News - The Problems Orangutans face

4 July 2009
ENDANGERED orang-utans being raised in Australian zoos for return to Indonesia are about to have their rainforests razed to supply the global market for toilet and photocopy paper.

1 July 2009
In an effort to help save some of the world's disappearing tropical forests the United States is offering Indonesia some much needed debt relief.

30 June 2009
MALAYSIAN wildlife authorities have rescued three baby orangutans believed to have been smuggled into the country, in raids on a zoo and an ostrich breeder, a report said on Tuesday.

26 June 2009
As Borneo's rain forests are razed for oil palm plantations, wildlife centers are taking in more and more orphaned orangutans and preparing them for reintroduction into the wild. But the endangered primates now face a new threat — there is not enough habitat where they can be returned.

26 June 2009
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the World Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007: "The key understanding is to save the orang utan. For that, we must save the forest and by that, we are doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

23 June 2009
A famous British company, Jardines, is profiting as the lowland forest – which shelters the few remaining orang-utans – is razed to make way for massive palm oil plantations, reports Kathy Marks in Tripa, Indonesia

20 June 2009
Within a vast deforested area on Borneo island, Australia and Indonesia hope to turn an ecological disaster into a global lesson on how to help local communities save tropical forests and fight climate change.

16 June 2009
The nation's most recalcitrant fast food chain has capitulated. Yum! Restaurants, makers of KFC, will ditch its artery- clogging palm oil for a healthier alternative, two years after the company stared down the Federal Government and refused to change its ways.

6 June 2009
Selling credits for the billions of tons of carbon that are locked in Indonesia's tropical rain forests could be as profitable as converting these areas into palm oil plantations, a study released Friday found.

29 May 2009
Carbon credits derived from a fledgling forest conservation scheme for developing nations will struggle to compete with palm oil as an investment, industry advisers and conservationists said on Friday.

28 May 2009
Indonesia aims to more than double its crude palm oil output to 40 million tonnes by 2020 through increased yields and more plantations, officials said Wednesday.

19 May 2009
AN INDONESIAN paper company is planning to log an area of unprotected jungle which is being used as a reintroduction site for about 100 critically endangered orangutans, activists said on Monday.

15 May 2009
The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) has recorded a significant decrease in the population of the morio (Pongo Pygmaeus Morio) orangutan in Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan.

11 May 2009
The operators of Britain's first "biofuel" power plants are considering burning palm oil, which is blamed for causing rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.

2 May 2009
It's an invisible ingredient, really, palm oil. You won't find it listed on your margarine, your bread, your biscuits or your KitKat. It's there though, under "vegetable oil". And its impact, 7,000 miles away, is very visible indeed.

1 May 2009
A cooking oil that is driving the destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in dozens of Britain's leading grocery brands, an investigation by The Independent has found.

29 April 2009
Growing economic pain may increasingly force consumers to turn to palm oil, one of the cheapest cooking oils, a move that could scupper nascent plans to slow deforestation in Southeast Asia.

16 April 2009
Over the last 40 years, global oil palm cultivation has increased exponentially, with 43 percent of the total cultivated oil palm crop currently produced in Indonesia. This inception of palm oil as a valuable commodity, particularly as biofuel, has dramatically accelerated deforestation in Borneo, with only a third of the original forest cover expected to remain by 2020.

16 April 2009
The trade in Sumatran orangutans for pets shows little sign of decline and is taking the species to the brink of extinction, a report concludes.

12 April 2009
A protected Sumatran forest which is home to a Perth-raised orang-utan released into the wild in a worldwide first two years ago could be logged, according to Australian Orang-utan Project president Leif Cocks.

8 April 2009
New US and European Union efforts to clamp down on the illegal timber trade are expected to take a multi-billion dollar annual toll on Indonesian exports because the south-east Asian nation has failed to enact standards for wood-based products in spite of years of debate.

15 March 2009
This is not a documentary for the faint-hearted but it is a documentary that should be viewed by as many people as possible. Winner of Best Documentary Short in the recent Durango Independent Film Festival, and directed by Moez Moez, ôGreenö documents the last hours of a female orangutan's life.

9 March 2009
Indonesia has applied to join a World Bank programme that supports developing nations' efforts to fight deforestation and help them earn cash through the sale of tradeable carbon credits. The Bank's $350 million Forest Carbon Partnership Facility aims to support developing states design and create projects under a U.N.-backed scheme that could eventually earn poorer nations billions of dollars a year by protecting their forests.

6 March 2009
Indonesia's Government has approved a big increase in logging of its tropical forests, a decision that could lead to a major jump in carbon emissions and, most likely, cause further deadly attacks on villagers by tigers and elephants.

16 February 2009
Environmental activists have mounted a challenge against the government's plan to allow palm oil companies to set up plantations in the country's remaining peatlands.

13 February 2009
The Agriculture Ministry will issue a decree to allow businesses to dig up the country's millions of hectares of peatland for oil palm plantations.

2 February 2009
The word came last spring at a climate change conference here. Unilever, the world's largest buyer of palm oil, would publicly call for a moratorium on deforestation by Indonesian growers of the coveted oil used in food, soaps, detergents, cosmetics and biofuel.

2 February 2009
The Forestry Ministry has said it has received a mounting number of requests from local administrations for permits to convert IndonesiaÆs dwindling forests into plantations, mostly due to uncertainty surrounding the spatial planning law.

28 January 2009
AUSTRALIA is contributing directly to the widespread destruction of tropical rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia by importing millions of tonnes of taxpayer-subsidised biodiesel made from palm oil.

3 December 2008
A major international study says palm oil plantations reduce plant and animal diversity, and do little to reduce carbon emissions.

28 November 2008
Greenpeace has branded the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) "a farce" following their failure to take action against members they say are destroying Indonesia's peat lands and forests.

22 November 2008
California and two other U.S. states signed a pact late on Tuesday with Indonesia's Aceh province that could see forest carbon credits from Aceh accepted into U.S. emissions trading schemes.

22 November 2008
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono on Tuesday defended Indonesia’s drive to expand oil palm plantations, despite a demand by environmentalists for a moratorium on deforestation.

10 November 2008
The first shipment of palm oil certified under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is expected to arrive in Europe Tuesday, but an environmental group is already criticizing the initiative's credentials.

5 November 2008
The view that the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is merely a way of making companies appear politically correct without making difference to de-forestation could be about to change if agreement on an important new resolution is reached.

30 October 2008
Massive forest conversions, rising demand for timber and infrastructure projects are the main causes for Indonesia's world-leading rate of deforestation, a new study has found. The study by the Indonesian Forest Watch (FWI) categorically blamed deforestation on forest conversions into palm oil plantations conducted by big companies.