tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3121046476173673362024-02-07T20:14:06.904-08:00Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Palm Oil CrisisThree years ago, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo became a leader in taking action against the Palm Oil Crisis, which is threatening the very survival of orangutans. Over the last several years, orangutan populations have decreased at alarming rates because of deforestation for the purpose of creating palm oil plantations. Palm oil is used in many everyday items, from cookies to cosmetics, and as a source of biofuel. In the last three years we have been raising awareness and funds.Zoo Marketinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11027057330148617009noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-45621194181132036712014-04-22T13:16:00.001-07:002014-04-22T13:16:33.816-07:00Why Palm Oil Isn’t the Enemy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">by: </span><a href="http://blog.conservation.org/author/john-buchanan/" style="color: #007600;">John Buchanan</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you watched last night’s premiere of “<a href="http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Years of Living Dangerously</span></a>,” the new Showtime
series about the impacts of climate change, you likely found yourself thinking
palm oil’s pretty bad stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiXGXFyG70bEKdfAHV34S1IC70kZKvegTn_W2KOPf0KjBQUFO3BMwnLTavy9pQBUVT-KtYY26yobiltbWr3-buHrgZNoPAMusVVugRnWkSxtyLpHyKcEc2U81FjqpCib8l20guBFXoC0z/s1600/ci_63326268_small_%C2%A9-Benjamin-Drummond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiXGXFyG70bEKdfAHV34S1IC70kZKvegTn_W2KOPf0KjBQUFO3BMwnLTavy9pQBUVT-KtYY26yobiltbWr3-buHrgZNoPAMusVVugRnWkSxtyLpHyKcEc2U81FjqpCib8l20guBFXoC0z/s1600/ci_63326268_small_%C2%A9-Benjamin-Drummond.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Oil palm fruit in Malaysia. Palm oil may be found in half the products on an average supermarket shelf. (© Benjamin Drummond)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As CI vice chair
Harrison Ford flew over scorched patches of former forest being planted with
palm oil and visited orphaned orangutans in Indonesia, it’s hard not to have a
visceral reaction to this devastation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">So you may be surprised to hear an environmentalist say that</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>palm oil
itself isn’t the enemy — it’s where and how it’s grown that we ne</b></span></span></div>
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>ed to change</b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">As far as edible oils go, palm oil is actually quite good. For
starters, the oil palm tree, which is the source of palm oil, is highly
productive.</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>Oil palm yields 4–10 times more oil per hectare than
other oilseed crops</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">, including soybean
and canola.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Put another way, this
means more oil produced on less land. In fact, palm oil represents about 38% of
the world’s supply of edible oil, but it’s grown on only 5% of the land
dedicated to oilseed crops globally. With international demand for edible oils
growing steadily, more oil from less land is a good thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Odds are you consume palm oil every day — you just don’t know
it. In Asia, where the vast majority of palm oil is produced and consumed, it
is a common cooking oil. Here in the U.S., it’s estimated that palm oil or
ingredients derived from it are</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>used in half of the products on the average supermarket
shelf</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">.</span></span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: inherit;">So yes, it’s in your
cookies, your baked goods, your margarines, your lipsticks and skin lotions,
your shampoo and toothpaste and a wide range of other packaged foods and
personal care products. In part, that’s because palm oil is a highly versatile
product that lends itself well to food products and processing, and is
naturally free of trans fats. That’s good.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">It’s also valuable. Palm oil generates tens of billions of
dollars in revenue for producing countries, and is estimated to</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>employ more
than 6 million people globally</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">. That’s good, too.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoKqIjUJCe-javjIGuLt4j5eFt5jZX_TqjqkFfIqNSew73iZmp1lYIt4FNsOv3K3wCgvx9iRYgwndlic2ZhzZawkQwhEVWeZerzmEW9jNoMLDxuflCkcMR6ojcP6Z7CxZhDkLZUX2aegZN/s1600/ci_40856514_Small_Azman-harvests-oil-palm-fruit-near-Pasoh-Forest-Reserve_%C2%A9-Benjamin-Drummond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoKqIjUJCe-javjIGuLt4j5eFt5jZX_TqjqkFfIqNSew73iZmp1lYIt4FNsOv3K3wCgvx9iRYgwndlic2ZhzZawkQwhEVWeZerzmEW9jNoMLDxuflCkcMR6ojcP6Z7CxZhDkLZUX2aegZN/s1600/ci_40856514_Small_Azman-harvests-oil-palm-fruit-near-Pasoh-Forest-Reserve_%C2%A9-Benjamin-Drummond.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Man harvests oil palm fruit near Malaysia’s Pasoh Forest Reserve. (© Benjamin Drummond)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, is it all good
news? Definitely not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Deforestation, draining and planting palm on peat lands, land
disputes with rural communities — all of these have been major consequences of
the global palm oil boom. Many problems stem from the fact that</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>too much oil
palm has been planted at the expense of tropical forest</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These forests are a
critical source of food, medicines and other materials; they are vital to
regulating weather patterns and buffering local communities from storms and
floods, and are home to many of the world’s most unique and threatened species
(including orangutans). Forests also play a critical role in maintaining
healthy watersheds and river systems that are essential for communities and
downstream agriculture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">And loss of forests doesn’t just impact local communities.</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>Deforestation
is one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions</b> </span><span style="color: #555555;">that are driving climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So now what? Do you
have to walk away from your cookies and doughnuts? Do I think Indonesia, the
world’s largest producer of palm oil, should stop planting oil palm? No.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #555555;">Palm oil and
deforestation do not have to go hand in hand.</span></b><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">In fact, there are massive efforts underway to
break this cycle and put the palm oil sector on a path to sustainability.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">For example, I sit on the board of governors of the</span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="http://www.rspo.org/"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Roundtable on Sustainable Palm
Oil</span></a></span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">(RSPO). This is
a network of hundreds of organizations with interests in the global palm oil
supply chain, from oil palm growers to consumer goods manufacturers to NGOs
including CI.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">The RSPO has developed a</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>set of sustainability standards for
the industry</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">, and in just six
years, the group has certified 16% of global production. In addition, several
major producers are voluntarily exceeding these standards, and the Indonesian
government has developed a national standard with the Indonesian Sustainable
Palm Oil (ISPO) initiative.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Here’s more good news:</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>Indonesia and other palm
oil-producing countries can produce more without cutting down additional
forests</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">. The</span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="http://www.wri.org/blog/2-new-tools-can-cut-deforestation-and-support-sustainable-palm-oil-indonesia"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">World Resources Institute</span></a></span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">estimated there may be 14 million hectares
(more than 34.6 million acres — an area about twice the size of Ireland) of
previously cleared or “degraded” land in Indonesian Borneo alone that could
potentially be suitable for palm oil. Compared to the roughly 9 million
hectares (22.2 million acres) currently covered by oil palm in Indonesia,
that’s room for a lot of growth without clearing more forest.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB58urC7ErKeu-TpOGQzfifD-aRErFzrzzCMGuGzX3EeSS3miN9DMonnc0dVGQ9l5ijvfIncw9CjD3QLssWn_mSRSgTJpCC9vQK6wuKSdVtu9p7q2hvlwWT2iqajas8ILjDCgeT3RsiYfd/s1600/ci_27798735_mature-palm-oil-plantation-borneo_%C2%A9-David-Gilbert_RAN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB58urC7ErKeu-TpOGQzfifD-aRErFzrzzCMGuGzX3EeSS3miN9DMonnc0dVGQ9l5ijvfIncw9CjD3QLssWn_mSRSgTJpCC9vQK6wuKSdVtu9p7q2hvlwWT2iqajas8ILjDCgeT3RsiYfd/s1600/ci_27798735_mature-palm-oil-plantation-borneo_%C2%A9-David-Gilbert_RAN.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Mature palm oil plantation in Borneo. (© David Gilbert/RAN)</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">There are also opportunities to</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>significantly
increase productivity on existing palm plantations</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">. Indonesia’s smallholder producers represent
approximately 40% of palm oil cultivation, but their yields per hectare are
half the Indonesia national average.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">Efforts like CI’s</span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="http://www.conservation.org/about/centers_programs/slp/pages/sustainable_landscapes_partnership.aspx"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sustainable Landscapes
Partnership</span></a></span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">in North Sumatra are
working to help growers increase productivity on existing lands while
simultaneously working with local government and communities to protect
critical forests in the production landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #555555;">Is the palm oil
industry sustainable? </span></b><span style="color: #555555;">Not
yet, but it’s heading in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.2in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indonesia has a
critical opportunity to build a better industry while protecting its remaining
forests. The government has some good initiatives and policies in place, but
they need better and stronger enforcement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #555555;">As a consumer, you too
have a voice</span></b><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">— and you should use
it. If your favorite product contains palm oil, contact the manufacturer and
ask them to use certified sustainable palm oil from suppliers that have made a
clear commitment to halt deforestation. If the manufacturer already uses
sustainable palm oil, ask them to indicate this on product packaging to help
consumers make the best choice to protect the environment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">The</span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="http://www.betterpalmoil.org/whatcanyoudo"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">RSPO Shopping Guide</span></a></span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">lists products that carry the RSPO logo. You
can also check</span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><a href="http://www.rspo.org/en/rspo_members"><span style="color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here</span></a></span><span style="color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;">to find out if a company is a member of the RSPO and see what
actions they are taking to improve the sustainability of their supply chains.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #555555;">There are good things happening in the palm oil sector, and</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <b>consumers
should support those leading the charge</b></span><span style="color: #555555;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #555555; padding: 0in;">John Buchanan is senior director of sustainable food and
agriculture markets in CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. He
is also on the board of governors of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Learn more about CI’s efforts to make the palm oil industry more sustainable in
