URGENT PETITION: Bring the killers of Joël Imbangola Lunea to justice!

rainforest-rescue.org

Campaigners against the palm oil industry are literally putting their lives on the line: Activist Joël Imbangola Lunea was beaten to death by a security guard of a palm oil company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Call on the DRC government to bring his killers to justice NOW – enough is enough!

Call to action

To: the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

We demand an investigation of the murder of Joël Imbangola Lunea and an end to the harassment of the environmental and human rights organization RIAO-RDC.

Read letter

A member of the Congolese environmental and human rights organization RIAO-RDC, Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea, was brutally beaten and killed by a security guard of the palm oil company Feronia-PHC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on July 15, 2019.

The killing follows months of intimidation directed at members of RIAO-RDC. The organization as been supporting the struggle of communities against the illegal occupation of their land by Feronia. RIAO-RDC has witnessed and increasing escalation of conflicts between security personnel in the plantations and community members.

Together with RIAO-RDC, we are calling on the President of the DRC, Mr. Félix Tshisekedi, to initiate a full investigation of the assassination of Joël Imbangola Lunea immediately, and to ensure that those responsible for his killing be held to account.

We further urge President of the DRC and the governours of the three provinces where Feronia’s plantations are located to guarantee the security of members of RIAO-RDC and the communities affected by the FERONIA plantations.

This petition will be delivered to President Tshisekedi and the governor of Équateur Province – the scene of the crime – on July 29.

Please sign and share our petition – it’s time to stop the harassment, killing and land grabs NOW!
Back­ground

Further information (in French):
Communiqué de RIAO-RDC | Kinshasa, 22 juillet 2019 – Un défenseur des terres violemment tué en RDC

Un membre de l’organisation congolaise de défense de l’environnement et des droits de l’homme RIAO-RDC a été brutalement tué par un agent de sécurité de la société canadienne Feronia Inc. ce dimanche 21 juillet 2019, près des plantations Boteka de la société à Bempumba, dans la Province Equateur, République Démocratique du Congo (RDC).

L’assassinat fait suite à des mois d’intimidation dirigée par la compagnie contre des membres du RIAO-RDC qui aident les communautés locales à déposer une plainte contre la société pour l’occupation de leurs terres.

JOEL Imbangola Lunea était chauffeur d’une pirogue à moteur utilisée pour le transport des personnes et des marchandises entre les villages autour des plantations de Boteka de Feronia et la ville de Mbandaka. Il a également été un défenseur de sa communauté en tant que membre du RIAO-RDC, et a joué un rôle particulièrement important dans la communication entre les communautés locales et le RIAO-RDC.

Vers 15h, le dimanche 21 juillet 2019, M. Joël se préparait à transporter plusieurs passagers et leurs bagages sur sa pirogue, lorsqu’il a été approché par M. Boketsu Ebuka (alias “Ebola”), un agent de sécurité (garde industriel – GI) travaillant dans les plantations PHC Boteka de Feronia. M. Ebuka a accusé M. Joël d’avoir transporté des conteneurs d’huile de palme volés des plantations de Feronia. Les passagers et d’autres témoins sur les lieux disent que lorsque M. Joël a nié l’accusation, M. Ebuka l’a battu et l’a finalement étranglé à mort. M. Ebuka a ensuite jeté le corps de M. Joël dans la rivière Moboyo. Il semblerait que M. Ebuka se cache depuis l’incident.

L’assassinat a lieu dans un contexte de tensions croissantes entre Feronia et les communautés locales sur les trois différents sites de plantation de l’entreprise en RDC. Le RIAO-RDC s’efforce d’apporter une solution pacifique au conflit. L’association a notamment mené un premier processus de médiation en 2017 qui a été saboté par Feronia lorsque l’entreprise s’est retirée du processus après seulement quelques semaines. En novembre 2018, RIAO-RDC a commencé à soutenir neuf communautés affectées dans un autre processus de médiation, cette fois par le biais du Mécanisme international de plaintes (ICM) des banques de développement allemande, néerlandaise et française qui financent Feronia [en plus des investissements faits par ces 3 banques de développement, d’autres banques de développement européennes financent Feronia et notamment BIO/Belgique, CDC/Grande Bretagne et AECID/Espagne].

Depuis le lancement de ce deuxième processus de médiation, RIAO-RDC a dû faire face à des efforts accrus de la part de l’entreprise pour miner son travail avec les communautés. Les dirigeants de l’entreprise ont publiquement blâmé RIAO-RDC pour le non-paiement des salaires et ont cherché à discréditer RIAO-RDC en accusant l’organisation d’être un agent des intérêts étrangers. Les membres locaux du RIAO-RDC signalent également qu’ils font face à une intimidation accrue de la part des gardes industrielles de Feronia.

Joël a accompagné le Directeur du RIAO-RDC, M. Jean-François Mombia Atuku, lors de la récente visite du panel de l’ICM dans les plantations de Boteka en mai/juin 2019. Il a signalé à M. Mombia Atuku qu’il était de plus en plus harcelé par les gardes industrielles de Feronia et qu’il était préoccupé pour sa sécurité.

Les communautés vivant à l’intérieur et à côté des plantations de Feronia sont régulièrement harcelées par les gardes industrielles de l’entreprise qui les accusent de voler les fruits du palmier à huile de la plantation, même si ces communautés récoltent des fruits du palmier dans leurs forêts communautaires et produisent de l’huile de palme depuis des générations et bien avant l’arrivée du Feronia.

