Palm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulpof the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel (seed) of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the coconut (Cocos nucifera). Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because it contains a high amount of beta-carotene.
Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its increasing use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying.
Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its increasing use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying.
Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery during Britain's Industrial Revolution. Palm oil formed the basis of soap products, such as Lever Brothers' (now Unilever) "Sunlight Soap", and the American Palmolive brand. By c. 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria, although this was overtaken by cocoa in the 1880s.
Today, demand for palm oil is growing - and fast. At the moment, most of it ends up in hundreds of food products - from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips - although it's also used in cosmetics and increasingly, for use in biodiesel. But the cost to the environment and the global climate is devastating - to feed this demand, tropical rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia are being torn up to provide land for oil palm plantations.
Our consumption of palm oil is rocketing: compared to levels in 2000, demand is predicted to more than double by 2030 and to triple by 2050. Over 70 per cent ends up in food, but the biofuels industry is expanding rapidly. Indonesia already has 6 million hectares of oil palm plantations, but has plans for another 4 million by 2015 dedicated to biofuel production alone.
The problem with palm oil
Palm oil is a globally traded agricultural commodity that is used in 50 percent of all consumer goods, from lipstick and packaged food to body lotion and biofuels. Used in about half of the products on supermarket shelves, palm oil imports to the U.S. have jumped 485% in the last decade, pushing palm oil cultivation into the rainforests and making this crop one of the key causes of rainforest destruction around the globe.
Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in the tropical countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) on industrial plantations. That have severe impacts on the environment, forest peoples and the climate.
Palm oil destroys rainforests
Indonesia’s tropical rainforests are among the world’s most diverse. They provide critical habitat to species including highly endangered Sumatran tigers, Sumatran elephants and orangutans. The Indonesian government has announced plans to convert approximately 18 million more hectares of rainforests, an area the size of Missouri, into palm oil plantations by 2020.
Palm oil threatens forest peoples
Tens of millions of Indonesians rely directly on rainforests for their livelihoods. A single palm oil plantation can destroy the forests, watersheds, and forest resources of thousands of Indonesians, leaving entire forest communities to face poverty, many for the first time.
Palm oil causes climate change
Rainforests are the earth’s largest sinks of carbon, safely storing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. In Indonesia, rainforests are razed to create industrial palm oil plantations, releasing massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In fact, deforestation causes eighty percent of Indonesia’s CO2 emissions, making the tropical nation the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Who is responsible?
North American food and agribusiness companies purchase from, operate, and own many palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia, making our corporations a powerful force in the palm oil market.
The largest privately owned company in the U.S., Cargill dominates the American palm oil market. They own five palm oil plantations in Indonesia and PNG and are the largest importer of palm oil into the U.S., sourcing from at least 26 producers and buying roughly 11 percent of Indonesia’s total oil palm output. A large and growing number of investigations have shown that Cargill’s palm oil is directly destroying forests, eliminating biodiversity and harming forest peoples.
Source
Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in the tropical countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) on industrial plantations. That have severe impacts on the environment, forest peoples and the climate.
Palm oil destroys rainforests
Indonesia’s tropical rainforests are among the world’s most diverse. They provide critical habitat to species including highly endangered Sumatran tigers, Sumatran elephants and orangutans. The Indonesian government has announced plans to convert approximately 18 million more hectares of rainforests, an area the size of Missouri, into palm oil plantations by 2020.
Palm oil threatens forest peoples
Tens of millions of Indonesians rely directly on rainforests for their livelihoods. A single palm oil plantation can destroy the forests, watersheds, and forest resources of thousands of Indonesians, leaving entire forest communities to face poverty, many for the first time.
Palm oil causes climate change
Rainforests are the earth’s largest sinks of carbon, safely storing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. In Indonesia, rainforests are razed to create industrial palm oil plantations, releasing massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In fact, deforestation causes eighty percent of Indonesia’s CO2 emissions, making the tropical nation the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Who is responsible?
North American food and agribusiness companies purchase from, operate, and own many palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia, making our corporations a powerful force in the palm oil market.
The largest privately owned company in the U.S., Cargill dominates the American palm oil market. They own five palm oil plantations in Indonesia and PNG and are the largest importer of palm oil into the U.S., sourcing from at least 26 producers and buying roughly 11 percent of Indonesia’s total oil palm output. A large and growing number of investigations have shown that Cargill’s palm oil is directly destroying forests, eliminating biodiversity and harming forest peoples.
