Is hour Halloweem candy linked to rainforest destruction?

By Jeremy Hance - mongabay.com

A campaign by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo 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).

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.

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.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has created a PDF file 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.

"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."

Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1011-hance-halloween-palm-oil.html#PjJczKIAAefhPIrM.99

Swinging with Orangutans

In November, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Palm Oil Awareness Team  traveled to Indonesia and Malaysia. In past blog posts, we've highlighted the team's journey. During their time in 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.

Our showers were cold but the water was clean...

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 Indonesia.

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 Gunung Leuser National Forest 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.

Next we drove to Medan 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.

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. 

We are off on our full day of driving to Ketambe, stay tuned…

Find out more about palm oil and orangutans on our palm oil crisis page and check back soon - we’ll send updates when we can!

Headed to Tangkahan

On Friday we flew from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, to Kuala Lampur then on to Medan, Indonesia – on the island of Sumatra.  We had visited Sumatra 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 Medan, 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.

 

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.

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…

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.

We’ll send more updates when we can, need to load up in the van shortly!

Seafood for Thanksgiving

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 US 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 US, 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.

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^th General Assembly on numerous important resolutions.

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 Malaysia.  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.

We are flying to Sumatra today to begin the next exciting part of our journey!

Find out more about palm oil and orangutans on our palm oil crisis page and check back soon - we’ll send updates when we can!

It’s Not all Paradise

Some of the amazing cultural and societal differences that our team noticed are described in the following journal entries from Tracey, Dina, and Mandy.

In a lot of ways Sukau is an animal lover’s paradise. The attitudes of the local people are very conservation-oriented in 2010, largely due to the influence of Dr. Isabelle Lackman and Marc Ancrenaz of KOCP. The one aspect of Sukau that is not “green” is that Sukau has no trash or recycling services. One option for local people to recycle and dispose of their trash would be to drive bins or bags of trash to Sandakan in their personal vehicles. This would be ridiculous due to the distance, road conditions and the fact that many residents of Sukau do not own personal vehicles. Another option would be to dig a hole on their property to create a small personal land fill on their own land. This option is extremely labor intensive and not a feasible long-term plan. Another method we witnessed was to carry large quantities of trash to the Kinabatangan River and dump it in to the river. Most people in Sukau do not do this, but there are some who do utilize this option to dispose of their trash and recycling. The most common method we observed is to burn trash, including plastic bottles, which releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere. It was very sad to see such a conservation-minded village have no choice but to pollute their river and environment.



The traditional bathing method in Indonesia and Malaysia is called a mandi bath. This involves using a ladle and pouring clean or river water over yourself instead of sitting in a tub or standing in a shower. Every bathroom has a drain in the floor so you just stand in the bathroom (or on the river’s edge) to take the mandi bath. We asked about the tiny structures at the river’s edge, in front of each house – what are those? They are for the women to change when they take a mandi bath!


Mandi bath.


Women's changing rooms at the edge of the river.

Probably the cutest tradition we learned about is that the youngest child of the household is supposed to kiss the hands of adults (friends and family). Here is a photo of Mincho’s twin sons kissing Tracey and Stephanie’s hands.



The five widows are a group of women who perform traditional music. They came to our home stay with their unique musical instruments and did a special performance for our group. The music was great and everyone had a fun time!


The Five Widows.


Music night with The Five Widows performing for the group.

The Insights of a Local Community Leader

In the process of planning our trip we had told Dr. Isabelle, a world renowned French primatologist and Director of Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP), that we would like to speak with a community leader if possible. She arranged for us to meet with Suali bin Adai, the Muslim leader in Sukau.

We quickly learned why Suali bin Adai is considered a wise man. We asked him many questions about what he has experienced with the development of oil palm plantations in Malaysia over the years, and also the changes he has seen since KOCP and Red Ape Encounters were established. The biggest changes he has seen since palm oil plantations replaced some large forested areas are obviously loss of habitat, increase in high winds (which is not normal for these areas), and he said “it is much hotter than it was in the ‘old days.’” When asked if peoples’ attitudes about orangutans have changed since KOCP has been active for the last twelve years, he had this to say:

Years ago we saw orangutans sometimes but it was just an orangutan. We did not have an intention to kill them (note: Muslims do not hunt orangutans for food). After they came (Dr. Isabelle and Marc) we found out that it is important for them to be here. It is good that they are here.

Mr. Adai is a dignified man who was easy to talk to (with Mincho interpreting) and he has a great sense of humor. He has embraced eco-tourism, and when asked if he thought that more visitors should come to Sukau he said, “Yes! They should come!” Mr. Adai’s answers were very insightful and helpful in our understanding of the realities people face in Sukau.