RIAO-RDC a déjà informé Feronia et ses bailleurs de fonds internationaux de ce harcèlement régulier des membres de la communauté dans les plantations de Feronia et leur a demandé instamment de prendre des mesures pour y remédier. RIAO-RDC a également tenté en vain d’obtenir une enquête par les autorités locales sur un précédent incident au cours duquel un couple pygmée a été tué, après avoir été accusé par les gardes industrielles de Feronia d’avoir volé des fruits de palmiers dans les plantations de Boteka.

Le RIAO-RDC appelle maintenant les autorités compétentes de la RDC et en particulier le Gouverneur de la Province de l’Equateur à ouvrir immédiatement une enquête sur le meurtre de M. Joël. Le RIAO-RDC demande également aux organismes internationaux de défense des droits de l’homme d’enquêter sur cet incident.

RIAO-RDC tient Feronia Inc. responsable du meurtre de M. Joël. Il a été tué par un employé de Feronia, qui effectuait des tâches de routine pour l’entreprise. Au fil des ans, Feronia n’a pas pris de mesures suffisantes pour empêcher ses gardes industrielles de harceler la population locale en raison d’allégations non fondées de vol de fruits ou d’huile de palme. Feronia est également responsable du harcèlement et de l’intimidation croissants des membres du RIAO-RDC par les employés de l’entreprise, et ses cadres supérieurs sont responsables de l’incitation à des actions violentes contre le RIAO-RDC en diffusant des informations erronées sur l’organisation.

Joël laisse derrière lui sa femme et ses cinq enfants. Il était le seul soutien économique de la famille.

• Pétition et appel du World Rainforest Movement Nous avons besoin de votre soutien urgent ! Un défenseur de terres brutalement tué par un garde de sécurité de la société canadienne d’huile de palme Feronia en RDC
• Communiqué de RIAO-RDC sur Farmlandgrab Un défenseur des terres violemment tué par un garde de sécurité d’une compagnie canadienne d’huile de palme en RD Congo
• Communiqué de RIAO-RDC sur Grain Tensions violentes dans les plantations de palmiers à huile de Feronia en RD Congo
• Communiqué de RIAO-RDC sur CCFD Terre Solidaire RDC : 9 villages portent plainte contre une banque de développement allemande
• Article de Jeune Afrique RDC : le lobbying européen de Jean-François Mombia Atuku, le défenseur des droits des Pygmées
Letter

To: the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

His Excellency, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

CC:
His Excellency, the Governor of Equateur Province
His Excellency, the Governor of Tshopo Province
His Excellency, the Governor of Mongala Province
His Excellency, the Minister of the Interior
His Excellency, the Minister of Justice

Further copies to:
CDC Group Inc – UK
AECID – Spain
PROPARCO – France
OPIC – USA
DEGinvest – Germany
FMO – The Netherlands
BIOinvest – Belgium

Your Excellency,

We understand that around 3pm, on Sunday, July 21, 2019, Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea was preparing to transport several passengers and their luggage on his small boat when he was approached by a security guard working at the Boteka plantations of the palm oil company Feronia-PHC. The security guard, whose identity is known, accused Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea of transporting containers of stolen palm oil from the Feronia-PHC plantations. The passengers and other witnesses to the scene say that when Mr. Joel denied the charge, the security guard proceeded to beat him, eventually strangled him to death and threw his body into the Moboyo River. We understand that the security guard is now in hiding.

Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea was member of the Congolese environmental and human rights organisation RIAO-RDC. The killing follows months of intimidation directed at members of RIAO-RDC and community members affected by the Feronia-PHC plantations who have been working with RIAO. RIAO-RDC is supporting communities who in November 2018 submitted a grievance with the Independent Complaints Mechanism (ICM) of the German, Dutch and French development banks against the company’s occupation of their land. These development banks as well as the development banks of Spain, Belgium, the UK and the USA have provided financing to Feronia-PHC.

While the central issue of the grievance is the illegal occupation of community land by Feronia-PHC, the complainants note frequent escalation of conflicts between security personnel working in the plantations and community members. Complainants state that arbitrary accusations of theft of palm nuts and transport of palm oil are a frequent cause for conflict and harassment by security personnel.

The killing of the RIAO-RDC activist was committed in the context of such an arbitrary accusation of transporting stolen palm oil. Joël Imbangola Lunea was the driver of a motorised boat used to transport people and goods between the villages around Feronia-PHC’s Boteka plantations and the city of Mbandaka. He was also an activist working for his community and a member of RIAO-RDC.

Your Excellency, we urge you to ensure that the perpetrator of this brutal killing of Joël Imbangola Lunea be held to account. We ask that you:

– Immediately set up an urgent investigation into the assassination of Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea;
– Ensure those responsible for the assassination of Mr. Joël Imbangola Lunea will be held to account;
– Impress on the governours of the three provinces where Feronia-PHC operates its disputed oil palm plantations and on the company that members of RIAO-RDC must be able to carry out their work safely. Their safety must be guaranteed and harassment and intimidation against members of RIAO-RDC and community members supported by RIAO must stop immediately. It is this atmosphere of intimidation and harassment that creates the breeding ground for the violent brutality through which Joël Imbangola Lunea was robbed of his life.

