World Bank Funds Destructive Palm Oil Industry

Should the World Bank be lending to the Indonesian palm oil industry, which is an environmental disaster, when the Bank may be called upon to manage international forest carbon funds? Rainforest Rescue definitely doesn’t think so – and they want your help in getting the Bank to end finance of industrial development that impacts rainforests.

From Rainforest Portal:

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) ignored its own environmental and social protection standards when it approved over a twenty year period nearly $200 million in loan guarantees for palm oil production in Indonesia. The IFC has temporarily frozen new investments in oil palm projects and is reviewing all current oil palm projects. The message must be conveyed to the World Bank that oil palm and any finance of industrial development that deforests or diminishes primary tropical rainforest must permanently end. And certainly oil palm — or any logging of primary forests, or replacement of primary forests with plantations — is not worthy of REDD forest carbon funding.

Indonesia is home to large primary rainforests and peat swamps, which naturally hold and continue to remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that causes climate change.  Rampant destruction of these forests, largely to make way for palm oil plantations, has caused giant releases of CO2 into the atmosphere, making Indonesia the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet.  Oil palm inevitably causes widespread clearance of forests and peatlands and the theft of indigenous peoples’ lands.  Auditors found that Wilmar International Ltd., the recipient of IFC loans, was illegally using fire to clear primary forests, and seizing Indigenous peoples land without free, prior, and informed consent.

Protest this conflict of interest at the Rainforest Portal website by simply adding your name and email address to a protest email that will be sent to IFC officials.

Learn more about how palm oil production is threatening endangered orangutans and other wildlife, destroying Indonesian rainforests and ‘cooking the climate’ at Greenpeace.

Link [Rainforest Portal] + [Greenpeace]
Photo credit: Redapes.org

Orangutans Make Musical Instrument from Leaves

Wild Bornean orangutans strip leaves off twigs and use them to amplify a sound they make to ward off predators, according to a new study. Scientists say the leaves allow the orangutans to alter the frequency of their ‘kiss squeak call’, making them sound bigger and more threatening.

From MSNBC:

This new finding marks the first time an animal has been known to use a tool to help it communicate, say the scientists who studied the behavior.

The bigger an orangutan is, the lower the frequency of its unaided kiss squeak, for physiological reasons, said study team member Madeleine Hardus of the University of Utrect in the Netherlands. So when smaller orangutans clasp their hand or a bunch of leaves to their mouth, they’re likely doing it to artificially lower the frequency of their call and make themselves sound bigger.

Merely sounding bigger might do the trick to scare off a predator, because the jungles where the orangutans live are thick, which makes it difficult for the predator to actually see the primate and visually size them up.

For many years, scientists thought that humans were the only species that is able to transmit cultural knowledge, passing new behaviors by social learning. But recent research has proved that this isn’t so – we are continually seeing new examples of animals, particularly primates, developing tools and teaching each other how to use them.

So, those deranged-looking cymbal monkeys that haunt your nightmares weren’t all that far off the mark. Next stop, planet of the apes.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Flickr user scragz

Indonesian Orangutan Habitat Wiped Out for Airport & Brothel

As if orangutans didn’t already have it hard enough in Indonesia, where their very existence is being threatened by palm oil production, now they’re losing land in a national park to commercial developments – including a brothel.

That’s right, this endangered species is being pushed out of one of the few remaining homes it has so that Indonesian men can contract STDs from strange women. Hurray for the onward march of human progress!

From Yahoo News (AFP):

Almost 600 of the long-haired apes have disappeared from Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan province, over the past seven years of unchecked construction, the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) said in a statement.

“The number of orangutans in the area, which was 600 individuals in 2004, has fallen to only 30 to 60 individuals at present,” Hardi Baktiantoro from the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) told AFP.

“The Kutai National Park has been changing into a city, complete with an airport, gas stations, marketplace… a bus terminal and prostitution complex,” COP habitat campaign manager Yon Thayrun said in a press release.