Source
Once a dream-fuel,
palm oil became an Eco-nightmare
Commitments from various governments to increase the amount of biofuels being sold are pushing this rise in demand, because they're seen as an attractive quick fix to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, 10 per cent of fuel sold in the EU will be biofuel and China expects 15 per cent of its fuel to be grown in fields, while India wants 20 per cent of its diesel to be biodiesel by 2012. The irony is that these attempts to reduce the impact of climate change could actually make things worse - clearing forests and draining and burning peatlands to grow palm oil will release more carbon emissions than burning fossil fuels.
But this phenomenal growth of the palm oil industry spells disaster for local communities, biodiversity, and climate change as palm plantations encroach further and further into forested areas. This is happening across South East Asia, but the problem is particularly acute in Indonesia which has been named in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records as the country with fastest rate of deforestation. The country is also the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely due to deforestation.
Much of the current and predicted expansion oil palm expansion in Indonesia is taking place on forested peatlands. Peat locks up huge amounts of carbon, so clearing peatlands by draining and burning them releases huge greenhouse gases. Indonesia's peatlands, cover less than 0.1 per cent of the Earth's surface, but are already responsible for 4 per cent of global emissions every year. No less than ten million of Indonesia's 22.5 million hectares of peatland have already been deforested and drained.
Source: Greenpeace
But this phenomenal growth of the palm oil industry spells disaster for local communities, biodiversity, and climate change as palm plantations encroach further and further into forested areas. This is happening across South East Asia, but the problem is particularly acute in Indonesia which has been named in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records as the country with fastest rate of deforestation. The country is also the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely due to deforestation.
Much of the current and predicted expansion oil palm expansion in Indonesia is taking place on forested peatlands. Peat locks up huge amounts of carbon, so clearing peatlands by draining and burning them releases huge greenhouse gases. Indonesia's peatlands, cover less than 0.1 per cent of the Earth's surface, but are already responsible for 4 per cent of global emissions every year. No less than ten million of Indonesia's 22.5 million hectares of peatland have already been deforested and drained.
Source: Greenpeace
The sharp contrast between the pristine rainforest and the area destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
Workers load oil palm fruits into containers headed for processing
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a young palm-oil-tree
Workers in a state-owned palm oil factory in Luwu
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Palm oil, used to produce biofuel, is being billed as a sustainable solution to the world’s energy problems. According to an EU directive, by 2030 all petrol must contain at least 20% biofuel. But does palm oil deserve its ‘green’ reputation?
What are the human and environmental costs of the explosion in palm oil plantations?
The following Journeyman.TV- documentary investigates how palm oil cultivation is contributing to global warming. It reveals how indigenous tribes are being forced from their land, rivers and water supplies polluted and rainforests destroyed by a rapacious palm oil industry.
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To watch the full documentary, please go to Journeyman.TV by clicking on the badge on the right |
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Orangutans are being wiped out today, right now.
We unwittingly buy packaged foods, body products, even 'vegan' alternatives, many with palm oil in them. Giant American, European and Asian corporations ply us with junk food, lotions, shampoo, toothpaste, cooking oil, drinks, ice cream, cosmetics ... products with a mostly unseen story.
If we don't speak for Orangutans (and Sumatran tigers and pygmy elephants) being burnt, poisoned, shot and hacked to death, with infants torn away from the mothers' dead bodies to be sold off as pets...who will?
For what? A cheap, unhealthy oil that fills our food supply and daily products thanks to morally bankrupt men and women at egregious corporations with dollar signs in their eyes.
We have ALL been made complicit in an insane rampage of murder, unthinkable torture and ecological destruction ... without our knowledge or consent.
Change starts with you. Become aware of this crop. It's in the toothpaste you used this morning, and the lunch you had later. Spread knowledge. And one day the governments and corporations of the world will have to listen to the higher morals of a conscious world.
If we don't speak for Orangutans (and Sumatran tigers and pygmy elephants) being burnt, poisoned, shot and hacked to death, with infants torn away from the mothers' dead bodies to be sold off as pets...who will?
For what? A cheap, unhealthy oil that fills our food supply and daily products thanks to morally bankrupt men and women at egregious corporations with dollar signs in their eyes.