Yours faithfully,

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1190/urgent-bring-the-killers-of-joel-imbangola-lunea-to-justice?mtu=424912187&t=5553

This petition is also available in the following languages: German – Spanish – French

Petition: Calling out the Candymakers to stop the rainforest destruction.

act.ran.org

Millions of dollars in sweets are sold by Hershey’s, Mars, Mondelēz and Nestlé every Easter — more, even, than Halloween. Sweets that contain palm oil born of rainforest destruction.

With commitments to “No Deforestation” but no adequate system in place to actually track where destruction is going down, these candymakers continue to profit off of a bitter fate for rainforests, and for the tigers, orangutans, elephants, and people that depend on them.

To Hershey’s, Mars, Mondelēz and Nestlé:

For years RAN and its partners have been monitoring your supply chains and exposing the connection between your candies and rainforest destruction in Indonesia’s endangered Leuser Ecosystem.

Instead of making excuses, candymakers must track where destruction is taking place and prove to customers that Conflict Palm Oil isn’t ending up in your sweet treats.

Your companies claim to be committed to “No Deforestation” — but you have failed to take responsibility for knowing what’s happening at the forest floor and intervening to stop forests from falling for Conflict Palm Oil.

This Easter, I’m calling on Hershey’s, Mars, Mondelēz and Nestlé to use the billions of profits made off candy and chocolate to establish a proactive, transparent monitoring system. This system must show consumers where the palm oil that candymakers use is grown, and the actions that each company is taking to track where forests fall and to intervene to keep forests standing.

https://act.ran.org/calling_out_the_candymakers

Higher Order Thinking: Orangutans Compare Apples to Bananas, Evaluate Tool Use – FIREPAW, Inc.

Apes are so intelligent that they weigh their options. This is the conclusion of a new animal cognition study that tested orangutans ability to compare, contrast and make decisions based on the best option.

Continue reading here…

https://firepaw.org/2019/02/21/higher-order-thinking-orangutans-compare-apples-to-bananas-evaluate-tool-use/#respond

The huge challenge of removing palm oil – About Iceland

about.iceland.co.uk

Last year we pledged to make two massive changes that both presented enormous technical challenges: removing plastic packaging from our Iceland own label range by 2023, and removing palm oil as an ingredient from our own label range by the end of 2018.

Why so hard? Because both plastics and palm oil are effective, versatile and cheap. As a result, they have become the default setting for the whole food industry. When we set out to make the changes we wanted, we were asking suppliers to participate in nothing short of a revolution. As a responsible retailer, we were conscious of our duty of care to ensure that we did not push any of them too hard by demanding that they achieve the impossible.

We have also always been aware that hard-pressed consumers don’t have a load of spare cash to pay more for their food, however much of a good cause they may think plastics and palm oil removal to be. Hence we pledged to make the changes without increasing prices, and to bear the considerable costs ourselves. In the case of palm oil removal alone, we have invested several million pounds of our own money to achieve the switch. We also obviously needed to ensure that our new palm oil-free recipes tasted at least as good – or better – than the ones we replaced.

Palm oil was the more demanding deadline, and when we made our announcement in April we always knew that it was going to be a massive challenge to remove it from all our own label food by 31 December 2018. Because it’s not just a matter of replacing one ingredient with another; in many cases suppliers have had to invest – with our support – to change their whole production process. In a few cases they simply couldn’t do it at all, and we have had to seek completely new suppliers, adding further time and cost.

Nevertheless, we did it – or did we? There have been some murmurings in the media so let me be totally honest here about what we have done and what we still need to do.

We sell 911 Iceland own label lines and every single line manufactured after 31 December 2018 does not contain palm oil as an ingredient. Where it previously did or might have done, we have marked it with a ‘No Palm Oil’ flash.

Until yesterday, our website erroneously listed some fresh and chilled food own label lines – including hot cross buns – as containing palm oil, because of a technical failure that meant that our ingredients lists had not been updated. No such products were actually on sale, and the website has now been corrected.

Frozen food has a long shelf-life, and food banks do not welcome donations of bulk frozen products, so we had a simple choice with those products made with palm oil before 31 December 2018 that had not been sold by then: leave them to sell through in our stores or throw them in the bin. If we had opted for the latter we would have been lambasted – quite rightly – for creating avoidable food waste. So there are still around 30 Iceland frozen own label lines, mainly desserts and pastry products, listed on our website as containing palm oil, and they will continue to do so until stocks are exhausted. They will sell through in the next few weeks and be replaced in stores with new recipe lines carrying our ‘No Palm Oil’ flash.

Finally, there were a handful of products that our suppliers simply could not switch by 31 December. So, to meet our pledge, we have temporarily moved these out of own label into brands. We have always been completely transparent about the possible need to do this, and have done it in the knowledge that it will adversely affect our sales, because unrecognised brands never sell as well as our trusted own label.

We are working hard with existing or new suppliers to get 17 of these frozen and chilled lines back into Iceland own label as soon as we can, and expect to accomplish this by April 2019.