this</span></i><i><span style="color: #555555;"> </span></i><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #555555; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.conservation.org/global/celb/Documents/02.2014_Sustainable_Palm_Oil_Factsheet.pdf"><span style="border: none; color: #007600; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="border: none;">fact sheet (PDF–556 KB)</span></span></a>. </span></i><span style="color: #555555;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Original story posted at: http://blog.conservation.org/2014/04/why-palm-oil-isnt-the-enemy/</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-10026315514792552752014-01-13T10:25:00.002-08:002014-01-13T10:25:51.406-08:00Palm Oil Company fined Millions as Indonesian Court delivers historic ruling against illegal destruction of Tripa Peat Swamp Forests.<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Indonesian courts have found palm oil company </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #444444; line-height: 18px; padding: 0in;">PT Kallista Alam guilty of illegally burning forests within peat swamps. The ruling is a</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> huge milestone for those working to protect native wildlife within the peat swaps, and </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s palm oil team is excited for this legal precedent to be set</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">. Read the full story below. </span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">January 9<span style="border: 0px; bottom: 3px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span>, 2014</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[Banda Aceh / Indonesia] Setting a landmark new precedent, Indonesian courts yesterday found palm oil company PT Kallista Alam guilty of illegally burning forests within the Tripa Peat Swamps, part of the protected Leuser Ecosystem, resulting in a fine of 114 billion Rupiah, approximately 9 million US dollars. </span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“This is a clear message to companies working in Aceh who think they can destroy protected forests and get away with it” said Muhammad Nur, Chairman of WALHI Aceh (Friends of the Earth Indonesia).</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Senior Judge, Rahmawati SH, PT Kallista Alam was found in breach of National Law No 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management, for illegal use of fire to clear forests, and ordered to pay Rupiah 114.3 billion (approx. USD 9.5 million) as compensation and Rupiah 251.7 billion (almost 21 USD million) for restoration of the affected forests.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kamaruddin, a lawyer working with communities in the Tripa region reiterated, “This decision should serve as a wake up call to any company thinking of investing within the Leuser Ecosystem, a National Strategic Area, that they could suffer the same fate as PT Kallista Alam. It should also be a reminder to others who deliberately burn forests or allow forest burning within their concessions, regardless of whether or not they are working inside the Ecosystem’s boundaries, that they could also be prosecuted. The Judge’s decision in this case clearly illustrates a move towards improved law enforcement against environmental offenders in the region.” He added.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The company, PT Kallista Alam, first came to international attention in August 2011, when former Governor of Aceh Province, Irwandi Yusuf, issued a new 1,605 ha oil palm concession permit within the legally protected Leuser Ecosystem, an area renowned for hosting the highest densities of orangutans found anywhere on earth, sparking an international outcry.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Subsequently, over 1.5 million people signed online petitions calling for greater protection of Aceh’s Forests, currently under enormous threat due to a controversial new spatial planning law issued by Aceh’s Parliament on December 27th. These petitions are further supported by some of the world’s leading scientists and conservation experts, who have written to Aceh’s present Governor, Zaini Abdullah, urging him to nominate the Leuser Ecosystem as a World Heritage Site, due to its unique and irreplaceable biodiversity. The Leuser Ecosystem is the only place on earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans can be found living together in the wild and was listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as one of the ‘World’s Most Irreplaceable Protected Areas’ in an article in the journal <i style="border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Science</i>, in November 2013.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr Ian Singleton, Director of the Sumatran Orangutran Conservation Programme, highlighted the critical importance of the area. “Tripa is one of only 3 remaining peat swamp forests left containing orangutans in Sumatra and its impossible to overstate the importance of protecting every last hectare of each of them. Orangutan densities can reach as high as 8 per square kilometer in these areas, compared to an average of around only 1 or 2 per square kilometer in dryland forests. These peat swamps have justifiably been referred to as the ‘orangutan capital of the world’. The Leuser Ecosystem too, offers the only real hope of survival for Sumatra’s other key iconic megafauna, the Sumatran tiger, rhino and elephant, as well as its orangutans. Yesterday’s ruling is of course extremely welcome, but the level of interest in Tripa and the Leuser Ecosystem worldwide shows clearly just how seriously concerned the international community is right now about the fate of these forests and their globally important biodiversity”, he emphasised.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The Leuser Ecosystem provides countless locally and globally important environmental services too”, explained Graham Usher, Landscape Protection Specialist with the Swiss based PanEco Foundation. “For Aceh alone these have been valued in excess of 400 million dollars per year, and the region’s contribution to mitigating climate change, through its carbon sequestration function probably stretches into billions of dollars. It is very encouraging that companies and decision makers destroying these services in Indonesia are finally being held accountable for the economic damage their illegal activities cause, and all credit is due to the Ministry of the Environment for their efforts in prosecuting this case. The court’s decision is indeed a huge victory, and represents one significant step in the right direction. But I think many more such steps are needed before we will really see a change in the behaviour of companies and officials.” added Usher.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Aceh’s Parliament is right now pushing a new spatial land use plan which they recently legalised with a new Provincial Government Regulation, known locally as the Qanun RTRW Aceh”. Explained Muhammad Nur. “The Qanun completely ignores the protected status of the Leuser Ecosystem, simply so they can open up large areas of protected forests for road building, mining, palm oil and timber concessions. This will, in effect, end Aceh’s chances for long-term sustainable development, as it will cause further destruction of critical watersheds, leading to ever more frequent flash floods, landslides, and other environmental disasters. The companies lobbying for this new plan, and the Aceh Government themselves, should be held accountable for all the damage that will ensue. We hope yesterday’s result will serve as a strong warning that if you destroy our forests, we are not afraid to fight back” he stressed. “We thank the judge for delivering a just and fair verdict in this case, and all the people around the world who have been calling for enforcement of National Laws protecting the Leuser Ecosystem. This will be a long battle, but it is one we simply cannot afford to lose, no matter what the cost.” He concluded.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday’s groundbreaking verdict is the result of just one of several civil and criminal prosecutions underway against PT Kallista Alam and four other oil palm companies with concessions in Tripa, namely PT. Surya Panen Subur II, PT. Dua Perkasa Lestari, PT. Gelora Sawita Makmur and PT. Cemerlang Abadi. Each faces the possibility of serious financial consequences as a result of their illegal clearance, burning and drainage of Tripa’s unique peat swamp ecosystem. Some of the company Directors and senior management also face the prospect of prison terms in cases against them for their actions on the ground.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[END]</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">PHOTOGRAPHS:<br /><a href="http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/portfolio-item/photos-pr-09-january-2014" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; border: 0px; color: #d95001; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/portfolio-item/photos-pr-09-january-2014</a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(<a href="http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/pr-tripa-090114.html" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/pr-tripa-090114.html</a>)</span></div>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-49646888411408189232014-01-01T11:31:00.001-08:002014-01-01T13:54:28.626-08:00Traveling to Indonesia: Part Two<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are now well rested and caught up from being gone for
over two weeks, but we wanted to share a few highlights from the rest of our
November Indonesia trip.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qmpVEexBg9_-tYgdtwmVAeZpCcI3sY7F2XnxLbgB5-F0xEyNqSHHlp5qSv9Szv_tFcuz8HBgiFOvClaOOrUo0sTtPoYHmI4yG3N_4LiyjEwRmICjLhYIepHQeP9r5dg1Y7wJNqWKyoZ_/s1600/OIC+Dina+planting+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qmpVEexBg9_-tYgdtwmVAeZpCcI3sY7F2XnxLbgB5-F0xEyNqSHHlp5qSv9Szv_tFcuz8HBgiFOvClaOOrUo0sTtPoYHmI4yG3N_4LiyjEwRmICjLhYIepHQeP9r5dg1Y7wJNqWKyoZ_/s400/OIC+Dina+planting+tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dina planting a tree at OIC.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our first stop during this portion of the trip was near
Besitang. We visited an area that once
was clear cut for palm oil trees and has since been reclaimed for
reforestation. The reforestation site has changed greatly since we last saw it
two years ago; it has been mostly left alone to grow, and the trees are getting
tall! Due to the success of this site,
reforestation efforts have now grown and moved to nearby areas. The project is
run by an organization called OIC (Orangutan Information Centre). OIC staff has reported seeing elephants and
orangutans using the reforested area, which is a true sign of success for this
project.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwYkMY88hOqxaoC38K_mVL0mco-O6i2it3Y03slxcVjx8BZQA9jW616sh9Z_kn6Nn0RDGBHUe9k_cQjGpFLKEQ9msUqLZdEACT_hIE44ftGL0y0_GipwmGO1Cuza0TId3pBH_4E8zJnD-/s1600/OIC+Tracey+planting+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwYkMY88hOqxaoC38K_mVL0mco-O6i2it3Y03slxcVjx8BZQA9jW616sh9Z_kn6Nn0RDGBHUe9k_cQjGpFLKEQ9msUqLZdEACT_hIE44ftGL0y0_GipwmGO1Cuza0TId3pBH_4E8zJnD-/s400/OIC+Tracey+planting+tree.jpg" width="330" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tracey planting a tree at OIC.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We were lucky that the timing of our visit to the
reforestation site allowed us to see drone technology being used to help
monitor deforestation. Researchers are programming drones (Styrofoam airplanes
that are about four feet long) with GPS, grid routes, and cameras built in to
map and monitor forest areas. They are also using the drones to count orangutan
nests (to gather population data) and check for forest encroachment,
deforestation and fires. We were able to watch drones take off and talk with
the researchers involved with the drone project, which was very
educational. Learn more about
conservation drones at: <a href="http://conservationdrones.org/our-story/">http://conservationdrones.org/our-story/</a>.</span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oWDTDusg2vgFPI2cdaY3NdTk3zAsdQF9kkpBUmkpKijajLSzQPtp2r0sWro9YeLL5xL0nOVnC0uTAJjBmYmuHMlTUbSeyOuYcIz1V0vkeqJOSe5jMyT_oW5uIUh2MdqFj9CrGdENwP5x/s1600/drone+plane+about+to+take+off.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oWDTDusg2vgFPI2cdaY3NdTk3zAsdQF9kkpBUmkpKijajLSzQPtp2r0sWro9YeLL5xL0nOVnC0uTAJjBmYmuHMlTUbSeyOuYcIz1V0vkeqJOSe5jMyT_oW5uIUh2MdqFj9CrGdENwP5x/s400/drone+plane+about+to+take+off.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drone plane about to take off.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Our next destination was Bukit Lawang. There we saw five
wild Sumatran orangutans – two mothers, two older offspring and one baby. The
most exciting sighting was spotting a mother, – who we’ve been able to observe
on two previous trips to Sumatra. Her daughter, Catherine, was also with her.
This area –Bukit Lawang –is very important because it is the most successful
ecotourism area involving the Gunung Leuser National Park. Unfortunately there has been encroachment in
many other areas of the park, but there has been almost no encroachment of the
original park boundaries near Bukit Lawang.
This is most likely because the local people have economic incentive to
keep the forest and ecosystem intact.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkkbTDlYN6rJhyylEtQ5s5n38P4RheM1CbXUdVTcw_-xXBKvLyo2xu4Ko7WKjDjr1PZ7YDCWxIFVmzBWpdcndbSxNaLacznPfXKmS_VILFblUtrFtrFErFUu73KQJRn1qufLNcR54v1rj/s1600/SOCP+Jantho+-beautiful+river+&+forest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkkbTDlYN6rJhyylEtQ5s5n38P4RheM1CbXUdVTcw_-xXBKvLyo2xu4Ko7WKjDjr1PZ7YDCWxIFVmzBWpdcndbSxNaLacznPfXKmS_VILFblUtrFtrFErFUu73KQJRn1qufLNcR54v1rj/s400/SOCP+Jantho+-beautiful+river+&+forest.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jantho</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The highlight of our trip to Indonesia, and our next stop,
was a visit to an orangutan reintroduction site in Jantho, north Aceh which was
established by SOCP (Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme). Many of the orangutans that are released at
Jantho had lost their homes due to deforestation and non-sustainable palm oil
production. After spending time in a
quarantine and rehabilitation center the healthy orangutans are released at
sites like Jantho. The project’s base
camp was in a very remote area, so it was about a 1.5 hour 4-wheel drive adventure
just getting there. On a forest hike at
the release site, we saw two juvenile orangutans very high up in a tree and
were glad to see that they had no interest in coming down to see us. This was living proof that they are thriving
and are not reliant on humans. We also
saw a variety of other wildlife around camp such as wild pigs, long-tailed
macaques, a family of four white-handed gibbons, fruit bats and hornbills
flying overhead, and Sumatran tiger tracks!
