up to date on things again! Yep, things are still the same, you are still the boss, and Dodo is still the belligerent little bully moving in rather haphazardly way through the trees. And then he felt it necessary to check out Togu close up! Here we see a little series of pictures of not how Togu is figuring out Dodo, but rather the other way around!

It started all rather innocent, Dodo using his innocent looking eyes to approach Togu and eventually being content to be held by the CEO of BOS. I was very happy to see how open Togu was to the experience. Even a little bite test did not make him feel uneasy!

So Dodo had established the fact these people seemed all to be part of the club and would follow the "general rules". With that fact established he now had to find out how far he could go in trying to establish dominance over the boss from Bogor.

Using a liana Dodo swung out repeatedly towards Togu, to see how he would react, pretending to grab him with some teeth bared. He obviously enjoyed his little game a lot and some other orangutans like Marlene joined in the harassment. Later Marlene would be held by Togu and when Togu wanted to let her go he did not understand that she wanted him to carry her out of the forest to the forest school cages, because she had had enough exercise for that day. So Marlene made sure Togu would know for the next time-- and grabbed his legs with her very strong arms. I decided to take her and brought her back as she wanted.

Dodo is still very much a hyperactive orangutan and he clearly has some problems with his attention span as well. He makes all kinds of aerial capers that are not always without real danger. Too often he just lets himself fall from the branches and lands with a big thud on the forest floor. His back had a lot of scratches indicating that this was a very frequent habit of his. What boundless energy this little fellow from East Kalimantan has! And how reckless he dares to move through the trees-- often only hanging from and swinging with one arm instead of the safe form of arm-to-arm orangutan movement known as brachiating.
Dodo, who weighted only 3.5 kilograms when I first held him, now weighs around 11 kilograms and has little cheekpads, which is indicative of a very high degree of machismo and activity. His underlip tends to hang somewhat open, something we often see with Down Syndrome orangutans.

Physically, Dodo is doing well. His weight development has progressed normally, his hair is rather short and sparse, but this is because of the high activity level that results in the breaking of many hairs when he rolls around his sleeping cage or on the forest floor.

Dodo's biggest problem is his immaturity and risky behavior. With only smaller fellow orangutans around, he is not warned, as his mother would have done in the wild when he is behaving wrongly. Dodo still has a way to go-- but I am happy to report that he is improving significantly.

Story Credit and wonderful photos here

Baby Orangutan being born

Video Here

Activists Dress as Orangutans and Protest against Nestle

Watch Video Here