There are a further 15 chilled lines where we and our suppliers have reluctantly concluded that it simply isn’t technically feasible to replace palm oil with another ingredient, or where doing so would result in a massive increase in cost that neither we nor our customers would be able to bear. These will continue to be sold as branded products – along with the hundreds of other branded lines containing palm oil that we always recognised we would have to continue to sell. Palm oil is in half of everything that supermarkets sell, and it would be commercial suicide not to offer our customers the leading brands they want to buy.

So yes, we did tick the box and stop using palm oil as an ingredient in all our own label food made after 31 December 2018, exactly as we promised. It has been very hard, and very costly, and in some cases the change will take a few more weeks to work through. But customers can already see major progress in our stores with many products bearing our ‘No Palm Oil’ flash, and those who share our concern about tropical deforestation now have a choice where there was none before.

The noise we have made about palm oil has also had the beneficial effect of contributing to pressure on the palm oil industry to clean up its act, and deliver a genuinely sustainable product to the mass market. If they are fulfilled, recent commitments from both the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and Wilmar (the world’s largest palm oil trader) will bring us much closer to the ‘no deforestation’ goal that has always been our aim.

http://about.iceland.co.uk/2019/01/24/the-huge-challenge-of-removing-palm-oil/

Breaking! Norway Will Become The First Country To Get Rid Of High Deforestation Palm Oil Biofuels – World Animal News

By Karen Lane –
December 10, 2018

The Norwegian parliament has voted to make Norway the first country in the world to exclude biofuels based on high deforestation risk feedstocks such as palm oil from 2020.
A majority in the Parliament, including the ruling coalition, has requested that the government develop measures to avoid high deforestation risk biofuels.
“This is a victory in the fight for the rainforest and the climate,” the Rainforest Foundation Norway, said in a statement.
The decision follows an all-time high consumption of palm oil based fuels in Norway last year. In 2017, 317 million litres of biodiesel – around 10 percent of the total diesel consumption in Norway – were based on palm oil. Norwegian politicians, including prime minister Erna Solberg, have raised concern over the use of palm oil based biofuels, due to the link between increased demand for palm oil and deforestation.
Norway has a set of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, including policy incentives to increase the use of biofuel – such as a volume blending mandate for road transport rising to 20 percent in 2020, and a road tax exemption for biofuel supplied above the volume blending mandate threshold. An unintended consequence of these policies is that almost half of all biofuels consumed in Norway in 2017 were based on palm oil. The Norwegian government acknowledges that the demand for palm oil for fuel results in deforestation, due to indirect land use change effects.
The EU earlier this year agreed to phase out the use of biofuels with high indirect land use change risk by 2030, and Norway’s decision goes far beyond this, as the Norwegian parliament requests that the measures be effected beginning on January 1, 2020.
“The Norwegian parliament’s decision sets an important example to other countries and underlines the need for a serious reform of the world’s palm oil industry,” said Nils Hermann Ranum of Rainforest Foundation Norway.
Europe has seen an aggressive growth in demand for palm oil, stimulated by policies to increase the consumption of renewable energy in transportation.
The increase in demand in Europe has in turn driven the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, at the expense of carbon and biodiversity-rich rainforests and peatlands.
The report ‘Driving Deforestation‘, released by Cerulogy and Rainforest Foundation Norway earlier this year, showed that should the current and proposed targets for future consumption of biofuels be implemented without strong measures against using palm oil feedstock, biofuel driven demand for palm oil could potentially see a sixfold increase by 2030 – a total of up to 67 million tonnes. This would exceed today’s total global production of palm oil.
Beyond the obvious disaster this demand increase would spell for biodiversity and indigenous and other forest-dependent communities, the planet’s climate would be impacted by 7 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions over the next two decades, resulting from deforestation and peat drainage. This is more than the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of the USA.
Also in 2017, the Norwegian parliament voted in favor of a ban on palm oil-based fuels in public procurement. However, the government has failed to implement the parliamentary decision, opting instead to propose voluntary measures in its earlier proposal for the 2019 national budget, which was put forward previous to the budget agreement adopted yesterday by a parliamentary majority.

https://worldanimalnews.com/breaking-norway-will-become-the-first-country-to-exclude-high-deforestation-palm-oil-biofuels/

Contact us: contact@worldanimalnews.com

© Copyright 2018 – WorldAnimalNews.com

Sign the Petition: Kellogg’s… Stop Destroying Rainforests for Cheap Palm Oil

change.org

Asha & Jia Kirkpatrick (aged 11 & 8) started this petition to CEO UK Oli Morton
We are sisters, Asha and Jia and we love orangutans. We’re big fans of Orangutan Jungle School on Channel 4. We were really upset when we saw that the orangutans are being killed and orphaned as their jungle homes are destroyed by companies who want cheap palm oil – and we want it to stop now.

Only last month a Greenpeace investigation found that Kellogg’s are still buying their palm oil from companies that destroy rainforests and kill orangutans. The report said that palm oil traders Wilmar were responsible for more rainforest destruction than any other, and they and companies like them, are selling to Kellogg’s. So we are asking Kellogg’s to stop using these suppliers immediately and to tell the public exactly which palm oil companies they buy from.

Twenty five orangutans are killed every day due to palm oil. As well as wiping out rainforests and wildlife, cheap and irresponsible palm oil companies are also killing people – due to the toxic gases of burnt down trees, around 110 people die a year. An area the size of a football pitch is torn down in Indonesia’s rainforest every 25 seconds – this must stop now!