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_zQth2lG0u5d8fALXTrBVK7qB85u65Xc3VI4TmKmMW5C9TQlegVlgSe3wUdcXhzx7LXVSjdTQArPgWCfHmG5KMuLLRGPETPB5wuLAewLS1clqjd5y8mKtZJbuqLjjzw52wrRk81wJN1H/s1600/SOCP+Jantho+-Sumatran+tiger+footprint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs_zQth2lG0u5d8fALXTrBVK7qB85u65Xc3VI4TmKmMW5C9TQlegVlgSe3wUdcXhzx7LXVSjdTQArPgWCfHmG5KMuLLRGPETPB5wuLAewLS1clqjd5y8mKtZJbuqLjjzw52wrRk81wJN1H/s400/SOCP+Jantho+-Sumatran+tiger+footprint.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sumatran tiger footprint in Jantho.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Upon returning to Medan, Indonesia, we were able to tour the
location where a really exciting conservation project will be created in the
next several years: Orangutan Haven. Not
only will it provide a more natural home for non-releasable orangutans, but it
will also be a wonderful place for Indonesians to make a connection with these
critically endangered great apes and hopefully inspire them to take action to
save them. To learn more, visit <a href="http://www.earth4orangutans.com/e4o/index.htm">http://www.earth4orangutans.com/e4o/index.htm</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the last day of our trip we met with a sustainability
specialist from a palm oil company that is very involved with the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We talked about the reforestation and
sustainability practices of the large company he works for, and the logistics
of being on an RSPO task force. We hope
to get more involved in the RSPO by joining a working group or task force. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bsAs6BXWG2YXnNRyQBjZ08ByZvhIRXp_O-jPNHpjQefhLaqDIqeYA44jAN5ib2L-8rHXb2mDAuTMtlyYDk3dNHOkqIh8VSFi4t9btxN_7aSwimTJW-lGcdJLCiE2c3z54D4sqWX4Tz3c/s1600/palm+oil+-cutting+down+FFB+-fresh+fruit+bunch+2+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bsAs6BXWG2YXnNRyQBjZ08ByZvhIRXp_O-jPNHpjQefhLaqDIqeYA44jAN5ib2L-8rHXb2mDAuTMtlyYDk3dNHOkqIh8VSFi4t9btxN_7aSwimTJW-lGcdJLCiE2c3z54D4sqWX4Tz3c/s400/palm+oil+-cutting+down+FFB+-fresh+fruit+bunch+2+(1).jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harvesting fruit bunches.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During our journey we accomplished several of
our goals – voting at the RSPO General Assembly which included a very important
resolution on requiring palm oil growers to map their plantations boundaries.
This resolution, which was passed, is very important because it keeps RSPO
grower members accountable for activities that happen on their land and ensures
they are not expanding beyond their property boundaries. (i.e. National
forest). We were able to discuss important
sustainability topics with other Zoos and environmental conservation
organizations as well as representatives from the palm oil industry from
various points along the supply chain. We visited reforestation sites, saw wild
orangutans and furthered our knowledge of certified and non-certified palm oil
plantations. Upon returning to Colorado, we are continuing our mission to
inform Zoo guests about the importance of supporting RSPO plantations,
companies and manufacturers by purchasing their products. To download the
sustainable palm oil Smartphone application, or to learn more about the palm
oil crisis, visit <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/palmoil">www.cmzoo.org/palmoil</a>. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-65070538948189374192013-12-23T13:11:00.000-08:002013-12-23T13:11:44.171-08:00World’s Largest Palm Oil Company Commits to No Deforestation<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">We are excited that </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Wilmar Internatio</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">nal has committed to producing only products that are deforestation free and void of links to human rights</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> abuse. We look forward to seeing further progress in the palm oil industry in the near future and hope additional companies will make the same pledge. Read the full story about Wilmar’s commitment below.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: inherit;">World’s Largest Palm Oil Company Commits to No Deforestation</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By: <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px;">Kim Lewis</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">A new policy that looks to transform the palm oil industry was recently announced. Asia’s leading palm oil producer, Wilmar International, said it has committed to producing only products that are free from links to deforestation and abuse of human rights. Palm oil is a $50-billion a year commodity that is found in half of all consumer goods. It is in chocolate, baked goods, soaps, detergents, and many more household items. The production of it has caused the clearing of tropical forests for plantations, threatening ecological systems as well as forest animals.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">In addition clearing land for plantations has threatened the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on forests for survival.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Scott Poynton, is a forest conservationist and supply chain expert. He founded the international nonprofit, The Forest Trusts, TFT, an organization that works with businesses to help them produce more responsibly.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">He said the announcement by Wilmar International is a massive one and a huge commitment that will take a lot of work to implement.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">“There’s never been such a strong commitment in the palm oil industry before, and not only in the palm oil industry, but in the agribusiness sector such as soy, or beef, or any of these sectors. There’s never been an announcement equivalent to this. So it’s really of global significance,” explained Poynton. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">The forest conservationist highlighted that the commitment to “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation, No High Carbon Stock…” sets a benchmark for the entire industry, which includes palm plantations in Africa.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">“The Wilmar International is the largest palm oil company in the world, and controls about 45% of the global trade in palm oil. Wilmar itself has interests in Africa, and one of the responses to the announcement has been some concern expressed by some civil society organizations, NGO’s, however, Wilmar's response is look we are going to roll out these policies across our global operation base which includes Africa,” said Poynton, who added this is good news for Africa because there is interest in expanding palm oil production on the continent.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">“Palm oil is an opportunity to bring in socio-economic development but we want to do that without trashing and destroying the environment, or people’s lives,” pointed out Poynton. And he said the transformative policies to protect forests and people will help ensure that any new development that comes about will be done in the right way.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">(</span><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/palm-plantation-deforestation-wilmar-human-rights-climate-carbon-agreement-policy/1814308.html">http://www.voanews.com/content/palm-plantation-deforestation-wilmar-human-rights-climate-carbon-agreement-policy/1814308.html</a>)</span>Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-46485094176137478462013-12-11T10:15:00.000-08:002013-12-11T10:15:15.854-08:00Your signature is needed! <span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;">Help save the majority of remaining lowland forests in Aceh, Indonesia---the last few strongholds for the Sumatran tiger, elephant, rhino and orangutan. Please click on the link (</span><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><a href="http://www.change.org/LeuserHeritage" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.change.org/LeuserHeritage</a><wbr></wbr>)</span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;">, and let the government of Aceh know that is important to save the Leuser Ecosystem and the endangered species that call it home!</span>Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-27341147651816462852013-11-15T10:23:00.000-08:002013-11-15T10:23:58.886-08:00Update from Indonesia on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Annual Conference<div class="MsoNormal">
By Dina Bredahl and Tracey Gazibara </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUoo0qbvZd-swEhqUDDWiDXEGV7pw8XM9B_NBZF2J-B15xJkEuvXx9oDE1LPltFkx4pKvFlwLh-5WtIcVpEc99fNhMBHIvDM3PDwIwsC8MoiZrlYAmQ_n2rfdCYmn92EJafOB3WzU2gt_/s1600/Batu+Mblein+Quarantine+Center.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUoo0qbvZd-swEhqUDDWiDXEGV7pw8XM9B_NBZF2J-B15xJkEuvXx9oDE1LPltFkx4pKvFlwLh-5WtIcVpEc99fNhMBHIvDM3PDwIwsC8MoiZrlYAmQ_n2rfdCYmn92EJafOB3WzU2gt_/s200/Batu+Mblein+Quarantine+Center.JPG" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Batu Mblein Quarantine Center</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After thirty-four hours of traveling, we arrived in Medan,
Indonesia on Sunday morning, November 10. Our reason for traveling half way around the
world was to attend the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) annual
conference along with over 600 delegates from countries all over the world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before beginning the conference on Tuesday, we were able to
meet with Dr. Ian Singleton with Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP)
and visit Batu Mbelin quarantine center where nearly 50 orangutans are being
cared for. Many of the orangutans have been confiscated as they were being held
illegally as pets. We were excited to hear that several of the orangutans would
be on their way to be re-released into the wild next week.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHYaXjBWrOHyNZd62ztbJwuIgRMgoXmShzXkZj_Fe2Wj1h72gw3oIZtRcM4t9whwZiRtP-jfH028Thf6fJ1MkmFktJzPkizhflBxNk4D0mco9LmOzLwd0YMN0YEu5em6DmrDFsE8QAVQ3/s1600/Dina,+Darrel+Webber+and+Tracey.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDHYaXjBWrOHyNZd62ztbJwuIgRMgoXmShzXkZj_Fe2Wj1h72gw3oIZtRcM4t9whwZiRtP-jfH028Thf6fJ1MkmFktJzPkizhflBxNk4D0mco9LmOzLwd0YMN0YEu5em6DmrDFsE8QAVQ3/s200/Dina,+Darrel+Webber+and+Tracey.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dina, Darrel Webber and Tracey at the RSPO.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our goal for this conference was to interact with other
stakeholders to further our work with palm oil sustainability. The keynote address given by Professor Tim
Benton was titled <i>The Challenge of Food
Security in 2050: Can we do it Sustainably? </i> It was a detailed look at global climate change,
population growth projections and how agriculture and deforestation now will
affect our future dramatically. It was
very apparent that the success of the RSPO is critical on many levels. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlQ6mxT5pVDPXqYd5B1jbcJpT5vH1hTa14MW-szb54m4gR4W5ceY0oo6YnFAQXNSj-aWS7E2fJdEOWMZASehd-1iQz2ycUxElU09Y6WFgOPl1U2VXKzR0iTScsvBlH2pOHzgPlKKPibDD/s1600/Group+session+at+the+RSPO..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlQ6mxT5pVDPXqYd5B1jbcJpT5vH1hTa14MW-szb54m4gR4W5ceY0oo6YnFAQXNSj-aWS7E2fJdEOWMZASehd-1iQz2ycUxElU09Y6WFgOPl1U2VXKzR0iTScsvBlH2pOHzgPlKKPibDD/s200/Group+session+at+the+RSPO..JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Group session at the RSPO conference.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The format of this conference was quite unconventional, open
space technology was used to encourage anyone to take ‘ownership’ of an issue
they cared about and invite any and all interested attendees to join the
conversation. We facilitated a
discussion on ‘How can zoos positively transform the market?’ along with others
from San Diego Zoo, Zoos Victoria and the Zoological Society of London. We were happy to have representatives from
the growers stakeholder group participate in our session to learn more about
their needs. We also joined in on other
great topic discussions as well, and really learned a lot about the
perspectives of others during this process.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2r6eW955IyJdB7_X7stRNDEZXV5klswJ4R9mg0r6yCvb02MJI52I90SRvFcnCm5cR_eS6FKCXsieGlLkMBkqTuUumOKbQh_T0Dv3njZDXMEJf51qpbuTDKZnpSFcqSEHEo7NAft_89P0j/s1600/Voting+on+resolutions+at+the+RSPO..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2r6eW955IyJdB7_X7stRNDEZXV5klswJ4R9mg0r6yCvb02MJI52I90SRvFcnCm5cR_eS6FKCXsieGlLkMBkqTuUumOKbQh_T0Dv3njZDXMEJf51qpbuTDKZnpSFcqSEHEo7NAft_89P0j/s200/Voting+on+resolutions+at+the+RSPO..JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Voting on resolutions at the RSPO.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We are getting ready for the next leg of our travels,
visiting Besitang and Bukit Lawang to see RSPO certified and non-certified
plantations, a reforestation site, and a successful eco-tourism location where
we hope to see orangutans. A representative from OIC (Orangutan Information
Centre) will be our guide. We will be
traveling with Adam Ringler of San Diego Zoo and Jacquie O’Brien of Zoos