We have ALL been made complicit in an insane rampage of murder, unthinkable torture and ecological destruction ... without our knowledge or consent.
Change starts with you. Become aware of this crop. It's in the toothpaste you used this morning, and the lunch you had later. Spread knowledge. And one day the governments and corporations of the world will have to listen to the higher morals of a conscious world.
Orangutans and local communities have saved peat land and rainforest for millennia. Now short term economic greed is destroying it in decades, releasing huge carbon stores and threatening humanity itself.
Caught into the middle of the public discourse « on what to do? » to save the climate, with no concrete actions, orang-utans populations are quickly vanishing, a genocide.
What might think the orangutans, probably the most intelligent non-human ape of its human cousin? The above documentary provides a clear orangutan's answer.
Caught into the middle of the public discourse « on what to do? » to save the climate, with no concrete actions, orang-utans populations are quickly vanishing, a genocide.
What might think the orangutans, probably the most intelligent non-human ape of its human cousin? The above documentary provides a clear orangutan's answer.
Her name is Green...
she is just another victim of deforestation and palm oil plantations
'She has lost everything': Filmmaker's heart-wrenching documentary shows tragic final hours of orangutan's life as her rainforest home is ruthlessly destroyed
Lying on her back helpless and dying, Green the female orangutan is a picture of sadness as she faces her final hours.
The tragic female ape has been confined to a mattress inside a shack after her rainforest home was logged and burned to the ground through ruthless deforestation.
She clutches at her pillow and sits lifelessly on her mattress, defenceless as the lush Indonesian ecosystem she called home is destroyed, leaving her homeless.
Later on in the heart-breaking film, rescue centre workers carry a body bag away from the room where Green saw out her last few days, highlighting her as the latest victim of deforestation and palm oil plantations.
Her plight was filmed as part of a poignant 48-minute feature film by Patrick Rouxel, who obtained footage in Indonesian national parks to show the extent to which he believes deforestation is 'raping our planet'.
Mr Rouxel's incredibly moving film aims to show how the timber, pulp and paper and palm oil industries, along with general consumerism, are combining to ravage natural resources worldwide.
The footage of Green's final days and hours is interspersed with shots of trees being hacked down in Sumatra, Indonesia, along with shots of the wood products which result from the widespread deforestation.
In one particularly distressing segment, Green lies on the muddy floor helpless, the tall trees which were normally her natural habitat having been hacked down.
The film then shows her being packed into a large rucksack and driven away on a pickup truck.
Mr Rouxel said Green was taken to orangutan refuge in Kalimantan, Indonesia, after being rescued from a palm oil plantation several days previously.
'Being a captive animal in Indonesia is pure hell because the notion of animal wellbeing does not exist there.'
The filmmaker told Al Jazeera Green had suffered an intracerebral haemorrhage, leaving her paralysed on the left side of her body.
He the filmed Green at her bedside for three days, culminating in a heart-wrenching final shot where the mattress on which she slept is seen empty.
Mr Rouxel, who has previously worked as a cameraman for Greenpeace and the WWF in Indonesia and Africa, received critical acclaim for his moving film.
The film, which has no human commentary at all, received over 35 international awards at various wildlife film festivals.
Mr Rouxel himself, who is half Swedish and half French, told Al Jazeera Green was taken to a hospital after being rescued, but 'died of sorrow' because she had 'lost everything'.
Mr Rouxel said: 'Being a captive animal in Indonesia is pure hell because the notion of animal wellbeing does not exist there.
'And every day, through the things we buy, we encourage this destruction and suffering.'
Earlier this month it was reported how environmental activists have taken to rescuing orangutans left injured or trapped by workers felling trees for palm oil plantations.
Hundreds of primates like Green are regularly trapped and face death through slaughter or injury in large parts of Sumatra, Indonesia.
But dedicated team members of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) aim to save as many of the primates as possible.
Without their work the helpless primates are left in often deadly conflict with ruthless loggers in Indonesia's degraded forests.
Indonesia is said to have one of the world's worst deforestation rates, averaging at around 2 million hectares a year.
The process expanded in the 1970s following greater demand from the timber and palm oil industries.
Experts believe that although forest cover in Indonesia in the 1950s was around 160 million hectares, today less than 48 million remain.