Kellogg’s say they use sustainable palm oil but Greenpeace’s investigation shows that they are still buying from palm oil producers that are wiping out rainforests in Indonesia.

Like most of our friends, we start our day eating Kellogg’s cereals but we’re not going to buy from them any more until they use our money to protect the rainforest, not destroy it. No more empty promises – it’s time for full responsibility and transparency from all the companies you work with to bring us the cereals and snacks we used to love.

Please sign our petition now to help protect rainforests and save the orangutans.

https://www.change.org/p/kellogg-s-stop-destroying-rainforests-for-cheap-palm-oil

You can read more here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/palm-oil-orangutans-multinationals-promises-deforestation

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/rang-tan-video?source=WB&subsource=FOIDPOPEWB01YH&utm_source=gpeace&utm_medium=WB&utm_campaign=FOIDPOPEWB01YH

Many thanks, together we can make this change.

Petition: Cutting Conflict Palm Oil · Change.org

Cutting Conflict Palm Oil · Change.org

Every hour, 300 football field sized masses of rainforest are cut and burned to make way for palm oil plantations, destroying the habitats of orangutans, Sumatran tigers, Pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos, sun bears and clouded leopards in Southeast Asia. Palm oil is found in lipstick, instant ramen, baked goods, soaps and many other products because of its low market price. With so many products, we can not cut palm oil completely. But, we can work to use SAFE, SUSTAINABLE palm oil in everyday products, so that orangutans are not killed every 2 hours by deforestation. At the current rate, studies say that 98% of Indonesian rainforests will be gone by 2022. Because of this, we must take action to prevent further loss of the unique species indigenous to Indonesia.

Because the majority of palm oil plantations are illegal, or they are NOT certified to be safe, we kindly ask ShopRite to become a Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified member. As a staple grocery store in many communities, including ours, ShopRite has the ability to make a significant impact on what customers buy. Through continued effort and pressure from activists, renowned brands like Walmart, Costco, Kellogg’s, and Hershey have all changed their palm oil policies for the better. So, we believe it is very much possible and necessary for ShopRite to make an effort to save our environment. We hope ShopRite will not only enforce SAFE palm oil commitments by buying from SUSTAINABLE sources, but ensure that they are consistently followed.

We welcome anybody and everybody to sign our petition to CUT CONFLICT PALM OIL out of local stores.

https://www.change.org/p/shoprite-cutting-conflict-palm-oil/sign?utm_medium=email&utm_source=aa_sign_human&utm_campaign=353156&utm_content=&sfmc_tk=Y65ELrEVwnOSO7%2bDYTtOcRkLCinLrFoGdcpWV%2fsH%2beIhfecGNJErXoELH%2fR3JOW5&j=353156&sfmc_sub=61374949&l=127_HTML&u=63043477&mid=7233053&jb=340

What is palm oil? | SPOTT.org

Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil. It comes from the fruit of the African oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis).

Native to West Africa, oil palm has been traditionally grown as a subsistence crop in small-scale farming systems for thousands of years.

Oil palms were introduced to Southeast Asia by European traders in the early 19th century, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, where the climate is more humid, and therefore even more conducive to oil palm growth. Palm oil trees can grow to over 20 metres tall, and unlike some other vegetable oil crops, the fruit can be harvested all year round.

Large-scale production on monocultural oil palm plantations has become highly prevalent over the last forty years in response to ever-increasing global demand.

Palm oil comes from oil palm fruits

The fruit of the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is crushed to extract palm oil. (Image: oneVillage Initiative)

Palm oil production in Ghana
Oil palm fruit harvest, Malaysia

Oilpalmfruitharvest,Malaysia

Oil palm fruit is harvested with peak production occurring between ages seven and 18. (Image: Craig Morey)

Oil palm fruit harvest, Malaysia
Crude palm oil is refined for manufacturing

Unrefined red palm oil is sent to refineries for processing. (Image: oneVillage Initiative)
Crude palm oil is refined for manufacturing
Oil palms use less land than other oilseeds

Oil palms yield up to 10 times more oil per hectare than alternative vegetable oil crops. (Image: Craig Wikimedia)

Oil palms use less land than other oilseeds
Monocultures support fewer species

Oil palm plantations provide far less plant and animal diversity than forests. (Image: Achmad Rabin Taim)

Monocultures support fewer species

Why is palm oil so widely used?

Palm oil is very versatile and widely used in food products, detergents, and cosmetics. At least 50% of the packaged products sold in most supermarkets contain palm oil. It is also increasingly used as a biofuel.

Palm oil has the potential to be a more economically viable and sustainable vegetable oil than the alternatives:

using up to 10 times less land than other major vegetable oils such as rapeseed or sunflower;
producing higher yields per hectare – one hectare of land can produce 4,000kg palm oil, or 500kg of kernel oil;
requiring less fertiliser, fewer pesticides, and storing more carbon than other oil crops.

Despite these potential benefits, business as usual is not sustainable. Industry expansion cannot continue if this is at the cost of Indonesia’s natural ecosystems, as well as forests in many other countries throughout the tropics.
Problems associated with irresponsible palm oil production:

There are many negative environmental impacts associated with unsustainable palm oil production. Oil palms are typically grown in regions that contain high levels of biodiversity (Indonesia and Malaysia together produce about 85% of the world’s palm oil) on land that was previously occupied by tropical rainforests and peatlands.
This land is often cleared illegally, destroying some of the world’s most diverse habitats and increasing pollution and carbon emissions through slash and burn agriculture.
In many areas, local communities are not respected and employees are treated poorly.