Victoria. </div>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-64899789564009753112013-11-08T07:09:00.002-08:002013-11-08T07:09:47.251-08:00Three US Zoos Take Leadership Role in Supporting Sustainable Palm Oil Practices<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As part of an effort to encourage sustainable palm oil production, San Diego Zoo Global, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Indianapolis Zoo joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and will attend the RSPO conference (RT11) in Indonesia next week. During the conference, the zoos’ representatives will be involved in strategic planning and reviewing of RSPO criteria for certification. Additionally, they will visit RSPO-certified and noncertified palm oil plantations to further their knowledge of industry sustainable and nonsustainable practices.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“Palm oil is used in more than 50% of the manufactured items we find in the grocery store every day,” said Allison Alberts, Ph.D., chief conservation and research officer for San Diego Zoo Global’s Institute of Conservation Research. “The largest threat to orangutans and other tropical wildlife around the globe is deforestation due to agriculture, primarily the production of palm oil.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The zoos’ memberships in the RSPO add to a growing movement among zoos to become an active voice in the palm oil crisis. Last month, a resolution was unanimously passed at the 68<sup>th</sup> annual conference of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) in support of the RSPO and encourages all zoos to promote certified sustainable palm oil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">"The vision of the RSPO -- to drive the sustainable palm oil agenda forward to protect our environment, wildlife and communities -- is a transformative journey that involves the cooperation of an extensive group of players," said the RSPO's secretary-general, Darrel Webber. “We welcome the San Diego, Cheyenne Mountain and Indianapolis zoos, whose combined annual visitors exceed 7.5 million, to the RSPO and look forward to working closely with them in helping to educate the broader community about the need to support the sustainable production of palm oil," Webber added.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Conservationists point to the increasing challenges faced by wildlife in Asia and particularly to the effect of palm oil production on high profile species like Sumatran and Bornean orangutans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“The current generation of wild orangutans could well be the last unless we can find workable solutions for the Indonesian economy, its government and the orangutans,” said Rob Shumaker, Ph.D., the Indianapolis Zoo’s vice president of conservation and life sciences and one of the world’s foremost authorities on orangutan cognition. “RSPO and programs focused on the reforestation of orangutan habitat are critically important to saving orangutans in the wild.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Indianapolis Zoo will open a $25 million International Orangutan Center in May 2014.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2010, nearly 90% of global palm oil production occurred in Malaysia and Indonesia, and more than half of plantations established since 1990 in those two countries have occurred at the expense of natural forest. Species like orangutans depend on the Asian forests for survival. Conservationists estimate that over the last 60 years more than half of all orangutans in these countries have disappeared. The decline of the species is predicted to continue at this rate, primarily because of forest loss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">“By joining the RSPO we are leading by example and are encouraging other North American zoos to make this same commitment,” said Tracey Gazibara, vice president, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. “Together we can raise awareness about the complex issues surrounding palm oil production and fight against extinction of animals and habitats created by unsustainable practices.”</span></div>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-34747553216266515522013-09-18T08:38:00.002-07:002013-09-18T08:38:39.123-07:00Palm oil smart phone app helps users save orangutans<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><i>By Stephanie Earls. Published by The Gazette - Colorado Springs</i></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS04DN7e9RRR3PUfGbIdfrAf9RXOjn2L2c4Htg-pIu0WzCvwQwkmpePXAe_L3EXxe9NAVyEILi-DTmI2eIVweZH3CVYaG3mnOL2fBN0FuTvfIRHGCx12w0SlcyPQcnWfcVLOV6hhBZQ24I/s1600/r620-070623e4e2beea4a2f249a488820a9fd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS04DN7e9RRR3PUfGbIdfrAf9RXOjn2L2c4Htg-pIu0WzCvwQwkmpePXAe_L3EXxe9NAVyEILi-DTmI2eIVweZH3CVYaG3mnOL2fBN0FuTvfIRHGCx12w0SlcyPQcnWfcVLOV6hhBZQ24I/s400/r620-070623e4e2beea4a2f249a488820a9fd.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(The Gazette, Christian Murdock)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">What do Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey, Palmolive dish soap and Friskies cat food have in common?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The answer is sustainable palm oil. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Palm oil might be the most prevalent product ingredient you've never heard of. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">It's estimated that the edible vegetable oil in its various manifestations can be found in as many as half of the processed foods and packaged products in grocery stores, from snack foods to cosmetics, but that doesn't mean you'll find it listed by name among the ingredients. The highly saturated, trans fat-free oil, harvested from African oil palm trees on plantations in the tropics, is a main component in many preparations of sodium laureth and sodium lauryl sulfates, present in makeup and pretty much every product that foams, from shampoo to dish soap. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The majority of palm oil is grown and produced on the southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, where natural resources have been leveraged to the industry. Clear-cutting of rainforests to make way for new plantations to meet rising global demands continues to destroy vital habitats for indigenous, endangered animals. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">These animals include the wild orangutan, Asia's only great ape, which makes its home exclusively on Borneo and Sumatra.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"Non-sustainable palm oil is the biggest threat to so many of these species. It's not just orangutans who are affected. It's other animals. It's humans. It's greenhouse gases," said Dina Bredahl, animal care manager for primates and carnivores at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. "We chose orangutans as our focus because we love orangutans. I think for our zoo, they are the best ambassador." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">In its most recent project to raise palm oil awareness, the zoo has developed a smart phone app that helps users choose products containing sustainably produced palm oil. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The free Palm Oil Shopping Guide app, a digital upgrade of the zoo's paper palm oil shopping guide, includes more than 5,000 products from companies certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an international membership organization that works toward environmentally conscious production of the substance. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">The app, available on Google Play, lets users quickly search for products by name; there's also an alphabetized list of items arranged by category, information on the palm oil crisis and a button for donations. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQxXg4HCwd_F4nswttApV1D1yAws0t7VQH2kPy0goy7BCjtrcO1SFA9WmBpPCjmbICc-myQyrwVftCjkSUDQxhIgYG3wfupwBEvrH9RxH0is1tG0qPZNucmLIL4v-8XT1qTjRWhGorhvZ/s1600/r620-ea3ea766c05e3f21ccd0939956a06f66.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQxXg4HCwd_F4nswttApV1D1yAws0t7VQH2kPy0goy7BCjtrcO1SFA9WmBpPCjmbICc-myQyrwVftCjkSUDQxhIgYG3wfupwBEvrH9RxH0is1tG0qPZNucmLIL4v-8XT1qTjRWhGorhvZ/s400/r620-ea3ea766c05e3f21ccd0939956a06f66.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">(The Gazette, Christian Murdock)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"Humans are going to keep buying and using these products that have vegetable oil in them. We're not going to stop that, and the population of the Earth is growing all the time," lead animal keeper Mandy Hester said. "Palm oil can actually be a better product for the environment if it's grown sustainably because you can get a lot more yield from palm. If it's done the right way, it can actually be a greener product than some other vegetable oils." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Sustainable palm oil comes from trees grown on land that historically has been used for plantations, rather than a site freshly razed for the purpose. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"There is land available that was cleared so long ago, that is the land that ideally should be used," Hester said. "But they can actually get more profits from clearing timber because they can then sell the wood for picture frames, furniture, paper." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Bredahl has been working on the zoo's palm oil campaign since 2007, when she found a dearth of information on the subject and set about to help change that - for Cheyenne Mountain and the greater zoo community. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"It's kind of been on our radar that there was this thing called palm oil. When you tried to look it up, it wasn't clear what the connection between orangutans and palm oil was," Bredahl said. "People in zoos weren't sure what to tell zoo guests about palm oil. We decided, well, somebody needs to get a handle on that and someone needs to be an expert and we decided to be that expert." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">In 2008, the zoo launched a website explaining palm oil and its devastating impact on wildlife in the areas where it's produced. Also that year came the zoo's Quarters for Conservation program, which allows guests to donate 25 cents from the entrance fee to one of six conservation programs. Money from that campaign helped fuel an ambitious fact-finding mission for Bredahl and Hester, who in 2010 traveled to Southeast Asia for a three-week trip touring rain forests and sustainable plantations and talking with environmental groups and locals about the issue. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79pR8h9ut1FFiML9N3G6jTJ-7AD4Jzzo528QDqdQu6SyPwptGJzoyRK3IkiH93Uh5KPXSynydAhvqUFpCYNwcRJ26009MNz1jzxc9-fXDCGW5T6cCUVNhOQZvRjh__PzN-BG52yWrZqCW/s1600/r620-7941dd2f2817dcf09fbae08c0f47d096.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79pR8h9ut1FFiML9N3G6jTJ-7AD4Jzzo528QDqdQu6SyPwptGJzoyRK3IkiH93Uh5KPXSynydAhvqUFpCYNwcRJ26009MNz1jzxc9-fXDCGW5T6cCUVNhOQZvRjh__PzN-BG52yWrZqCW/s400/r620-7941dd2f2817dcf09fbae08c0f47d096.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">(The Gazette, Christian Murdock)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"We came back and made a resource kit for other zoos to use, we revamped our (paper) shopping guide and revamped our website," Hester said. "It's pretty much about choices. Plantations can choose to grow palm oil in a sustainable way, companies can choose to buy palm oil from those sustainable plantations and consumers can choose to buy products from those companies." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">In 2011, Cheyenne Mountain became the first zoo in the world to join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Others have followed suit. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">"Zoos years ago weren't necessarily conservation organizations," Bredahl said. "Fifty years ago, it was more of the menagerie and sharing animals. Now, it's more about sharing animals so people fall in love with them and want to save them in the wild."</span><br />
<br style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Read more at </span><a href="http://gazette.com/palm-oil-smart-phone-app-helps-users-save-orangutans/article/1504950#LO5b4DJx2OaPuxVh.99" style="color: #003399; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none;">http://gazette.com/palm-oil-smart-phone-app-helps-users-save-orangutans/article/1504950#LO5b4DJx2OaPuxVh.99</a>Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-20186765460400066172013-09-04T07:12:00.001-07:002013-09-04T07:12:31.001-07:00Save the lives of wild orangutans with the NEW Sustainable Palm Oil Shopping Guide App for smartphones! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfs9rY5gt9bTwyfF9Wgs3JQuz4WLrRCMtsk3N9qTj7u7gvDRBT6Z2AvphmpR2ZFLWzdj_8xSZbX12f6te1-pJbMKBcqH8-c4vVdIYLhz9px-_d7NOqopskvhzc3mq2PhnafZa39v7HqGu/s1600/CMZ+screen+shot+on+phone+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKfs9rY5gt9bTwyfF9Wgs3JQuz4WLrRCMtsk3N9qTj7u7gvDRBT6Z2AvphmpR2ZFLWzdj_8xSZbX12f6te1-pJbMKBcqH8-c4vVdIYLhz9px-_d7NOqopskvhzc3mq2PhnafZa39v7HqGu/s320/CMZ+screen+shot+on+phone+2.jpg" width="167" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can save wild orangutans, and other endangered Asian
animals affected by the palm oil crisis, by using your smartphone! This
new <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/palmoil">FREE downloadable smartphone application</a> lists more
than 5,000 products whose manufacturers are certified by the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Purchasing products from these companies saves
orangutan habitat and lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Palm oil is used to make items we consume every day
like food and personal care products," Dina Bredahl, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Animal Care Manager and champion of the Zoo's palm oil awareness conservation
program, said. "Purchasing products that are manufactured by RSPO member
companies is the easiest thing we can do to help endangered wild
orangutans." </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/images/CMZpalmOilEdHandout.pdf">Palm oil</a> comes from the fruit of the African oil palm.
The majority of this edible vegetable oil is produced inBorneo and Sumatra.