Source
The last few moments of her life, her baby clinging to her side
Trembling with fear and tethered to the floor of a squalid cage, tiny orangutan Peni clings to her mum's tortured body.
This picture captures the last tragic minutes of the adult ape's life - after a frenzied mob beat her, pelted her with rocks then tried to drown her in a swimming pool.
Her crime? She was caught scavenging for fruit to feed her malnourished daughter on the outskirts of a ramshackle village in Borneo, December 2010.
Read the entire story here and the rescue of baby-ape Peni here.
This picture captures the last tragic minutes of the adult ape's life - after a frenzied mob beat her, pelted her with rocks then tried to drown her in a swimming pool.
Her crime? She was caught scavenging for fruit to feed her malnourished daughter on the outskirts of a ramshackle village in Borneo, December 2010.
Read the entire story here and the rescue of baby-ape Peni here.
What happens to orangutans when the
forest is taken away from them?
Some palm oil facts
- Millions of hectares of rainforest in south-east Asia are cleared to plant palm oil, destroying the habitat of endangered species such as elephants, tigers and orangutans.
- Over 80% of the world's production of palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Palm oil is one of the cheaper vegetable or cooking oils on the market.
- Palm oil is often described on food labels simply as "vegetable oil".
- Palm oil planting provides an income for millions of people in the tropics.
- A small decision you make e.g. what kind of biscuit, chocolate, or soap to buy - can have major consequences for rainforests.
- Many of Borneo’s forests, species and indigenous people are severely threatened by palm oil production. Borneo is one of the last great rainforests on Earth – along with the Congo and Amazon.
Did you know, you could be consuming around 10 kg of palm oil
each year without having a clue?
It's a pretty sickening thought, considering that in South East Asia, where the bulk of the world's oil palm is grown, palm oil plantations are responsible for destroying massive amounts of rainforest - the equivalent of 300 soccer fields each hour - and putting the last remaining orangutans and Sumatran tigers at risk.
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30 names palm oil can be labelled under
Foods, Body Products, Cosmetics & Cleaning Agents
# These ingredients are definitely palm oil or derived from palm oil. * These ingredients are often derived from palm oil, but could be derived from other vegetable oils. ^ These ingredients are either derived from palm oil or coconut oil. |
Save the orangutans: Greenpeace activists wearing orangutan and KitKat chocolate costumes take part in a protest outside a building that houses the local headquarters of Swiss food and beverage company Nestle in Jakarta
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For a complete list of products that CONTAIN palm oil,
a list of alternatives, as well as many other useful information, please visit:
'Say NO to Palm Oil'
For another list of palm oil FREE products, please click HERE!
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10 things you didn't know about orangutans
Orangutans are gentle and intelligent residents of the forests of Borneo and Sumatra – discover something new about these endangered and enigmatic apes.
1. Orangutans are semi-solitary in the wild (unlike other higher primates). Once they reach maturity, they spend most of their time alone, or, in the case of females, with their immature offspring. Adult males old enough to have cheekpads are the most solitary, spending over 90 per cent of their time alone.
2. Orangutans live on only two islands, Borneo and northern Sumatra. They are a relic species. At the end of the Pleistocene period some 12,000 years ago, their range was much wider, encompassing southern China, Indochina, Java and southern Sumatra. The species is now extinct in all these regions.
3. Orangutans are the largest tree-dwelling animals on Earth. Though adult male gorillas climb up to the canopy to feed, they do not spend much time there and are basically terrestrial. Adult male orangutans, reaching a weight of 140kg or more, spend over 90 per cent of their time in the treetops, eating ripe fruit, young leaves and the occassional termite or vine. Adult females spend even more time in the canopy.
4. Adult male orangutans develop cheekpads, which frame their faces and make their heads look larger. In captivity, males as young as 13 develop cheekpads, but in the wild, some males may not grow them until the age of 30. Once a male has his cheekpads, he won't tolerate any other adult males in his vicinity and competes with them for access to receptive females. Cheekpads may also serve an acoustic function in helping project the 'long call' a male uses to broadcast his presence through the dense forest.
5. Orangutans are among the most sexually dimorphic of primates. An adult male may be three times heavier than an adult female. He also sports large cheekpads, a throat pouch that acts as a resonating chamber for his loud call, and a muscular body from a testosterone surge at an earlier stage of life. Males use their large size to compete with each other for access to receptive females.