Oil palm plantation in Cigudeg by Achmad Rabin Taim from Jakarta, Indonesia

Palm oil plantation in Cigudeg by Achmad Rabin Taim from Jakarta, Indonesia
Why can’t we just stop buying palm oil?

Over 50 million tonnes of palm oil is consumed every year, around one third of all vegetable oil.
If we stop buying palm oil, palm oil producing companies will sell palm oil to markets that do not value the environment.
Other vegetable oils will be grown in its place which require up to ten times more land to produce the same amount of oil, increasing deforestation.
Palm oil production provides an income for 4.5 million people in Indonesia and Malaysia alone, taking them out of poverty, and accounts for 4.5% of Indonesian GDP.

What is sustainable palm oil?

To develop a sustainable palm oil industry, companies must:

Stop clearing rainforests and developing on peatlands.
Manage their plantations responsibly according to best practice guidelines.
Trace their supply of palm oil back to the refinery and plantations where it was farmed.
Establish safe and fair working conditions for employees.
Properly consult local communities on new developments.

What you can do to support sustainable palm oil:

Explore more about the issue through the Guardian’s excellent interactive: from rainforest to your cupboard – the story of palm oil.
Support companies that have made commitments to using only certified sustainable palm oil.
Don’t just avoid the problem by boycotting palm oil altogether, instead be part of the solution by supporting Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) as a minimum. Look out for products bearing the RSPO Trademark, which show that they contain a minimum 95% of CSPO.
Ask retailers to source certified sustainable palm oil, not only in their own-brand products but in all the products they sell. You can do this by contacting their customer service departments.
Ask manufacturers to source certified sustainable palm oil.
Lobby your parliamentary or government representative to improve national legislation.
Join or support organisations that are actively campaigning for better standards.
Increase your own awareness of what is in your food.
See how some of the most famous products you buy have performed on Oxfam’s Behind the Brands ethical scorecard.
Read through the Union for Concerned Scientists’ palm oil scorecard, and their global warming factsheet.
Learn more about the work of other organisations promoting better management practices in the Palm Oil Innovation Group.

https://www.spott.org/palm-oil-resource-archive/what-is-palm-oil/

Petition · The Codex Alimentarius International Food Standards: Make It Compulsory For Companies To Put Palm Oil Warnings On Food Packaging Labels. · Change.org

Petition · The Codex Alimentarius International Food Standards: Make It Compulsory For Companies To Put Palm Oil Warnings On Food Packaging Labels. · Change.org
PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE started this petition to The Codex Alimentarius International Food Standards
#PalmOilAlarmCall

Petition: Make it compulsory for companies to put the warning ‘This Product Contains Palm Oil. The Manufacturing Of Palm Oil Is Destroying Rainforests And Driving Orangutans Towards Extinction’ on food packaging labels.

While palm oil is found in more than half of all supermarket products from biscuits and breakfast cereals to soap, 35% of consumers are unaware of what it is, a survey of 5,000 people commissioned by frozen food chain Iceland found.

But once informed about palm oil and its effects on the environment, 85% say they do not believe it should be used in food products.

Growing demand for palm oil for use in food, toiletries and biofuel has helped fuel widespread deforestation in south-east Asia, prompting industry efforts to promote “sustainable” palm oil which is not environmentally damaging.

The loss of rainforests also contributes significantly to the world’s rising greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change.

According to Palm Oil Investigations, Indonesia is being deforested faster than any other country in the world, and this is down to the effects of palm oil.

The cheapest and quickest way to clear land for plantations is slash and burn. Fires in Indonesia produce some of the world’s worst pollution, sending suffocating smog to cities hundreds of miles away in Malaysia and Singapore.

Iceland’s Mr Walker said: “Having recently been to Indonesia and seen the environmental devastation caused by expanding palm oil production first hand, I feel passionately about the importance of raising awareness of this issue – and I know many British consumers share my concern and want to have a real choice about what they buy.”

“Time is running out not just for these household brands but for the wildlife, the climate and everyone who depends on healthy forests for their survival.

The main threat to the survival of orangutan populations in the wild is the huge expansion of palm oil plantations on the tropical islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with methods such as slash and burn being used to clear the land, driving the orangutans from their habitats.

One study published in the journal Current Biology earlier this year found that half of Bornean orangutans were affected by logging, deforestation, or industrialised plantations, with 100,000 lost between 1999 and 2015. According to research the population of orangutans in Borneo has dropped by 80% in 75 years.

Please SIGN and SHARE this petition.

https://www.change.org/p/the-codex-alimentarius-international-food-standards-make-it-compulsory-for-companies-to-put-palm-oil-warnings-on-food-packaging-labels?recruiter=353339232&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive&utm_term=share_twitter_responsive

Keep loggers and the palm oil industry out of the Peruvian Amazon! – Rainforest Rescue

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1121/keep-loggers-and-the-palm-oil-industry-out-of-the-peruvian-amazon

Success: Pepsi Cuts Ties with Palm Oil Plantation

PepsiCo has cut ties with a destructive palm oil plantation accused of using illegal child labor. Thank the company for putting human rights ahead of its bottom line.