When harvested unsustainably it destroys critical rainforest
habitat. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One organization that seeks to implement global standards
for sustainable palm oil is the RSPO. To achieve certification, members
must meet stringent environmental and social criteria and protect native
wildlife, like orangutans, elephants, tigers and rhinos. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ycCr0-LgbhsYYXGCvuchLD0PkAr51p2RyA6d6AqE9URtTTE8qdINVJmCLHTtQeK2sWT5glzLY0-roFu86OKR0fBeBMrStWX-SpjQLHGKnzHrbgIjcYetrqebzuBczYUl6LQa7svBGjUi/s1600/Orang+screen+shot+on+phone+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ycCr0-LgbhsYYXGCvuchLD0PkAr51p2RyA6d6AqE9URtTTE8qdINVJmCLHTtQeK2sWT5glzLY0-roFu86OKR0fBeBMrStWX-SpjQLHGKnzHrbgIjcYetrqebzuBczYUl6LQa7svBGjUi/s320/Orang+screen+shot+on+phone+3.jpg" width="164" /></a>In 2011, <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/">CheyenneMountain Zoo</a> was the first zoo in the world to join the RSPO. Even before
joining, the Zoo created a paper shopping guide that listed RSPO
company members. The popularity of the shopping guide led the Zoo's palm
oil team in the direction of creating the smartphone shopping guide
application.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make a difference for wild orangutans with three easy
steps:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Shop smart! Boycotting palm oil is not the
solution. Instead, download the <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/">NEW </a></span><a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/">Palm Oil Shopping Guide Phone App</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, and buy products from companies that are
members of the RSPO.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Speak out! If you don't see your favorite
brand in the Palm Oil Shopping Guide, </span><a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/PalmOilCommentFormsList.asp">send the company an email</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> to tell them how important
sustainable palm oil is.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Spread the word! Check out Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo's full </span><a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/resourceKit.asp">Palm Oil Resource Kit</a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, and share it with others.</span></li>
</ol>
Zoo Blog Keeper http://www.blogger.com/profile/08927605409905358407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-91373713553937315882012-10-12T07:54:00.003-07:002012-10-12T07:54:56.751-07:00FIRST INDEPENDENT SMALLHOLDERS IN THE WORLD TO BE RSPO CERTIFIED<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>Thailand is the first country in the world to have independent smallholders RSPO certified</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em></em> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>October 11, 2012 –</strong> Thailand is the first country in the world to have independent smallholders as RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) Certified which comprises a community of 412 smallholders over 2,767.33 hectares of planted land. These independent smallholders will now have an opportunity to trade approximately 52,000 mt of certified sustainable Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB), generating an estimated 10,000 mt of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Currently, the total annual production capacity of RSPO certified sustainable FFB is approximately 36 million metric tonnes globally.</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
The international multi stakeholder organization and certification scheme for sustainable palm oil, RSPO, has been collaborating closely with major producing countries around the world to build capacity amongst independent smallholders in the past few years. This was a pressing priority after the successful certification of schemed smallholders in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
Darrel Webber, Secretary General of RSPO commented that: “As the third largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) in the world, over 70% of oil palm in Thailand is produced by independent smallholders. The primary challenges for smallholders to become certified include lack of awareness on benefits of being certified; funding support and lack of expertise or capacity building. To this end, the RSPO is committed to mobilizing strategic initiatives aimed at addressing these primary issues.</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
“Smallholders also need to be made aware of the advantages of being certified which includes access to international demand markets for sustainable palm oil; longer term efficiencies in terms of yield and productivity as well as effective cost management. A recent report by WWF in collaboration with CDC (a UK government-owned development finance institution) and FMO (the Netherlands Development Finance Company) <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=24877037&msgid=97834&act=496M&c=1191993&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rspo.org%2Fen%2Fbusiness_cases" target="_blank">http://www.rspo.org/en/<wbr></wbr>business_cases</a> clearly attests that the benefits of embracing sustainability outweigh the costs incurred which reinforces that responsible practices are not only good for the environment but is also commercially advantageous.” Webber added.</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
Daniel May, Project Manager at GIZ, an organization funded by the German government to accelerate sustainable palm oil production amongst smallholders in Thailand, commented, “The German government, in particular German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) will continue to demonstrate support in enabling smallholders around the world towards sustainability according to internationally set standards. The certification of independent smallholders was contributed by GIZ in the form of training services on best management practices such as seed selection, fertiliser application; proper health, safety and environment practices. Thailand is certainly raising the bar in its commitment to sustainable palm oil”</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
The National Interpretation for Thailand for Smallholders developed by the Thai National Interpretation Working Group (Thai NI WG) has been approved by the RSPO. The Thai NI WG has worked since 2010 to develop the document involving 21 representatives from Academics, grower/ farmer representatives, refineries and biodiesel plants, palm oil crushing mills, NGOSs, Government and Association. This now enables independent smallholders in Thailand to be audited and certified against the standard.</div>
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>14% of world's palm oil production is now RSPO certified</strong><br />
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.8em;">
The current estimated annual production capacity of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil is 7.2 million metric tonnes, approximately 14 percent of global palm oil production. Spread over 1.6 million hectares of certified area - 45.5% of the world's current RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil production capacity comes from Indonesia; followed by 44.7% from Malaysia; with the remaining 9.8% from Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; Brazil; Colombia and Ivory Coast. </div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-31951799595231912292012-10-12T06:54:00.000-07:002012-10-12T06:54:45.878-07:00Is hour Halloweem candy linked to rainforest destruction? By Jeremy Hance - mongabay.com<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dv-ZZOmDH2A/UHgg4UOdA5I/AAAAAAAAAho/el3ka5H9Mks/s1600/sabah_1699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dv-ZZOmDH2A/UHgg4UOdA5I/AAAAAAAAAho/el3ka5H9Mks/s320/sabah_1699.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: currentColor; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
A
campaign by the <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/">Cheyenne Mountain Zoo</a> hopes
to raise awareness about the link between Halloween candy and deforestation in
Indonesia and Malaysia. Employing the images of Critically Endangered
orangutans, the zoo urges consumer to only buy candy containing eco-certified
palm oil by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). <br /><br />Palm oil,
which is an incredibly productive vegetable oil, has become ubiquitous in recent
decades in many products: from cosmetics to convenience foods, as well as
popular Halloween candies. While the industry has been a boom to the nations'
economies, its rapid expansion has been blamed in part for vast deforestation
across Malaysia and Indonesia; in fact a recent paper for the 90 percent of palm
oil plantations in the Malaysian state of Kalimantan came at the expense of
forests. <br /><br />Orangutans are unable to survive in the long-term in oil palm
plantations as they lose their major food sources. In addition, sometimes they
are hunted down as pests. This situation has led to increasingly overcrowded
orangutan orphanages. However, the destruction of these forests, some of the
most biodiverse in the region, not only imperils orangutans, but thousands of
other species, some still unknown to science. <br /><br />The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
has created a <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/www.cmzoo.org/docs/halloweenGuide2012.pdf">PDF
file</a> that is "meant to be a helpful guide for consumers that are concerned
about orangutan conservation and deforestation due to non-sustainable palm oil
production in Indonesia and Malaysia," and urges consumers to only purchase
candy by RSPO members, a list that includes Nestle, Kellogg's, Hershey's and
Mars among others. <br /><br />"If you do not find your favorite snack/company on
this list," the zoo writes, "take action by writing a letter and asking the
company to join the RSPO and be committed to using certified sustainable palm
oil." <br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1011-hance-halloween-palm-oil.html#PjJczKIAAefhPIrM.99" style="color: #003399;">http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1011-hance-halloween-palm-oil.html#PjJczKIAAefhPIrM.99</a>
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-41446226842452839832012-10-10T10:32:00.002-07:002012-10-10T10:32:39.244-07:00WWF: Industry should buy into GreenPalm today, or it will struggle to source fully traceable sustainable palm oil tomorrow<div class="headline">
Food manufacturers are beginning to realize that buying more GreenPalm certificates now might be the only way to stimulate enough production of sustainable palm oil to make fully traceable products economically viable in future, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).</div>
<div class="link">
</div>
<div class="link">
<a href="http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Market/WWF-Industry-should-buy-into-GreenPalm-today-or-it-will-struggle-to-source-fully-traceable-sustainable-palm-oil-tomorrow">http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Market/WWF-Industry-should-buy-into-GreenPalm-today-or-it-will-struggle-to-source-fully-traceable-sustainable-palm-oil-tomorrow</a></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-68594630655225591222012-03-12T08:48:00.000-07:002012-03-12T08:48:34.888-07:00"Breakthrough" as plantation expansion rule sees palm oil company hand back community land<br />
<div class="meta" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #777777; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="date" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Posted on 01 March 2012</span> | <span class="comments-link" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a data-disqus-identifier="203752/Breakthrough-as-plantation-expansion-rule-sees-palm-oil-company-hand-back-community-land" href="http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_forests/?203752/Breakthrough-as-plantation-expansion-rule-sees-palm-oil-company-hand-back-community-land#disqus_thread" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #006262; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">0 Comments</a></span></div>
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UiGggNeDzbg/T14ahcFKiiI/AAAAAAAAAOw/g4wn5R_db1E/s1600/web_111271_396876.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UiGggNeDzbg/T14ahcFKiiI/AAAAAAAAAOw/g4wn5R_db1E/s1600/web_111271_396876.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold;">
<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></strong></div>
<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pontianak, Borneo</strong><b> </b>– An Indonesian palm oil company has relinquished over a thousand hectares of its plantation back to the community marking a breakthrough with respect to the workings of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).<br />
<br /></span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">PT Agro Wiratama which is a subsidiary of the giant Musim Mas group and a member of the RSPO had obtained a government permit to develop an oil palm plantation on 9,000 hectares of land in West Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo but agreed to relinquish more than 1,000 hectares following interventions by the local community and NGOs.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Deputy Director of Market Transformation at WWF Indonesia, Irwan Gunawan said the case shows how the RSPO can be successfully implemented, “This is a real example of how the New Plantings Procedure was designed to work. Early warning of expansion plans and a real willingness by PT Agro Wiratama and parent company Musim Mas to engage with the community and other stakeholders has resulted in a win-win-win for everyone, including the environment. </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“It shows that with careful planning and the right attitude palm oil can be sustainable. It can respect communities, generate income and protect wildlife.” </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">He added, “Equally significant is the fact that the company gave back the land even though they had a legal permit to develop it – showing that the RSPO goes further than the law to protect local people and that Musim Mas is keen to foster a constructive relationship with its neighbours."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Under RSPO’s “New Planting procedures” member companies are required to publicly announce plans to expand their operations. This ensures that the social and environmental requirements of RSPO are considered before new operations begin.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">PT Agro Wiratama’s plans were spotted on the RSPO website by the international human rights group, Forest People’s Programme, who alerted their partners in Borneo.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The local Indonesian NGO, Gemawan was then able to alert the local community to what was being proposed and assisted them in discussions with the local government and PT Agro Wiratama.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Following a series of meetings that involved the mapping of land use and discussions on land claims the reduction of the concession area was made official by the local regent (bupati).</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">One of the leaders of the local Kuayan community, Kamarudin said, “We are very pleased that our land is secure now because we’ve now got a chance to make choices about our lives.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">“We now ask all the other parties involved in this decision to respect our choice.”</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The Head of Mekar Jaya Village, Azim Kitung said, “Our community has been trying very hard for so long to refuse admittance to palm oil plantation developers in our village. We believe that we already had enough with the rubber, timber and rice paddies that we already own.”</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">According to KONTAK Rakyat Borneo, a Pontianak based NGO that also assisted the community in the case; there are 19 palm oil plantations in Sambas Regency, 17 of which are members of RSPO.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Despite the RSPO’s standards requiring member companies not to take over the lands of local communities without prior consent, Indonesian laws and land administration do not recognise most communities land rights resulting in permits being routinely handed out to companies even though they overlap areas basic to people’s livelihoods.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The National Land Agency statistics show that there are some 3,100 land conflicts in Indonesia between palm oil developers and local communities.