6. Orangutans have the most intense relationship between mother and young of any non-human mammal. Mothers carry their offspring for the first five years, and may suckle them for six or seven years. For the first eight years of a young orangutans life, its mother is its constant companion. Until another infant is born, mothers sleep in a nest with their offspring every night.
7. Orangutans have the longest birth interval of any mammal. In Borneo, they give birth on average once every eight years. In Sumatra, some females may only give birth once every 10 years. Females often do not breed until the age of 17. If adult females are killed, the population takes a long time to recover.
8. Orangutans are the only great apes of Asia. It appears that they are of African origin but dispersed about 15 million years ago. During the Miocene period, there were many ape species throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. Chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas survived in Africa, but only the orangutans survived in Asia.
9. Orangutans are gentle and sit for hours gazing. Though males can be aggressive, I have followed orangutans for 36 years and have never been attacked or even chased.
10. Orangutans are very smart. They perform as well as chimpanzees and gorillas in tests of cognitive ability. In captivity, they are excellent tool-users and versatile tool-makers. One captive orangutan was taught how to chip a stone hand-axe. In the wild, one population makes and uses tools for opening and extracting fruit in a sophisticated manner reminiscent of chimpanzees – except that these orangutans hold the tools in their mouths.
5 THINGS EVEN THE EXPERTS DON'T KNOW ABOUT ORANGUTANS
1. Why are orangutans orange?
Orangutans 'blaze' in the sunlight but virtually disappear when they move into shadow. In the shade of the canopy, their tan skin absorbs the light so you don't see the sparse hair but the dark skin underneath. Then they become functionally black. Could this now-you-see-me-now-you-don't combination be adaptive? Or, given that they generally don't congregate in groups, does their bright orange colour announce their presence to others of their species? We simply don't know.
2. How long do orangutans live in the wild?
We can only make educated guesses. In captive environments, orangutans have lived for over 60 years. Wild females at my study site who were adolescents back in 1971 are still alive today and bearing offspring. A formerly captive female in her 40s recently had an infant. My guess is that wild orangutans may live into their 70s, but I believe this is rare.
3. How far do orangutan males travel in their lifetime?
They travel greater distances than females. I suspect they may wander hundreds of kilometres away from their mothers' home ranges. In the space of one year, one adolescent male travelled a distance of more than 30km as the crow flies.
4. Were orangutans ever more gregarious than they are now?
This is possible. Ex-captive individuals associated with rehabilitation programmes tend to be more gregarious than wild orangutans. If wild populations lived in fertile lowland areas with abundant concentrations of food, they might have been more gregarious. Since humans have destroyed such forests to use the land for agriculture, sociable orangutans, if they ever existed, are long gone.
5. Will they escape extinction?
The massive destruction of the orangutans habitat – the tropical rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra – is catastrophic. We are working to save the species and its habitat, but the forces arrayed against the orangutan are so formiddable that perhaps, if we (and they) are lucky, just one or two populations may survive.
Source: Discover Wildlife
1. Orangutans are semi-solitary in the wild (unlike other higher primates). Once they reach maturity, they spend most of their time alone, or, in the case of females, with their immature offspring. Adult males old enough to have cheekpads are the most solitary, spending over 90 per cent of their time alone.
2. Orangutans live on only two islands, Borneo and northern Sumatra. They are a relic species. At the end of the Pleistocene period some 12,000 years ago, their range was much wider, encompassing southern China, Indochina, Java and southern Sumatra. The species is now extinct in all these regions.
3. Orangutans are the largest tree-dwelling animals on Earth. Though adult male gorillas climb up to the canopy to feed, they do not spend much time there and are basically terrestrial. Adult male orangutans, reaching a weight of 140kg or more, spend over 90 per cent of their time in the treetops, eating ripe fruit, young leaves and the occassional termite or vine. Adult females spend even more time in the canopy.
4. Adult male orangutans develop cheekpads, which frame their faces and make their heads look larger. In captivity, males as young as 13 develop cheekpads, but in the wild, some males may not grow them until the age of 30. Once a male has his cheekpads, he won't tolerate any other adult males in his vicinity and competes with them for access to receptive females. Cheekpads may also serve an acoustic function in helping project the 'long call' a male uses to broadcast his presence through the dense forest.