Source: Success: Pepsi Cuts Ties with Palm Oil Plantation

International Environmental and Human Rights Group Wins Major Grant | Global Justice Ecology Project

African Oil Palm plantations in the Lacandon Jungle of Mexico to be used for biofuel. Orin Langelle/LangellePhoto.org (2013)
Buffalo-based Organization Awarded $90,000
Buffalo, NY–Global Justice Ecology Project, an award-winning international non-profit based in Buffalo announced today that it will receive a grant of $90,000 from the Ceres Trust. The grant was made in support of GJEP’s leading-edge work to protect forests, wildlife and communities from the unpredictable and potentially devastating impacts of genetically engineered trees–such as wildfires, loss of water, sickness and forced displacement. 

“We are thrilled to receive this important grant from Ceres Trust,” said Anne Petermann, Executive Director and co-founder of Global Justice Ecology Project. [5] “In this age of climate change and extreme weather, our work in defense of forests and forest-dependent communities is more critical than ever, and this grant will help us accomplish many important objectives. In 2018, it will help us strengthen our work with indigenous peoples in Brazil, Chile, the U.S. and elsewhere who are protecting their lands and forests from corporate destruction.”

GJEP is also co-organizing a national forest protection conference in 2018 to reignite a powerful, united movement to protect forests in the U.S. The conference will link protection of forests with efforts to stop fossil fuel extraction and oppose dangerous and destructive false solutions to climate change such as wood-based bioenergy.

Global Justice Ecology Project’s Social Justice Media Program [3] includes Langelle Photography, a program designed to use the power of photography to expose social and ecological injustice while providing an historical look at social movements, struggle and everyday life. One goal is inspiring people to become involved in social change efforts. It is directed by GJEP co-founder and long-time photojournalist Orin Langelle. 

“I have been involved in and documented movements for social change and ecological protection since 1972, and I understand how critical it is to preserve our history,” stated Langelle. “People today can learn important lessons from struggles that came before—what worked and what didn’t. Being firmly rooted in history is critical. I am grateful to Ceres Trust for understanding this work.”

In January 2017 Langelle won the Member’s Exhibition Award at CEPA (Contemporary Photography and Visual Arts Center) in Buffalo, which includes a solo exhibit there in January 2018. The exhibit will be called Portraits of Struggle and feature photos documenting people’s efforts to defend and protect lands, forests and human rights around the world.

Contact: Tess Ipolito, Media Coordinator, tess@globaljusticeecology.org +1.716.867.4080

Global Justice Ecology Project received the 2013 White Dove Award from the Rochester Committee on Latin America for “dedicated efforts to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights and native forests, and to promote social, environmental and ecological justice in Latin America and beyond, including the use of concerned photography.”
 GJEP leads the effort to stop the commercial sale and large-scale planting of genetically engineered trees, and its co-founders launched the first campaign against GE trees in 2000. In July 2017 GJEP organized the collection of 284,000 public comments and 500 organizational sign ons to the USDA protesting the agency’s proposed approval of the first genetically engineered tree–a non-native eucalyptus–which would be sold by the millions for planting across seven Southern U.S. states, despite the tree’s notorious reputation for being invasive, explosively flammable, water depleting, and displacing endangered species.

As the coordinators of the global Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees, in 2017 GJEP sent a team to Chile to investigate and document the aftermath of the worst wildfires in that country’s history–set off by a heat wave, and fueled by highly flammable plantations of eucalyptus and pine trees. They joined activists from around the world to discuss strategies to prevent the expansion of these plantations and the future use of GE trees in them helped mobilize a week of protests against a global industry conference in Chile on GE trees.
 GJEP’s Social Justice Media Program highlights the voices of activists and communities struggling to protect their lands, stop corporate destruction and stand up for justice. 
Category: Featured, No GE Trees News, Press Releases, Pressroom Tags:
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Brazil and Land Rights: A Historical Struggle that Continues and Intensifies
‘Gene Drives’ Are Too Risky For Field Trials, Scientists Say
100 Scientists Urge NC Governor To Protect Forests From Pellet Industry

 https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/896235001

All Reserved · Global Justice Ecology Project

Australia: save the koalas’ forest! – Rainforest Rescue

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1119/australia-save-the-koalas-forest?mtu=287875278&t=3737

Caturday funnies

bluebird of bitterness

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Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Unilever: NO to child labor for palm oil! – Rainforest Rescue

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1081/kellogg-s-nestle-unilever-no-to-child-labor-for-palm-oil

Success – Betty Crocker Ditches Dirty Palm Oil.

Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

Well done everyone who wrote, petitioned etc

– you have won !

Hi Mark, You did it!

Betty Crocker has ditched dirty palm oil!

I thought you’d want to know as soon as possible that my colleagues in the US spoke to parent company General Mills this afternoon.

They confirmed they will stop buying from palm oil giant IOI.

Share your amazing success on Facebook and enjoy a celebratory slice of cake.

Thanks for all your help,

Jamie

Greenpeace

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Snack and Personal Care Companies Commit to End Palm Oil Deforestation – Who is Taking Action? | One Green Planet

 

The biggest forest fires of the century tore through Indonesia just six months ago. They reduced millions of hectares of vibrant, living tropical rainforest, and peatland to smoking ash — and with it, some of the last habitat of Indonesian orangutans.