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-6090047566592131632012-03-05T09:49:00.000-08:002012-03-05T09:49:03.300-08:00INAUGURAL REPORT SHOWS IMPRESSIVE UPTAKE OF RSPO-CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL IN 2011<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>We are excited to hear about the progress of certified sustainable palm oil through this RSPO report.</i></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Kuala Lumpur, 5 March 2012</span></b> – Multi stakeholder initiative, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) reported unprecedented growth for Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in the year 2011 as accounted for in its inaugural qualitative review entitled “2011 RSPO CSPO Growth Interpretation Narrative” (2011 GIN). The 2011 GIN, the first of its kind for any sustainable commodity, will be an annual report aimed at recording and analysing the growth and trends of RSPO and CSPO in the global marketplace.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The report confirms the upward trend in the supply and sale of sustainable palm oil, since the certification of the commodity was first launched by the RSPO in 2008. From 2009 to 2011 supply of CSPO has increased by 250% (1,357,511 metric tons in 2009 to 4,798,512 metric tons in 2011) while sales volume has grown by over 6 times, approximately 620% (343,857 metric tons in 2009 to 2,490,526 metric tons in 2011). According to the report, the year-on-year supply of CSPO in 2011 increased by 73%, reaching 4,798,512 metric tons compared to 2,773,567 metric tons in 2010, while year-on-year sales volume increased by a whopping 94%.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The remarkable surge in supply can be attributed to the rising number of certified growers entering into RSPO’s certification process. While in 2008, RSPO could count 17 certified mills in just two countries (<u></u>Malaysia<u></u> and <u></u>Papua New Guinea<u></u>), today there are 29 grower companies with 135 certified mills in six countries: <u></u>Brazil<u></u>, <u></u>Colombia<u></u>, <u></u>Indonesia<u></u>, <u></u>Malaysia<u></u>, <u></u>Papua New Guinea<u></u>, and the<u></u><u></u>Solomon Islands<u></u><u></u> – an increase in certified mills of approximately 8 times over a 3 year period.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Darrel Webber, Secretary General of the RSPO commented that: “The growth of CSPO has shown an escalating trend and clearly reflects the inclination of sustainability standards towards palm oil. RSPO praises the efforts of growers for embarking on the certification process and committing themselves to the RSPO Principles and Criteria. A total of US$21.5 million worth of premiums has been paid to date to RSPO certified growers since the first certificates via the Book & Claim system under the GreenPalm were traded in 2008 - and we hope that the growers have found this valuable in empowering their transformation to sustainable cultivation practices.”<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">RSPO membership has also been rapidly expanding in the past year. Membership of consumer goods manufacturer increased by over 60% while the retailers category increased by 50% - both primarily from the European regions which is an affirmative step in accelerating demand of CSPO. The processors & traders category also intensified by over 30% strengthening commitment along the palm oil supply chain, another integral development in transforming the market.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">“Central to all these strategies, is the RSPO commitment to our philosophy of harmonizing the interests of diverse group of nations, organizations and individuals through an inclusive, participative and consensual process. We will continue our openness, responsiveness, accessibility and accountability. Despite the dynamic landscape, our pursuit for transformation to make sustainable palm oil the norm does seem to be drawing closer.” Webber reiterated.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jan Kees Vis, RSPO President and Global Director Sustainable Sourcing Development for Unilever said: “While reflecting on the trends and performance of 2011, the RSPO will advance forward focused on 3 strategic pillars for 2012 which include:<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The first strategic pillar will be to increase CSPO uptake amongst current demand markets while penetrating major new markets for sustainable palm oil. We aim to achieve this by: driving membership and strategic collaborations in new demand markets such as India and China, increasing membership throughout the supply chain to focus more on processors & traders to consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, tracking the annual communications on progress reports by members on their pledge towards CSPO; and promoting and marketing the adoption of the RSPO trademark.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The second strategic pillar will be focused on continuing certification momentum in large producer nations, while concurrently guiding and accelerating certification in new frontiers. We will do this through engagement and outreach within our multi stakeholder structure and also with various governments, member companies and associations; as well as facilitating funding and capacity building mechanisms for smallholders and new frontiers.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The third strategic pillar will be to enhance RSPO’s international standards for certification through the current review process of its Principles & Criteria, and address significant concerns such as GHG emissions and Indirect Land Use Change; guide and facilitate the New Planting Procedure and Supply Chain Certification process, commit to solving grievance concerns through a constructive engagement process; and develop acceptance of RSPO standards for other international schemes such as those for biofuels and benchmarking our standards through strategic and synergistic collaboration.” <u></u>Vis<u></u> further commented. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><i>About the 2011 RSPO CSPO Growth Interpretation Narrative (2011 GIN)</i></b><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>The first and only report in the market on certified sustainable palm oil aimed at analyzing, shaping and facilitating commitment and discussions towards sustainable palm oil. As the pioneer in certified sustainable standards for palm oil and for unparalleled growth in a commodity compared to any other roundtable initiatives, RSPO is introducing its annual qualitative narrative to share, calibrate, analyze and produce information on RSPO and CSPO growth and trends on an annual basis. The reports in the subsequent year will be developed using this inaugural narrative as a benchmark to validate growth, trends and directions. It is an RSPO-branded narrative which will be circulated globally to all stakeholders, members, media, financial analysts, investment banks, research houses, opinion leaders, governments and policymakers, embassies, councils, sustainable initiatives, and non-member palm oil players around the world. </i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>The report will officially be available as of March 6, 2012 at <a href="" name="135e3583fc7ea7d4_135e34130b33e8e0_135e33f3c3d39d36_135e33" style="color: #1155cc;"></a><a href="http://www.rspo.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.rspo.org</a></i><i>.</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><i>About RSPO</i></b><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in <u></u>Zurich<u></u>, <u></u>Switzerland<u></u>, while the secretariat is currently based in <u></u>Kuala Lumpur<u></u> with a satellite office in <u></u><u></u>Jakarta<u></u><u></u>.</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.</i><u></u><u></u></span></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<i style="color: #222222;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board and project-level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a common objective and make decisions by consensus.</span></i></div>
</i><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-27732218760452429152012-02-24T08:55:00.001-08:002012-02-24T08:55:32.181-08:00Illegal Orangutan Trader Prosecuted<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>We are very excited to see the Indonesian government finally uphold their laws to protect orangutans. We hope this is one more step towards a brighter future for orangutans.</i></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="date" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;">ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2012)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> — The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) has just announced Sumatra's first ever successful sentence of an illegal orangutan owner and trader in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8ej8-ifIfg/T0fA8G3xPdI/AAAAAAAAAOg/-tDfw5xY0Sc/s1600/120223142430-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x8ej8-ifIfg/T0fA8G3xPdI/AAAAAAAAAOg/-tDfw5xY0Sc/s200/120223142430-large.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">The seven-month prison sentence is only the third for Indonesia, despite orangutans being strictly protected under Indonesian law since 1924.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Although there have been over 2,500 confiscations of illegally held orangutans in Indonesia since the early 1970's, the first actual prosecution of an illegal orangutan owner occurred in Borneo in 2010, and now in Sumatra with this case in 2012.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The case began with the confiscation of a young male orangutan named Julius last July in Mardinding, Karo District, in the province of North Sumatra. The owner was allegedly trying to sell the orangutan, which was believed to be three years old.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The raid was conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry's Directorate-General for Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA), working in conjunction with WCS's Wildlife Crime Unit and the veterinarian and staff of the SOCP.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The Wildlife Crime Unit, created by WCS in 2003 and funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other donors, provides data and technical advice to law enforcement agencies to support the investigation and prosecution of wildlife crimes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The SOCP, implemented by the Swiss-based PanEco Foundation, and the Indonesian NGO YEL (Foundation for a Sustainable Ecosystem) have operated the only orangutan rescue center in Sumatra since 2001 and have so far reintroduced over 150 confiscated ex-pet orangutans back to the wild. Julius is now being cared for at the SOCP's orangutan quarantine center near Medan, with just over 50 other orangutans also being prepared for a return to the forest. After spending 30 days in quarantine, Julius is now living in a socialization cage, which allows him to adapt to the presence of other orangutans. Though the road to full rehabilitation might still be a long one, Julius is making excellent progress and is expected to be released back into the wild in the future.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The sentence reflects an increase in activity and action to combat the illegal wildlife trade in Indonesia in recent years. In the last two years there have been more than 20 arrests for illegally possessing or trading protected wildlife, including the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and pangolin.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The prosecution is in full compliance with the Indonesian Government's own National Orangutan Conservation Strategy and Action plan, launched in 2007.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The majority of illegal pet orangutans are a byproduct of forest clearance for palm oil plantations and of conflicts between farmers and orangutans that raid crops in converted agricultural areas. In most cases, they are not hunted specifically for food or trade in Sumatra, but are more "refugees" from forests that no longer exist.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
Conservationists believe Julius's mother was killed at the time of his capture. Relatively few orangutans are actively traded in Sumatra, but the SOCP and PHKA still confiscate around 30 illegal pets each year, whose mothers have been killed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The Head of Natural Resources Conservancy Agency (BBKSDA) North Sumatra, Arief Tongkagie, said: "Based on the successful completion of this case, our hope is that in the future more people will be willing to report crimes against orangutans."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
According to Panut, Chairman of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Forum (FOKUS): "Increased efforts to curb crimes against orangutans will provide a deterrent effect to traders."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
The Wildlife Conservation Society is actively trying to reduce the damaging impact of the illegal wildlife trade.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
"We commend Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry's Directorate-General for Forest Protection and Nature Conservation (PHKA) for taking a hard stance on wildlife trade, which is threatening to destroy the country's natural resources," said Dr Noviar Andayani, Director of the WCS Indonesia Program. "We are hopeful that this prosecution sends a clear message that illegal wildlife trade will not be tolerated in Indonesia."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
Live orangutans sold in Indonesia, or exported illegally to neighboring countries, are kept as pets or in private collections. Other wildlife traded for food, medicines, skins, biomedical research, souvenirs and pets from Indonesia include rhinos, elephants, tigers, birds, bears, orchids, marine and freshwater fish, turtles, fragrant timber, pangolins, corals, snakes, bats, sharks, and rodents.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
"Working closely with law enforcement is a key component in the fight against illegal wildlife trade," said Joe Walston, WCS Executive Director for Asia programs. "If governments want to protect their wildlife resources, they need to be serious about enforcement. Clearly Indonesia is taking a lead on this front."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: left;">
Ian Singleton, Director of Conservation for the PanEco Foundation and the person in charge of the SOCP, said: "It's absolutely fantastic to finally have a prosecution of an illegal orangutan 'owner' in Sumatra, but it's also long overdue. With this sentence, as long as it is widely publicized in the region, anyone considering capturing, killing or keeping an orangutan illegally will certainly think twice about it, and hopefully the numbers being killed and kept in the coming years will begin to decline."</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-92067159544083791102012-01-11T15:26:00.000-08:002012-01-11T15:26:11.225-08:00Swinging with Orangutans<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222;">In November, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222;">Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Palm Oil Awareness Team</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222;"> traveled to Indonesia and Malaysia. In past blog posts, we've highlighted the team's journey. During their time in </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222;">Bukit Lawang, part of the "Our Showers were cold but the water was clean..." post, the team was fortunate enough to see wild orangutans up close. The short clip below is a montage of their footage from this exciting experience.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwW5cGJ1Fdvb_2ecQJZzwerxoWtGWDuMnzJ4LX2wc_dPjni3TuI6Y2jAXpQGXsNly4U-klyKnCaPLd1OsrOxw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-62558054147763083312011-12-05T11:04:00.001-08:002011-12-05T11:08:39.742-08:00Ketambe<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next destination of our journey was Ketambe. We wanted to see this area in part because
the AZA’s (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) Ape TAG Conservation Initiative
is supporting a project called KREDI (Ketambe Restoration and Ecotourism
Development Initiative) in this area. This
project was initiated by OIC (Orangutan Information Centre). As the “hornbill flies” the distance between
Bukit Lawang and Ketambe is not far at all.