While we do not have a picture with Mr. Adai, this is a picture with Mincho, our guide.

Fire Hose Bridges in the Rainforest

This is a journal entry we received from Dina Bredahl about some of the amazing uses of fire hose in the forests for the orangutans:

BCT (Borneo Conservation Trust) has constructed several fire hose bridges across rivers in the Kinabatangan area. Several primate species regularly use the bridges to cross between formerly isolated areas; orangutans have been seen using them as well. (See the photo below of the fire hose bridge with the macaque crossing)

Note: many zoos in the US, including Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, use fire hose donated from fire departments in their primate exhibits as well. Fire hose is an economical, sturdy, long-lasting and safe way to furnish exhibits for these athletic, arboreal great apes.

Reforestation Experience

Dina Bredahl sent this special experience for us to share with you.

Each of us has been very affected by things we have seen and experienced on this trip. One thing that really hit home for some of us was having the opportunity to plant a tree as part of the reforestation project. The gravity of habitat loss issues facing orangutans can seem overwhelming at times. The chance to plant a tree and have a positive impact was extremely special. We each named our tree. One of the trees was named “MaryAnn” to honor a former staff member of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Mary Ann O’Connell, whose passion for reforestation of orangutan habitat and research skills have made their mark with orangutan conservation at CMZ.



We saw reforestation sites that were in different stages of maturity, and we learned so much about the investment each tree requires. It is a relief to know that the KOCP reforestation team will monitor, care for and protect each tree we planted during the next several years. We saw trees that were planted two years ago and some were over twenty feet tall! Their protective electric fence (to keep elephants at bay when the seedlings were small) is gone now and the team will continue to remove strangling vines over the next couple of years.


Seedling nursery for reforestation.


Mary Ann O'Connell

Why the Team Came to Sukau

Dr. Isabelle Lackman, a world renowned French primatologist and Director of Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP), visited Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and other zoos in the United States last October. She presented to CMZ staff about her work in Sabah, Malaysia. We were very interested in the projects and so impressed that Isabelle does not have a doom and gloom attitude about orangutan conservation. We asked her what we could do in the U.S. to help wild orangutans, and one of the things she said was that we should really come visit Sukau. Amazingly we were able to make this happen thanks to CMZ’s Q4C (Quarters for Conservation) program!

Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP):
At the headquarters, Isabelle presented to our whole group about the many ways KOCP has improved Sukau and the surrounding forest. Isabelle and Marc Ancrenaz started working in Sukau in 1998. Here are just a few highlights of their work:

• Educating and influencing local people about the value of the rainforest, and the Kinabatangan River biodiversity. When Isabelle and Marc first arrived in Sukau the people were almost at war against animals, the rainforest, etc. Now they truly do seem to value it.

• Helping the local people find ways to make a living without harming the rainforest or rivers.

• Giving guidance, as needed, as the local people established Red Ape Encounters, an ecotourism company.

• Setting up a research station to study orangutans and their behavior. Due to their research, we now know that orangutans can thrive in secondary (recovered/replanted) forests.

• Helping local people find ways to live in harmony with the local Borneo elephant herds. They have established an elephant conservation unit that monitors elephant herd movement, helps put up electric fences as needed and prevents conflicts between people and elephants.

•Buying up land and building corridors and firehose bridges with organizations such as BCT, Bornean Conservation Trust.

•Creating a reforestation team – they hired a team of four local women to plant and care for seedlings in the reforestation areas. These areas need to be monitored, protected (from elephants) and maintained for several years after planting.

•Rainforest seedling nurseries – training many families in the community how to sustainably harvest and grow some key rainforest tree species; the forestry department pays for the seedlings, about fifty cents per tree, and will order thousands at a time as the need arises. Twelve families have set up nurseries and are supported by this sustainable income.

We were amazed at the effectiveness of these projects in changing the attitudes of the local people.

Note: KOCP is funded by Hutan, an NGO based in France. Funds come largely from donors, including some zoos in the U.S.


Our group with Dr. Isabelle and the Reforestation Team

More Adventures and Animals in Malaysia

For reference, our team was located in Sabah (the red “A” on the map) for 5 days (from June 1-5). This is where they stayed with their home-stay family and experienced several meetings and tours of the region.


Here is a journal entry we received from Dina Bredahl about their adventures and the animals they saw in the Sabah region.