5. Orangutans are among the most sexually dimorphic of primates. An adult male may be three times heavier than an adult female. He also sports large cheekpads, a throat pouch that acts as a resonating chamber for his loud call, and a muscular body from a testosterone surge at an earlier stage of life. Males use their large size to compete with each other for access to receptive females.
6. Orangutans have the most intense relationship between mother and young of any non-human mammal. Mothers carry their offspring for the first five years, and may suckle them for six or seven years. For the first eight years of a young orangutans life, its mother is its constant companion. Until another infant is born, mothers sleep in a nest with their offspring every night.
7. Orangutans have the longest birth interval of any mammal. In Borneo, they give birth on average once every eight years. In Sumatra, some females may only give birth once every 10 years. Females often do not breed until the age of 17. If adult females are killed, the population takes a long time to recover.
8. Orangutans are the only great apes of Asia. It appears that they are of African origin but dispersed about 15 million years ago. During the Miocene period, there were many ape species throughout Africa, Asia and Europe. Chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas survived in Africa, but only the orangutans survived in Asia.
9. Orangutans are gentle and sit for hours gazing. Though males can be aggressive, I have followed orangutans for 36 years and have never been attacked or even chased.
10. Orangutans are very smart. They perform as well as chimpanzees and gorillas in tests of cognitive ability. In captivity, they are excellent tool-users and versatile tool-makers. One captive orangutan was taught how to chip a stone hand-axe. In the wild, one population makes and uses tools for opening and extracting fruit in a sophisticated manner reminiscent of chimpanzees – except that these orangutans hold the tools in their mouths.
5 THINGS EVEN THE EXPERTS DON'T KNOW ABOUT ORANGUTANS
1. Why are orangutans orange?
Orangutans 'blaze' in the sunlight but virtually disappear when they move into shadow. In the shade of the canopy, their tan skin absorbs the light so you don't see the sparse hair but the dark skin underneath. Then they become functionally black. Could this now-you-see-me-now-you-don't combination be adaptive? Or, given that they generally don't congregate in groups, does their bright orange colour announce their presence to others of their species? We simply don't know.
2. How long do orangutans live in the wild?
We can only make educated guesses. In captive environments, orangutans have lived for over 60 years. Wild females at my study site who were adolescents back in 1971 are still alive today and bearing offspring. A formerly captive female in her 40s recently had an infant. My guess is that wild orangutans may live into their 70s, but I believe this is rare.
3. How far do orangutan males travel in their lifetime?
They travel greater distances than females. I suspect they may wander hundreds of kilometres away from their mothers' home ranges. In the space of one year, one adolescent male travelled a distance of more than 30km as the crow flies.
4. Were orangutans ever more gregarious than they are now?
This is possible. Ex-captive individuals associated with rehabilitation programmes tend to be more gregarious than wild orangutans. If wild populations lived in fertile lowland areas with abundant concentrations of food, they might have been more gregarious. Since humans have destroyed such forests to use the land for agriculture, sociable orangutans, if they ever existed, are long gone.
5. Will they escape extinction?
The massive destruction of the orangutans habitat – the tropical rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra – is catastrophic. We are working to save the species and its habitat, but the forces arrayed against the orangutan are so formiddable that perhaps, if we (and they) are lucky, just one or two populations may survive.
Source: Discover Wildlife
90 percent of oil palm plantations
came at expense of forest in Kalimantan
by Jeremy Hance - Mongabay.com - October 08, 2012
From 1990 to 2010 almost all palm oil expansion in Kalimantan came at the expense of forest cover, according to the most detailed look yet at the oil palm industry in the Indonesian state, published in Nature: Climate Change. Palm oil plantations now cover 31,640 square kilometers of the state, having expanded nearly 300 percent since 2000. The forest loss led to the emission of 0.41 gigatons of carbon, more than Indonesia's total industrial emissions produced in a year. Furthermore the scientists warn that if all current leases were converted by 2020, over a third of Kalimantan's lowland forests outside of protected areas would become plantations and nearly quadruple emissions.
"Carbon emissions solely from oil palm industries may therefore constrain opportunities to meet Indonesia's pledged 26% reduction below projected 2020 greenhouse gas emissions levels," the researchers write. Currently, over 75 percent of Indonesia's emissions are connected to land use change. To help slow its runaway emissions, Indonesia has kick-started a moratorium on forest clearing with a billion dollars in funding from Norway, however the moratorium has been widely critiqued for not being strong enough to slow rampant deforestation.