However, since we had to drive the long way around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Gunung</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Leuser</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">National Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>, this drive
took about 10 hours, and much of it was very bumpy on mountain switchbacks.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Forest</st1:place> trekking with our
guide Jhon Kanedi (this was his real name!) was a great experience but after
about three hours the steep, muddy conditions were taking their toll on some of
us. We found nests and traces of
orangutans, heard gibbon calls, and saw Thomas’s leaf monkeys, then it started
to rain (go figure…it IS the rainy season!).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qZZHyJssy4w/Tt0U5u0uq_I/AAAAAAAAAJg/LaQbfZXgVpk/s1600/Ketambe+seedlings+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qZZHyJssy4w/Tt0U5u0uq_I/AAAAAAAAAJg/LaQbfZXgVpk/s200/Ketambe+seedlings+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>Our next order of business was to visit a fledgling reforestation
site. There are huge challenges in this
area due to farmers from the next village encroaching on the National Park
land. OIC has been working with the
community for two years, trying to get farmers’ support and commitment to stop
encroaching on park land.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In meeting with village leaders later that evening, we
learned that they would like to expand ecotourism in the area so that there is
more sustainable income and less pressure to encroach on the forest. Although they have a long way to go, it is
good that they are working in that direction.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We stayed at the Friendship Guest House. There was a very friendly cat who kept us
company at meal times – which made us home sick for our own pets at home. The food was excellent, but the accommodations
were somewhat challenging and basic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A77VDr1xblg/Tt0WQtDgemI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/HGJ4fPEKGOs/s1600/flat+tire+kids+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A77VDr1xblg/Tt0WQtDgemI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/HGJ4fPEKGOs/s200/flat+tire+kids+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>On the way back to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Medan</st1:place></st1:city>
we experienced our first (and only) flat tire in over 40 hours of driving on
this trip. We drew a huge crowd of local
children who seemed amused and interested in the predicament of these western
tourists. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although the drives to and from Ketambe, which is in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">province</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Aceh</st1:placename></st1:place>, were not very comfortable, the
scenery was beautiful. It was the only
place we did not see miles and miles palm oil plantations, instead we saw quite
a bit of intact forest. We also saw an
incredible amount of corn grown on mountainsides (that can’t be fun to
cultivate). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One interesting thing we saw was two goats tied up to two
cows, and the goats were leading the way down a mountain road. Unfortunately we saw several cases of
macaques being kept as pets. The
strangest situation was a baby macaque clinging to a dog, which was balancing
on a dog crate on the back of a motorcycle.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fPcbcu9Ouc4/Tt0WRa6wTKI/AAAAAAAAAKA/7Zx6Sj-cR88/s1600/ketambe+ecotourism+discussion+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fPcbcu9Ouc4/Tt0WRa6wTKI/AAAAAAAAAKA/7Zx6Sj-cR88/s200/ketambe+ecotourism+discussion+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>After spending the night in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Medan</st1:place></st1:city>, we met with Panut Hadisiswoyo,
founding director of OIC. He did a
presentation for us showing some of OIC’s great projects, including HOCRU
(Human Orangutan Conflict Resolution Unit) and the education programs which
have reached 10,000 children in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Indonesia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are currently in Kuala Lampur, we will fly to Hong Kong
next, then <st1:city w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city>, then <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Denver</st1:place></st1:city>…we are all looking forward to our own
beds, our favorite American foods and drinks. </div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-9130478188198476192011-12-05T10:58:00.001-08:002011-12-05T11:03:39.844-08:00Our showers were cold but the water was clean...<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tlG3vliAvSc/Tt0U6iuA52I/AAAAAAAAAJo/3e9aZQqZYQQ/s1600/lady+spreading+fertilizer+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tlG3vliAvSc/Tt0U6iuA52I/AAAAAAAAAJo/3e9aZQqZYQQ/s200/lady+spreading+fertilizer+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>Our next stop was Besitang, we visited Putri Hijau, a small
holder palm oil plantation (2000 hectares).
It was a good opportunity to compare with the certified sustainable palm
oil plantations we had seen last year.
Their production yield is quite a bit lower than larger plantations, and
working conditions were different. We
spoke with a woman who spreads fertilizer and the plantation manager. They were happy to show us around the
plantation, and we saw the workers’ accommodations as well – these were very
basic, like most of the homes we saw in other parts of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Indonesia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adjacent to the small holder is a reforestation site started
by OIC (Orangutan Information Centre) two years ago. Unfortunately due to unclear boundaries, the
small holder had encroached on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Gunung</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Leuser</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">National
Forest</st1:placetype></st1:place> in 1995.
After this was discovered OIC took on daunting task of removing oil
palms and reforesting 200 hectares. In
December 2011 OIC will be removing 4000 additional oil palms to make more room
for reforestation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TyY3ETogObc/Tt0U-P5C52I/AAAAAAAAAJw/8cSPew7Z3Yc/s1600/debbie+planting+tree+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TyY3ETogObc/Tt0U-P5C52I/AAAAAAAAAJw/8cSPew7Z3Yc/s200/debbie+planting+tree+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>Next we drove to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Medan</st1:city></st1:place>
and met with Musim Mas. Dr. Gan Lian
Tiong, their head of sustainability; they had a presentation prepared to tell
us about their operations and sustainability initiatives. They are very well informed on the issues;
Musim Mas was the first Indonesian palm oil company that was certified by
RSPO. By the end of 2012 they plan to
have all of their plantations and mills certified by RSPO, and also have
methane capture established on all of the mills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-stGFLgS4PJA/Tt0U4fpQ5xI/AAAAAAAAAJY/OGz1z4gMUvQ/s1600/orangutan+pic+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-stGFLgS4PJA/Tt0U4fpQ5xI/AAAAAAAAAJY/OGz1z4gMUvQ/s200/orangutan+pic+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a>Then we drove to Bukit Lawang, a well-established ecotourism
site that we had visited last year. Our
Ecolodge was well adapted for western guests, our showers were cold but the
water was clean. We hiked to a feeding
platform in the rainforest and waited a while…we knew there was the possibility
we would not see orangutans. Then one by
one three different females and their babies, so a total of six orangutans,
came to the site. Two young females,
under four years old, did not come to the platform but chose to stay in the
trees and play with each other. It was
so fun to watch them interacting and wrestling – mostly while they hung by
their feet. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are off on our full day of driving to Ketambe, stay
tuned…<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Find out more about palm oil and orangutans on our</span><b style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/">palm oil crisis page</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> and check back soon - we’ll send updates when we can!</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-72240377603405350552011-11-29T13:56:00.001-08:002011-11-29T13:58:35.388-08:00Headed to Tangkahan<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Friday we flew from Kota Kinabalu, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malaysia</st1:country-region>, to Kuala Lampur then on to <st1:city w:st="on">Medan</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Indonesia</st1:country-region>
– on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Sumatra</st1:placename></st1:place>. We had visited <st1:place w:st="on">Sumatra</st1:place>
in 2010 and spent a little time with Ian Singleton of SOCP, Sumatran Orangutan
Conservation Programme. We were able to
meet up with Ian for dinner on our first night in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Medan</st1:place></st1:city>, and deliver some veterinary supplies
and medications being donated by Seneca Park Zoo, Kansas City Zoo and Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo. These items will be used
at SOCP’s orangutan rehabilitation center, Batu Mbelin. Ian updated us on various things such as
orangutan releases and law enforcement issues.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x-P5msbnSVU/TtVVJY4RTVI/AAAAAAAAAJI/4uRpdhrQZ5E/s1600/elephant+bath+tangkahan+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x-P5msbnSVU/TtVVJY4RTVI/AAAAAAAAAJI/4uRpdhrQZ5E/s200/elephant+bath+tangkahan+sf.JPG" width="200" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Saturday we drove to Tangkahan and stayed at the Mega
Inn, an ecotourism site. We went to a
scheduled Sumatran elephant bath. We came
away with mixed feelings about this program.
When we arrived we were not very surprised to see barbed wire and
electric fence surrounding the elephants’ area…but we were surprised to see
that all of the elephants were chained.
We were told that the mahouts unchain the elephants twice per day to
walk them down a trail for their scheduled bath/swim in the river.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qoZxB28v8mY/TtVVMYSh5qI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/Z3qprBEabzw/s1600/hike+tangkahan+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qoZxB28v8mY/TtVVMYSh5qI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/Z3qprBEabzw/s200/hike+tangkahan+sf.JPG" width="150" /></a>We met with the head of the tourism board in Tangkahan. He told us how the ecotourism that has been
happening in the area has really helped with the local economy. We’ll be able to share more details when we
have more time…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next morning we took a hike through the rainforest along
rubber tree collection trails. The
amazing highlight of this hike was hearing wild Siamangs and white-handed gibbons
vocalizing for over an hour! We did not
see them but the calls alone were so cool to hear! We saw Thomas’s leaf monkeys and long-tailed
macaques.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We’ll send more updates when we can, need to load up in the
van shortly!</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-6248802004846776762011-11-28T10:06:00.001-08:002011-11-28T10:13:41.580-08:00Seafood for Thanksgiving<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3mPI6tAOAo/TtPOBFgJ-4I/AAAAAAAAAJA/kh1iZlWSxS0/s1600/3+cmz+girls+sf.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3mPI6tAOAo/TtPOBFgJ-4I/AAAAAAAAAJA/kh1iZlWSxS0/s200/3+cmz+girls+sf.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
RT9 (RSPO) Conference has come to an end and we feel we have
gained a wealth of knowledge. It was
amazing and inspiring that nearly 1000 people from 50 countries came together
to discuss how best to continue to move certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) forward,
but it was also very clear that there is still a lot of work to be done. We heard varying opinions on the best ways to
ensure a better future for not only the palm oil industry, but also the
environment as a whole. There were many discussions surrounding environmental
issues like deforestation, greenhouse gases and HCV (high conservation value) areas. There are solutions but will take all
stakeholders setting aside their differences and working together to make the
changes that are best for everyone involved.
Another interesting thing we found was that the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place> was very under-represented at
the conference although we are one of the top consumers of palm oil in the
world. This makes us realize is that the
problems of palm oil are still not widely known or understood in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and consumers
have yet to inform their favorite companies that they will only accept CSPO in
the products they purchase. Help us
spread the word to giants like General Mills, Pepperidge Farms, and Pillsbury
that joining the RSPO and using 100% CSPO is the right thing to do not only for
the survival of endangered species such as orangutans, rhinos, and tigers but also
for the health of the planet.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Oq_ScLv0poc/TtPN8CLIWBI/AAAAAAAAAIw/cF17gSX2R3c/s1600/1000+attendees.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Oq_ScLv0poc/TtPN8CLIWBI/AAAAAAAAAIw/cF17gSX2R3c/s200/1000+attendees.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we applied to join RSPO we had a choice to join as
affiliate members or ordinary members.