During our time in Sabah and throughout northern Malaysia we went on several river boat tours in the evenings, early morning and late at night. With Mincho as our guide we saw the most amazing array of animals. A few highlights were:

• Crocodiles (one tiny and one huge!!!)
• Storm storks
• Stork-billed kingfisher
• White-bellied fish eagle
• Mangrove snake
• Monitor lizards of all sizes
• Rhinocerus hornbills
• Bushy-crested hornbills
• Black hornbills
• Wrinkled hornbills
• Pied hornbills (our guide told us we were SO lucky to see so many specie of hornbills!)
• Brahminy kites (chased a fish eagle away from their territory)
• Purple heron
• Gray-tailed racer snake
• Stork-billed kingfishers
• Blue-eared kingfisher (SO tiny and beautifully colored)
• Buffy fish owl (HUGE yellow eyes, saw it late at night)
• Flat headed cat! (looks similar to a domestic cat, also saw late at night, they fish along the river so we saw it right at the water’s edge)

Some of the most interesting animals we saw were the primates, as we were able to observe wild behavior and intricate social interactions.

• Orangutan foraging in a tree near the river!!!
• Silver leaf monkey
• Long-tailed macaques (also called crab-eating macaques)
• Pig-tailed macaques
• Proboscis monkeys (see pictures below)

The macaques seem pretty habituated to human presence due to the frequent riverboat tours, so they were hanging from branches and grabbing fruits that were touching the water, very close to our boat. Crocodiles are a danger to the monkeys near the river, so they would quickly scamper back up in to the trees. There were so many babies!

The proboscis monkeys were fairly easy to find right before sunset, along the river in sparsely leafed gigantic trees. The monkeys would settle down for the night toward the ends of branches so they can see or feel a clouded leopard approaching in the night.


It was fascinating to see the dominant male, with his gigantic nose, big belly and confident poses; also the young males practicing their open-mouth threats and postures. The proboscis monkeys did not spend much time low near the water, but we did see them take the most incredible leaps from one tree to the next, planning each leap to land much lower in the next tree.

Journal Notes from Dina Bredahl

When we were in Kota Kinabalu we not only met with John Payne but also with Mr. Nabuo Nakanishi of BCT, Borneo Conservation Trust of Japan. He shared with us their goals to raise funds to purchase key areas of land. These key areas will be important corridors for orangutans, elephants and other animals to travel between isolated fragments of forest along the river.

We flew to Sandakan and were met at the airport by Mincho, who would be our guide for the next five days in Sukau. Sukau is a village of 1,200 people, 150 families, along the Kinabatangan River. He is an honorary wildlife warden and works for both Hutan, an orangutan conservation organization, and Red Ape Encounters, an eco-tourism company in Sukau.

Our first destination between Sandakan and Sukau was Sepilok, the oldest orangutan rehabilitation centre in the world. We attended a scheduled feeding and were surprised at the number of people that were there…hundreds of people were crowded onto observation decks. Some were international visitors but many were Malaysian. It was so good to see that some Malaysian people are interested in orangutans. Three young orangutans came out of the forest to a feeding platform where they took food and milk from the staff. After a few minutes the three orangutans shimmied away on cables, back into the forest.


Macaques waited until the staff were gone then swarmed on to the platform to finish off the fruit. Here is a picture of long-tailed macaque we saw:


Next we drove to Gomantong Cave. After applying lots of mosquito repellent, we walked for a while on wooden boardwalks through a rare primary growth forest. We were warned, prior to entering the cave, that there would be bats, guano, cockroaches and swiftlets everywhere. Swiftlets are small insect-eating birds that are important to the economy of this region. The indigenous people have been harvesting the nests of several swiftlet species for generations. The nests are a delicacy in China and are served as bird’s nest soup. The bamboo ladders and methods of collecting the nests are incredible feats of engineering, reaching the tops of caves that are up to 90 feet in height. The mountain of guano in the middle of the cave was unbelievable, and the boardwalk was slippery with guano. The nests are so valuable that people live in the dark caves 24/7 in order to guard them.

After the cave, as we were walking back through the forest, we had the unexpected surprise…we saw three wild orangutans!!! Two of them seemed to be traveling together, and adult female and her subadult daughter. Since it is one of the only primary growth forests left in Malaysia the trees were quite tall. It was interesting to see the orangutans disappear and reappear over and over again as they moved through the forest. Another rarity in Malaysia is dipterocarp trees, which are only found in primary growth forests. We were lucky enough to see a strong wind come up and blow numerous dipterocarp seeds out of the massive tree. They spun slowly to the ground, dispersing in different directions, it was amazing! The seeds are similar in size and shape to a badminton birdie.

Next we drove to our home stay in Sukau. We stayed for five days with an amazing family; Harizah and Samsudin are the mother and father of six children ranging in age from about 8 months to 18 years.