The root of the problem, according to Thayrun, is that officials are giving away land spaces to people to win their votes in the local administration elections. What it comes down to, as usual, are two of mankind’s biggest weaknesses: greed and the desire for power.

The more I hear about things like this, the more I believe that the world would be far better off without us.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: MoonBattery.com

Orangutan Stages Brilliant Zoo Jailbreak

Karta the orangutan got sick of being cooped up in a zoo and decided to stage a jailbreak in what has been called an ‘elaborate plot’ involving short-circuited wires and a makeshift ladder. On Sunday, authorities were forced to shut down the Adelaide Zoo in Australia after a visitor noticed the 27-year-old orangutan climbing a concrete and glass fence meant to keep her separate from the public.

From News.com.au:

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta had twisted a stick into hot wires that encircled her enclosure, short circuiting the wires and allowing her to enter a vegetated area near the concrete and glass fence that separated her from the public.

She then piled up sticks, grass and plant roots and used them to climb onto the fence.

”You’re talking about an animal that’s highly intelligent, Mr Whitehead said.

”We’ve had issues with her before in normal day to day operations where she tries to outsmart the keepers.

”So in this case she’s decided to make a ladder and try to get out of her exhibit.”

Mr Whitehead said Karta was on the fence for about half an hour before climbing back down into the exhibit.

Whitehead says he thinks Karta finally realized she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be, and that’s why she dropped back into the exhibit – but maybe it’s because she didn’t want to get shot by the staff standing by with tranquilizer guns.

Orangutans and other primates – and thousands of other species in the animal kingdom – are way smarter than humans like to think. We don’t give these creatures enough credit. I’m glad Karta didn’t have to get shot, but perhaps her brave escape plot will open some people’s eyes to this fact.

Link [News.com.au]
Image credit: marcoha.com

Orangutan Populations Decreasing at an Alarming Rate

A recent study has shown that orangutan populations in Indonesia, on the only two islands in the world where they still live in the wild, have declined sharply since 2004. The decline is mostly due to illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, which we wrote about back in April. If urgent action isn’t taken soon, the species may go extinct.

From Wired:

The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia’s Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an “alarming rate” but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in “rapid decline.”

“Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct,” researchers wrote.

Great job, humanity. We’re the presiding species on the planet – the only one capable of protecting all of the other species that we share it with – and we allow things like this to happen, all for our own greed and convenience. Of course, there are those that believe that as humans, we’re entitled to everything on earth, and can use it as we wish without caring what consequences our actions have. If it’s not a person, it’s property, right? Why don’t we take all of those people and put them in livestock pens, dairy cattle enclosures, circus cages or just dump them in the middle of a forest while it’s being cut down by loggers and let them fend for themselves. You know, help Karma along a little.

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Flickr user exfordy

Drop Those Cookies! Girl Scouts Want You to Pass on the Thin Mints

Next time you hear a box of delicious Girl Scout cookies calling your name, picture a sad monkey. Two girl scouts from Ann Arbor, Michigan want you to know that mass consumption of Thin Mints is putting endangered orangutans out of their homes.

Seattle Times has it:

Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, both 12, started doing research last fall on endangered orangutans in Indonesia as part of their Bronze Award project. They discovered the habitat of orangutans is being threatened by conversion of the land to the production of palm oil, an ingredient in Girl Scout Cookies.

Although the two have sold many boxes of cookies over the years, this year they sold magazines instead.

Evidently the Girl Scout higher-ups aren’t too pleased with this, considering that they depend upon cookie sales for funding. They’ve told the girls that ABC Bakers, who produce the cookies, have promised to avoid purchasing palm oil from areas deforested specifically for palm oil production, but this hasn’t satisfied the girls.

I used to be a Girl Scout, myself, in the 80s – pulling my little red wagon of cookies down the street. Had I caught wind of something like this, I most certainly would have taken the opportunity to yell things like ‘monkey killers’ at people to get out of selling cookies. Mostly because neighbor boys would chase me down the street on their bicycles making fun of my uniform, but also because, you know, I cared about monkeys and stuff.

Link [Seattle Times]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, in the spirit of Lolcats