A forest fire in Indonesia may seem like a far away issue, but for the past ten years, our investigations have exposed how the everyday products in our cupboards and on our bathroom shelves have direct links to the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests.

Haze in Central KalimantanDespite the haze, children in Central Kalimantan continue to play without any protection. Indonesian forest fires impact the health of millions, causing heart and lung problems, and weakening newborn babies.
Getting Corporations to Take Responsibility

For the average person, being a part of the solution isn’t as simple as making a few changes to your shopping habits. From Doritos to Colgate to Johnson & Johnson baby soap, palm oil is in so many products that it’s hard to avoid. Even if you could, palm oil isn’t the problem — deforestation is the problem, and that will only stop when corporations take responsibility for the palm oil they buy.

Burned Land Crime Scene in Central KalimantanA crime scene: burned peatland and forest remains, planted with oil palm seedlings.

So when hundreds of thousands of Greenpeace supporters took action, they took the fight straight to the companies responsible. Using the power of mass pressure, one by one we began forcing the biggest brands that use palm oil or paper from Indonesia to promise to protect rainforests.

Then, a breakthrough. Two years ago, a host of massive brands — including Mars, Mondelez and Procter & Gamble committed to our campaign. Suddenly the biggest brands on the planet were all saying the same thing — that the destruction of these amazing forests had to stop.

And that’s not the end of the good news! This kind of collective action from corporations — with their immense purchasing power — puts huge pressure on traders and producers working directly on the ground. Companies like Wilmar International and Golden Agri-Resources may not be household names, but they’re giants in the industry. And because of this, they agree to end deforestation — an incredible result!

Damming Activity in Central KalimantanEnvironmental activists unfurl a banner in an area affected by forest fires in Central Kalimantan.

Now, the best part of a successful campaign like that is getting to see the real results: Protected forest, healthy orangutans, and an end to rampant deforestation and forest fires. That’s why we have to make sure the companies are keeping their promises.

So last December, Greenpeace contacted 14 massive companies to find out how they were getting on with their commitments. What we found was a bit alarming. Only a few companies are making significant headway towards ensuring that there is no deforestation in their palm oil suppl

It turns out, some companies might think that making a promise is easy and that no one’s going to notice if they don’t keep it.

Out of all the companies we surveyed, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo show the poorest performance and are failing to keep the “no deforestation” promises they made to their customers. Tell them to up their game now.
The Time to Act is Now

The truth is, we can’t afford to wait. Unbelievably, deforestation rates in Indonesia are actually increasing, instead of decreasing. And those huge fires from six months ago? They’re due to return in just a few months.

Orangutan Rescued in West KalimantanOtan, a seven-month-old orangutan who was rescued from the forest fires.

The palm oil industry is still a leading cause of all this destruction. And what’s even more frustrating is that palm oil can be produced responsibly. One amazing project we’ve been working with is a community in Dosan, Sumatra that is producing palm oil and protecting and restoring the surrounding rainforest. And there are lots of other schemes like this in Indonesia that need support.

It’s so important that these companies step up and deliver. Everyone knows what needs to happen, and how — so don’t let them get away with empty promises. Demand real change and real action on the ground.

Petition · Earth Balance: Stop Using Palm Oil · Change.org

https://www.change.org/p/earth-balance-stop-using-palm-oil-65164c46-ff26-49af-b849-a2b6e89b60f5?recruiter=1563847&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-lg-action_alert-no_msg

Palm-oil giant makes big commitment. Rainforests rejoice

Palm-oil giant makes big commitment. Rainforests rejoice.

Environment

Earth Report

Palm Oil Industry to Halt Deforestation

Five leading palm oil producers announced they will stop expanding their plantations through deforestation—a move hailed by environmental groups.

The five join other corporations, including Cargill, that had already agreed to stop.

Palm oil is used in cooking and various products. It’s among the consumer items that create the greatest ecological damage.

Deforestation has endangered a third of all mammals in Indonesia, including orangutans.

It’s estimated that the record deforestation accounts for 85 percent of Indonesia’s contribution to global warming.

Neighbouring Malaysia’s deforestation for plantation expansion ranks second-highest in the world.

Last year, pressure from environmental groups and customers forced a major paper supplier to stop its deforestation operations in Indonesia.

This photograph taken on February 25, 2014, during an aerial survey by Greenpeace on the Indonesia portion of Borneo, shows cleared trees in an area being developed for a palm oil plantation.

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Dunkin’ Donuts cleans up its palm-oil act (and Krispy Kreme follows suit)

Dunkin’ Donuts cleans up its palm-oil act (and Krispy Kreme follows suit).

Your Supermarket Choices Could Endanger Africa’s Apes

Igor Purlantov

The spread of palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia has ravaged forest-dwelling orangutans, whose population has dwindled to 7,300 individuals in the wild. Now a budding palm oil boom in Africa threatens that continent’s great apes.  Demand for palm oil, which is considered a healthy alternative to butter, has skyrocketed in recent years, becoming an ingredient in scores of products, from chocolate to shampoo to biodiesel. About half of the stuff you buy from your local supermarket contains palm oil, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

http://tinyurl.com/na9yr48

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