Harizah cooked so many delicious local dishes for us, such as giant prawns, fried whole fishes, Sabah vegetables, stewed jackfruit, curried chicken, lots of rice. Noodles, eggs and fried bananas are a traditional breakfast in Sabah. It was crazy to sit on their porch in the morning and see a rare Mueller’s gibbon or maroon leaf monkey swing by on the electric lines!!

We hope to send more updates later about the several river boat tours we have done and the amazing animals we have seen so far!

The Harvest Festival in Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu City Harvest Festival
The Ka'amatan (harvest) Festival is celebrated as a thanksgiving in honor of the bambaazon (rice spirit) for a good harvest by the Kadazandusun and Murutic communities in Sabah. This is the city-level Ka'amatan celebration which include highlights such as the most anticipated Harvest Beauty pageant or the Unduk Ngadau, sugandoi (singing) competition featuring Kadazandusun songs, drinking of rice wine (lihing) competition, local food tastings, traditional dancing and many more. Since 1987 Kota Kinabalu Yatch Club has hosted yacht and boat races during the festival. The races are an opportunity for sailors to meet other sailors and the races facilitate international participation in the festival proceedings. All are welcome to join the city dwellers in the merriment, Sabahan style!

Our team had the great fortune to be in Kota Kinabalu during the Harvest Festival and shared what they said:

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah. We visited Sabah on a holiday called Harvest Festival. We visited the Sunday morning market (see photo) and it was SOOOOOOOO busy. You could buy anything from live rabbits to handicrafts to clothes, pots and pans or books. We also saw a beautiful fish sculpture near the sea (see photo).






























We are heading to Sandakan, Sepilok and will be staying at a home stay for 5 nights and may not have internet until we return to Kota Kinabalu. We are really enjoying our travels through Malaysia.

Meeting with John Payne in Sabah

We had the privilege to meet with John Payne, author of numerous books about mammals in Malaysia who has been working here since 1977. He shared a wealth of knowledge with us over three hours, his experiences concerning numerous threats facing orangutans in Malaysia and Indonesia.


We also met and stayed with an amazing woman who works with Hutan, an Orangutan and Elephant Conservation Organization in Sabah. Harjinder Kler was a wonderful hostess. She has lived her whole life in Sabah, and also knows a great deal about the orangutans here.

From England, Dr. Junaidi (John) Payne is the senior advisor to WWF Malaysia. He received his BS in Zoology from King’s College, London University in 1972 and a Ph.D in Tropical Ecology from Cambridge University in 1979.

Dr. Payne has worked on a variety of conservation projects in Sabah, including wildlife surveys, Sabah Conservation Strategy (adopted by the Sabah Government in 1992), early proposals for Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, and building up a full-time WWF presence in Sabah. He has written several books including A Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo (1985), and This is Borneo (1994).

In an interview a few years ago, Dr. Payne remarked:
“The remaining natural forests around Sukau are examples of an extremely rare habitat type – natural vegetation of an alluvial floodplain. This is the once-widespread habitat of South-east Asia which in early times (thousands, or at least hundreds. of years ago) was converted to rice paddies. Rice can grow only in open, exposed areas, free of invading tree cover. The ability of certain varieties of rice to grow in flooded land, where few tree species can grow, was a part of the reason why rice expanded as a major food crop through South-east Asia.

It is unclear why lower Kinabatangan escaped human settlement and conversion to rice fields in ancient times. In the ninetieth century, the British administration thought that piracy from the southern Philippines and head-hunting raiders from Kalimantan, were the main reason for the very small numbers of human inhabitants of lower Kinabatangan. More probably, the unpredictable timing and depth of flooding, compared to that generated by the more seasonal rainfall patterns on much of the mainland Asia, made rice growing too risky in the high by erratic rainfall zones of Borneo. Floodplains are not a stable ecosystem. Slow attrition and re-deposition of sediments means that the river’s course changes slowly. A big flood event can cause more rapid change at some localities, especially by cutting through a big bend in the river. Oxbow lakes may be created almost literally overnight, but they remain potentially for centuries before being filled with sediment and pioneered for vegetation.”

Photos from Sumatra and Malaysia

Our group is having a wonderful time in Sumatra and Malaysia and learning so much, although internet service is limited and receiving these photos has been nothing but a small miracle. Here are some of the pictures we have received so far from their travels and a short message from our team. We hope you enjoy them.

Yay! We love Malaysia so far. Eighth attempt to send photos is a charm. We miss everyone!!!!
-Dina, Mandy & Tracey