We chose to pay a higher membership fee in part because we felt it was
crucial to be able to vote in the RSPO General Assembly. So it was extremely gratifying to be able to
vote in the 8<sup>th</sup> General Assembly on numerous important resolutions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPx8rfTb1w/TtPN_yZ290I/AAAAAAAAAI4/u18QN28YgLw/s1600/Speakers+-Inspiring+Small+Holders.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VrPx8rfTb1w/TtPN_yZ290I/AAAAAAAAAI4/u18QN28YgLw/s200/Speakers+-Inspiring+Small+Holders.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Thursday night we did not exactly eat a typical
Thanksgiving dinner…we ate at a seafood restaurant! We had a great conversation with Isabelle
Lackman of Hutan, an orangutan conservation organization here in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malaysia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. This morning we spent some time with Adam
Harrison of WWF, who is on the RSPO executive board and is a great resource
regarding palm oil sustainability issues.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are flying to <st1:place w:st="on">Sumatra</st1:place>
today to begin the next exciting part of our journey!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Find out more about palm oil and orangutans on our</span><b style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/">palm oil crisis page</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> and check back soon - we’ll send updates when we can!</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-52176848708111169812011-11-23T16:13:00.001-08:002011-11-23T16:31:19.518-08:00Happy Thanksgiving from Malaysia!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Arrives in Kota Kinabalu for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Meeting</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>by Dina Bredahl, Animal Care Manager and Palm Oil Awareness Team</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">What has Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Palm Oil Awareness Team been
up to? </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Planning another trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Indonesia</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malaysia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
to learn more about</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">palm oil issues and how we can help wild orangutans.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">During our first
trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Indonesia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malaysia</st1:place></st1:country-region> in May/June
of 2010,</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">we learned so much about palm oil production and issues, as well as</span></span>
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">many other factors
affecting the people and wildlife. We did not</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">think we would be
returning again anytime soon. But then Cheyenne</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Mountain Zoo became the
first zoo to join the RSPO (Roundtable on</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Sustainable Palm Oil). We decided to attend RT9, the 9th annual RSPO</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">conference in Kota
Kinabalu, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malaysia. </st1:place></st1:country-region>This would be our first</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">opportunity to attend an RSPO meeting as members, and
be able to vote</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">on issues in the general assembly!</span></span><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In recent months we planned a trip to not only include the
RSPO</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">meeting but also to visit <st1:place w:st="on">Sumatra</st1:place>
and work with a conservation group</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">we have never worked with before, Orangutan
Information Centre (OIC). We have an exciting itinerary planned over the next
two weeks.</span></span><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">After leaving the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> on November 19th, and traveling
for 37 hours, we</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">finally made it safely to
our hotel in Kota Kinabalu (with all of our</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">luggage!). We
attended the first day of RT9 on Tuesday, we are</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">definitely learning a
lot. We split up for the preparatory clusters</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">topics in the morning; Tracey went to Biodiversity High Conservation</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Value, Debbie and Antonia
went to Smallholders (these are often</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">individual family-run
small plots of oil palms), Liz and Lori went to</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">RSPO 101 and Dina went
to palm oil greenhouse gas issues. The</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">keynote speaker, Jonathon
Porritt, gave a very inspiring talk about</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">environmental issues on a
broad scope, how RSPO fits into the big</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">picture, and how other
crops/industries will be modeling their</span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">sustainability programs
after the RSPO.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Find out more about palm oil and orangutans on our<b> <a href="http://www.cmzoo.org/conservation/palmOilCrisis/">palm oil crisis page</a></b> and check back soon - we’ll send updates when we can!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CXBWXBl6O8/Ts2NW5-gF1I/AAAAAAAAAIo/dzj599HBNuE/s1600/Palm+Oil+Team+11-11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1CXBWXBl6O8/Ts2NW5-gF1I/AAAAAAAAAIo/dzj599HBNuE/s320/Palm+Oil+Team+11-11.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">First day of RT9, the </span></span><span class="apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">RSPO conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">From left: Antonia Alvarado (El Paso Zoo), </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Lori Perkins (Zoo
Atlanta), Liz Harmon </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">(Kansas City Zoo), </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Tracey Gazibara (Cheyenne Mountain Zoo), </span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Debbie Fenton </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">(Cheyenne Mountain Zoo)</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">and </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Dina Bredahl </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">(Cheyenne Mountain Zoo)</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span></div>
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-51315077145443685662011-10-21T07:20:00.000-07:002011-10-21T07:21:09.331-07:00McDonald's Joins Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil; Commits to Sourcing Sustainable Palm Oil<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"></span><br />
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
OAK BROOK, IL, Oct 19, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- McDonald's Corporation <span class="quotePeekContainer" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="quotepeekbase bgQuote up" id="quote1891690390" style="background-color: #c7f9d2; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(111, 207, 133); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(111, 207, 133); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(111, 207, 133); border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; color: #007c1d; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.82em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><a class="" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/MCD?link=MW_story_quote" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #007c1d; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="symbol" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">MCD</span> <span class="data bgPercentChange symbol" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #007c1d; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">+2.55%</span></a></span></span> today announced its membership in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This membership represents significant progress in the company's commitment to source palm oil only from RSPO member companies by the end of this year, and to use only RSPO-certified palm oil in restaurants and pre-cooked chicken and potato products by 2015.</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Participating in multi-stakeholder engagements such as the RSPO is one way for us to put the power and leadership of McDonald's behind commitments to continue to source sustainable ingredients such as palm oil," said Francesca DeBiase, McDonald's vice president, Worldwide Strategic Sourcing. "Sustainability issues as they relate to food are often confusing to consumers, and we can help lead the way by educating our customers on how our food is sourced."</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
McDonald's uses palm oil primarily within Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America as a restaurant frying oil and as a par-fry for pre-cooking of products such as French fries, chicken patties and Chicken McNuggets.</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
McDonald's membership in the RSPO is an extension of its Sustainable Land Management Commitment (SLMC) announced earlier this year. The McDonald's SLMC requires that, over time, its suppliers will only use agricultural raw materials for the company's food and packaging that originate from sustainably-managed lands, ensuring the food served in its restaurants around the world is sourced from certified sustainable sources. The commitment is supported by an external, third-party evaluation process.</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
Based on a thorough analysis conducted in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to identify the top raw materials which have the most potential sustainability impacts, McDonald's SLMC actions initially are focused on Beef, Poultry, Coffee, Palm Oil and fiber for Packaging.</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We are extremely pleased that McDonald's is making significant headway in showing its commitment toward the sustainable sourcing of its food ingredients. The fact that one of the world's largest consumer brands commits to the growth and use of sustainable palm oil is an important reflection of the increasing demand for sustainable palm oil in consumer markets," said Darrel Webber, RSPO Secretary General. "McDonald's membership in the RSPO reinforces the growing commitment of U.S.-based companies to sustainable palm oil. Furthermore, McDonald's pledge to source only RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil by 2015 reflects the market transformation that is currently taking place worldwide. I am convinced that McDonald's commitment will inspire other global brands to follow suit."</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
More information about McDonald's SLMC can be found at:</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr/about/sustainable_supply/sustainable_land_management_commitment.html .</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
McDonald's is the world's leading global foodservice retailer with more than 33,000 locations serving approximately 64 million customers in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women. To learn more about the company, please visit www.aboutmcdonalds.com and follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mcdonaldscorp ) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/mcdonaldscorp )</div>
<div class="" id="" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; margin-bottom: 14px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 0px;">
McDonald's Corp., McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets and World Wildlife Fund are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-7529528074354019982011-10-12T08:41:00.000-07:002011-10-12T08:42:19.600-07:00Demand for certified sustainable palm oil surges 70%<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<h1 id="story_title" style="font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 35px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal;">We are extremely excited about the increase in demand for CSPO, please enjoy the article below.</span></h1>
<h1 id="story_title" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 29px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 35px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;">By LIZ LEE </span></h1>
<h2 id="story_byline" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<a href="mailto:lizlee@thestar.com.my" style="color: #003399; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;">lizlee@thestar.com.my</a></h2>
<div id="story_content" style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 15px;">
<div id="google_ads_div_Business_Story_toptext_ad_container">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
PETALING JAYA: Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) saw a 70% surge in demand last month, setting off a round of cheering in the Rountable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
It was a significant improvement from 48% a year ago. In the last two years, the demand for CSPO had increased from 25.3% in 2009 to 46.2% last year.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The positive market uptake was certainly welcomed as RSPO was recently on shaky grounds after Indonesia withdrew its membership.</div>
<div class="story_image left" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 194px;">
<img alt="" height="213" src="http://biz.thestar.com.my/archives/2011/10/11/business/p10-kees.JPG" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-width: initial; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="180" /><span class="caption" style="clear: both; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold;"><b>Kees Vis:</b> ‘The current number sparks hopes that a breakthrough is near.’</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
RSPO <span about="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Jan Kees Vis" class="knx-annotation" content="Jan Kees Vis" property="foaf:name" typeof="foaf:Person" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"><a href="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Jan%20Kees%20Vis" rel="foaf:homepage" style="color: #003399; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">president Jan Kees Vis</a></span> said in a statement that “the current number sparks hopes that a breakthrough is near.”</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“Historically, there has always been a delay in market take-up versus production increase, as buyers of large companies have to commit as long as a year in advance to buy raw materials,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
“They will only sign on to what they are sure they can actually purchase from the market in the future,” he added.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span about="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Darrel Webber" class="knx-annotation" content="Darrel Webber" property="foaf:name" typeof="foaf:Person" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"><a href="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Darrel%20Webber" rel="foaf:homepage" style="color: #003399; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Secretary-general Darrel Webber</a></span> also noted that “a significant number of retailers, consumer goods manufacturers, processors and traders have committed to 100% CSPO by 2015.”</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In its efforts to further increase CSPO demand, RSPO has launched an awareness campaign. RSPO will also launch the WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard 2011 next month to measure the commitment and performance of over 130 major retailers and manufacturers.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Belinda Howell from the <span about="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Retailers Palm Oil Group" class="knx-annotation" content="Retailers Palm Oil Group" property="foaf:name" typeof="foaf:Organization" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"><a href="http://archives.thestar.com.my/search/?q=Retailers%20Palm%20Oil%20Group" rel="foaf:homepage" style="color: #003399; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Retailers Palm Oil Group</a></span> said that “growers who have made significant investments and efforts to achieve RSPO certification have been frustrated by the lack of appetite in the market (so) it is particularly good news to see that now more than two thirds have been taken up”.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
RSPO was formed in 2004 to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products through global standards and engagement of stakeholders.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The association covers stakeholders from seven categories of the palm oil industry, namely oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental non-governmental organisations (NGO) and social or developmental NGOs.</div>
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-75188227698025769922011-08-30T09:18:00.000-07:002011-08-30T09:18:11.832-07:00Justin's Nut ButterOver the last year, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been working closely Justin's, a company based in Boulder CO, on becoming RSPO members. Justin's is a company that makes organic nut butter products. Justin's was already sourcing their palm oil from an RSPO certified plantation in South America, but they went a step further and joined the RSPO themselves. Not only did they join the RSPO, they chose to start using our "Orangutan Friendly Palm Oil" logo on their products. <br />
<br />
Some of the products with the new labeling have finally hit the shelves! The peanut butter cups now have the logo on the back of the packaging, as well as some jars of the nut butters.<br />
<br />
To find a store that carries Justin's products near you, go to the link below.<br />
<a href="http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/shop.php">http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/shop.php</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-312104647617367336.post-50252033932918129602011-08-05T12:32:00.000-07:002011-08-05T12:32:37.315-07:00Justin’s Nut Butter, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Raising Sustainable Palm Oil AwarenessBOULDER, Colo.—Justin's Nut Butter and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZ) are working together to raise awareness regarding the timely issue of producing and using sustainable palm oil. Both members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Justin’s is including the new CMZ logo for Orangutan Friendly Palm Oil on its squeeze packs hitting shelves July 2011. The new logo will make it easier for consumers to identify products manufactured with sustainable palm oil. <br />
<br />
“It’s my belief sustainable, certified palm oil is the most responsible way to use this common ingredient, and Justin’s Nut Butter has been proactive to address this important issue. Having the logo on the packaging also helps create awareness around the issues associated with unsustainably harvested palm oil," said Catherine Greener, principal and co-founder of Cleargreen Advisors.<br />
<br />
Demand for palm oil has steadily increased as the health concerns swirling around trans fats continue to have consumers looking for alternatives. However, the practices frequently employed while producing palm oil crops—especially clear-cutting—have had devastating effects to the ecosystem and wildlife living in those areas.<br />
<br />
“We don’t believe boycotting palm oil—the harvesting and production of which is the livelihood of so many—is the solution; but rather it’s being conscientious about where and how we source the ingredient. For us the choice was easy: Justin’s has always used sustainable organic palm oil supplied by CIRANDA and sourced from Brazil," explained Justin Gold, CEO and founder of Justin’s.<br />
<br />
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's mission is to make a difference for wild orangutans by raising awareness about the palm oil crisis, and encouraging people to take action by providing tools and information allowing them to make globally responsible consumer choices. “By being the first company to use our logo, Justin's is helping us achieve our goal of moving the palm oil industry toward sustainability," said CMZ animal care manager, Dina Bredahl.<br />
<br />
For a product to carry the CMZ’s Orangutan Friendly Palm Oil logo, a company must:<br />
- Be a member of RSPO.<br />
- Purchase palm oil and derivatives solely from producers and suppliers who are members of the <br />
RSPO.<br />
- Keep consumers informed via frequent company website updates, announcing what percentage of <br />
certified sustainable palm oil is in their products.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0