Delving into unprecedented detail, the researchers calculated that 47 percent of oil palm plantation development from 1990 to 2010 in Kalimantan was at the expense of intact forests, 22 percent at secondary or logged forests, and 21 percent at agroforests, a mix of agricultural land and forests. Only 10 percent of expansion occurred in non-forested areas.
"A major breakthrough occurred when we were able to discern not only forests and non-forested lands, but also logged forests, as well as mosaics of rice fields, rubber stands, fruit gardens and mature secondary forests used by smallholder farmers for their livelihoods," explains Kimberly Carlson, a Yale doctoral student and lead author of the study. "With this information, we were able to develop robust carbon bookkeeping accounts to quantify carbon emissions from oil palm development."
From 1990-2000 deforestation for plantations resulted in 0.09 gigatons of carbon, but expanding plantations increased that by over 300 percent during the last decade to 0.32 gigatons.
Carlson and her team used satellite imagery and new vegetation classification technology created by Gregory Asner from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, who appears as a co-author in order to compile just how much forest was lost and carbon emitted.
After crunching the number for 1990-2010, the team then moved onto the future of the palm oil industry and forests in Kalimantan. Gathering oil palm land leases, the scientists found that only 20 percent of current leases had been developed. Unplanted leases still covered 93,844 square kilometers, an area larger than Hungary.
"Leases are awarded without independent assessments of land use and carbon, and are not available for public review," the authors write. "Carbon emissions from undeveloped leases have therefore remained concealed and excluded from national emission projections."
The development of all of these hidden leases, many of which remain unknown to locals as well, would result in 1.52 gigatons of carbon released into the atmosphere. Furthermore oil palm plantations would then cover 34 percent of land in Kalimantan outside protected areas, which currently cover about 10 percent.
"These plantation leases are an unprecedented 'grand-scale experiment' replacing forests with exotic palm monocultures," says co-author Lisa M. Curran, a professor of ecological anthropology at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. "We may see tipping points in forest conversion where critical biophysical functions are disrupted, leaving the region increasingly vulnerable to droughts, fires and floods."
The study finds that protecting peatlands and forests could greatly decrease projected emissions. Protecting peatlands would reduce estimated emissions over the next decade by 37-45 percent, while protecting forests actually decreased emissions from 71-111 percent. Since aging oil palm plantations store some carbon, a gain in carbon is possible if natural forests are protected. Furthermore, the study found that REDD+ programs could be economically competitive with oil palm.
"Under certain market conditions and land management practices,REDD+ initiatives aimed at mitigating these emissions may generate national government revenues similar to oil palm export revenues," the authors write.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently announced his "7/26 vision," targeting seven percent annual economic growth with a 26 percent reduction in emissions from a projected 2020 baseline.
Oil palm plantations aren't just responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, but have also been linked to dramatically declining biodiversity in the region, since far fewer species thrive in monoculture plantations than natural forest. In addition, the massive expansion of the monoculture has resulted in local conflict as people lose access to forests and agricultural areas.
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EXCELLENT NEWS
Norway fund dumps palm oil holdings!!!
March 9, 2013 - Norway's $US710 billion sovereign wealth fund has pulled out of 23 Asian palm oil companies after accusing them of causing deforestation, winning praise from environmentalists.
It said it sold stakes in the firms after a review of companies that have cleared forests for palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil is used in many foods and consumer goods such as soaps, lipstick and peanut butter.
The fund is one of the world's biggest investors, underpinned by Norway's oil and gas assets. Last year it expanded its investment guidelines to include deforestation as a threat to future growth.
Stakes in firms including Wilmar, KL Kepong and Golden Agri-Resources were sold during 2012, according to the fund's annual report released on Friday.
Of these, the biggest holding had been in Singapore-listed Wilmar, worth 382 million crowns ($65 million).
"In the first quarter of 2012 we sold our stakes in 23 companies that by our reckoning produced palm oil unsustainably," the fund said, without naming any firms.
Norway has given more than any other developed nation to help slow deforestation, partly as a way to avert climate change. Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest expanse of tropical forests and is the top prodicer of palm oil. Malaysia is the world's second largest producer.
The companies deny that they are a threat to forests.
Golden Agri's website, for instance, says: "we aim to be the leader in sustainable palm oil production." Wilmar and KL Kepong similarly say that they support best practices and standards to protect the environment.
Double standards
The Rainforest Foundation environmental group has long accused Norway of double standards by investing billions of dollars in palm oil or soya farmers while also giving cash to nations from Brazil to Indonesia to slow deforestation.
"We are very happy with this development in the palm oil sector," said Nils Hermann Ranum, of Norway's branch of the Foundation.
Still, he said that Norway should do more to pull out of other sectors that cause deforestation, such as logging companies, oil and gas firms, soya and meat producers.
By the Foundation's estimates, Norway had investments totalling $US13.2 billion in companies damaging rainforests at the end of 2012, against $US14.4 billion a year earlier. "They need a more coherent policy," he said.
Norway has programmes to slow deforestation worth $US1 billion each for Brazil and Indonesia, as well as smaller projects in nations from Guyana to Tanzania.
Many companies, including Anglo-Dutch consumer group Unilever and Swiss food group Nestle, have cracked down on palm oil suppliers in recent years because of worries about deforestation.
Deforestation accounts for up to about a fifth of greenhouse gases from human sources. Forests soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot.
Yngve Slyngstad, head of Norway's fund, told Reuters that Oslo was trying to invest more in palm oil producers whose policies did not damage forests that are home to endangered animals such as orang-utans and absorb greenhouse gases.
"We have sold many of the small companies and concentrated investment in larger companies who often have a better practice," he said.
Among palm oil firms, the fund more than quadrupled its holdings in Malaysia's Sime Darby to a value of 688.8 million crowns at the end of 2012 from 150.7 million crowns a year earlier. (Reuters)
Source
It said it sold stakes in the firms after a review of companies that have cleared forests for palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil is used in many foods and consumer goods such as soaps, lipstick and peanut butter.
The fund is one of the world's biggest investors, underpinned by Norway's oil and gas assets. Last year it expanded its investment guidelines to include deforestation as a threat to future growth.
Stakes in firms including Wilmar, KL Kepong and Golden Agri-Resources were sold during 2012, according to the fund's annual report released on Friday.
Of these, the biggest holding had been in Singapore-listed Wilmar, worth 382 million crowns ($65 million).
"In the first quarter of 2012 we sold our stakes in 23 companies that by our reckoning produced palm oil unsustainably," the fund said, without naming any firms.
Norway has given more than any other developed nation to help slow deforestation, partly as a way to avert climate change. Indonesia is home to the world's third-largest expanse of tropical forests and is the top prodicer of palm oil. Malaysia is the world's second largest producer.
The companies deny that they are a threat to forests.
Golden Agri's website, for instance, says: "we aim to be the leader in sustainable palm oil production." Wilmar and KL Kepong similarly say that they support best practices and standards to protect the environment.
Double standards
The Rainforest Foundation environmental group has long accused Norway of double standards by investing billions of dollars in palm oil or soya farmers while also giving cash to nations from Brazil to Indonesia to slow deforestation.
"We are very happy with this development in the palm oil sector," said Nils Hermann Ranum, of Norway's branch of the Foundation.
Still, he said that Norway should do more to pull out of other sectors that cause deforestation, such as logging companies, oil and gas firms, soya and meat producers.
By the Foundation's estimates, Norway had investments totalling $US13.2 billion in companies damaging rainforests at the end of 2012, against $US14.4 billion a year earlier. "They need a more coherent policy," he said.
Norway has programmes to slow deforestation worth $US1 billion each for Brazil and Indonesia, as well as smaller projects in nations from Guyana to Tanzania.
Many companies, including Anglo-Dutch consumer group Unilever and Swiss food group Nestle, have cracked down on palm oil suppliers in recent years because of worries about deforestation.
Deforestation accounts for up to about a fifth of greenhouse gases from human sources. Forests soak up carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they burn or rot.
Yngve Slyngstad, head of Norway's fund, told Reuters that Oslo was trying to invest more in palm oil producers whose policies did not damage forests that are home to endangered animals such as orang-utans and absorb greenhouse gases.
"We have sold many of the small companies and concentrated investment in larger companies who often have a better practice," he said.
Among palm oil firms, the fund more than quadrupled its holdings in Malaysia's Sime Darby to a value of 688.8 million crowns at the end of 2012 from 150.7 million crowns a year earlier. (Reuters)
Source
