Orangutan Outreach Website - Saving the Orangutan

Kara Bussabarger/Louisville Zoo

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Another football expert has weighed in on the upcoming Super Bowl.

Amber, the Louisville Zoo’s 20-year-old orangutan, predicts the New England Patriots will prevail against the New York Giants this Sunday.

Amber was given a choice between Patriots and Giants t-shirts. She first grabbed the Giants shirt, but then grabbed the Patriots shirt. After going back and forth between the two, she finally chose the Pats shirt and put it on.

The t-shirt prediction was part of Amber’s animal enrichment program.

“Animal enrichment is an important aspect of animal management at the Louisville Zoo,” said Animal Training Supervisor Jane Anne Franklin. “Amber and other animals at the zoo are given regular enrichment that provides them with mental and physical stimulation.”

Franklin said playing with T-shirts and other items of clothing is one of Amber’s favorite activities.

“When she is given a shirt, she often likes to take it and rub it across her face and feel the texture before she puts it on. Oh, and she really likes handbags,” she laughed. “If she had to choose between two handbags that might have been hard for her, because I bet she would have carried both of them around and not let them out of her sight.”

Franklin said that Amber might make more predictions in the future.

“It’s just something fun for her,” Franklin said. “And she enjoys all the attention.”

Source: http://www.wlky.com/news/15186881/detail.html?rss=lou&psp=news#

By Bryan Sims
Jan. 30, 2008

Major environmental and cultural organizations in Hawaii have reaffirmed their stances on opposing a “palm oil pipeline” intended for large-scale biodiesel production on the islands.

Hawaii is the most petroleum-dependent state in terms of electrical production, with more than 90 percent of the state’s energy needs coming from imported oil. Despite abundant renewable energy sources from solar, wind and hydroelectric power, Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. has spent the past year supporting proposals to construct two large biodiesel plants—one by Imperium Renewables Inc. on Oahu and one by BlueEarth Biofuels LLC on Maui. Both intend to use imported palm oil from Indonesia and/or Maylasia as a feedstock.

In October , HECO and the Natural Resources Defense Council finalized a policy to ensure that HECO’s two electric companies—Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light Co.—would only purchase biodiesel fuel produced from locally grown, sustainable feedstocks and palm oil. These feedstocks would comply with international standards established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an international organization made up of more than 200 members who represent all facets of the palm oil industry.

HECO, in partnership with BlueEarth Biofuels LLC, intends to build a 40 MMgy biodiesel facility to supply the renewable fuel to Maui Electric Co., which uses diesel for approximately 85 percent of its electricity production. The project is slated for full operation by mid-2009. In addition, HECO has committed to using 100 percent biofuels at its new 110-megawatt electricity generator at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu, which is expected to be completed in July 2009.

If constructed, the two plants’ combined capacity of 220 MMgy would exceed the potential output that could be produced in Hawaii, even if all available statewide agricultural lands were utilized for the sole purpose of biofuels. Though neither company has broken ground yet, Hawaiian environmental advocates are focused on preventing the global side effects that might follow when sourcing palm oil from other countries. Their concerns include the destruction of rainforests, threatening of endangered species and/or imposing the rights of indigenous peoples. “Our mantra is that all sustainability is local,” said Rob Parsons, executive vice president of the Maui Tomorrow Foundation, an environmental protection organization that has lobbied for ecological preservation on Maui for nearly 15 years. “What’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia is really an ecological disaster of our time with rain forest destruction and habitat loss of endangered species, particularly over the past decade.”

Alternative indigenous bidiesel feedstocks include jatropha, African palm oil, algae, and coconut and kakui nuts. However, it may take some time before the islands realize their contributions to the renewable energy arena on the islands.

“Sustainability is of utmost importance to Imperium Renewables as evidenced by the fact that we were the first biofuel company to become a member of the RSPO,” said Imperium Renewables spokesman John Williams. “Hawaii has massive potential to be a center for both research and cultivation of such feedstocks, and we intend to support the development of its potential.”

Concerns about imported palm oil surfaced this week in light of a major climate change meeting, “Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change,” held at the University of Hawaii East-West Center. The conference was the second of two rounds. The first was hosted in Washington, D.C., in September. Sixteen of the top 17 carbon-emitting nations attended to discuss voluntary carbon reduction strategies. The conference differed from the United Nations-sponsored event held in Bali, where the focus was on establishing global carbon standards pertinent to the Kyoto Protocol.

“We’re saying it’s time to phase out the liquid-fuel-burning generators and use the available resources that we have an abundance of here in Hawaii,” Parsons said. “If biodiesel is to be used here, it makes more sense to use it for transportation fuel rather than for electrical generation.”

Source: http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2079

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s nine-month-old baby orangutan, Mahal, will be leaving the Zoo in early February. Mahal will be traveling in style (via private plane) to the Milwaukee County Zoo to be paired with a new surrogate mom.

Mahal was born at the Zoo on April 4, 2007 to parents Hadiah and Tujoh, Bornean orangutans. Mahal is Hadiah’s first baby and she didn’t immediately take to her infant, requiring Zoo staff to step in to begin caring for the baby. Since Mahal’s birth the dedicated hand-rearing team has cared for him 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.

As you may remember Mahal was introduced to Sandra, the Zoo’s 51-year old orangutan matriarch, in November. Sandra raised nine of her own children and immediately took to Mahal. The keepers noticed a renewed energy in Sandra and the two were inseparable. Unfortunately, Sandra died in her sleep in mid-December.

The search for a new surrogate mom continued after Sandra’s passing, but we were not able to pair Mahal with a surrogate here at the Zoo. Since all babies need a mom, the Zoo knew it would be in Mahal’s best interest to transfer him to another accredited Zoo with a proven orangutan surrogate program. Mahal will be dearly missed by all of us at the Zoo but we are very happy that he will be with a new mom.

Stop by and say goodbye to Mahal; he will be with his caregiver in the indoor exhibit at Primate World for the next week. A “Goodbye Book” will be available in Primate World for those who would like to write a farewell message or share a photo or personal story about Mahal. And, if you are ever in Milwaukee stop by the County Zoo to see Mahal with his new mom.

Visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s website
Visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s palmoil website

I have no idea whose page this is, but when I came across it I really got a kick out of it. So many of the posts on redapes.org have to do with palm oil infestation and pain suffered by orangutans that it was nice to see something so blissfully simple and lighthearted for a change. I just had to put up a link to it for orangutan fans everywhere! Take a look. It’ll make you smile.  Peace. ~ Richhttp://community.livejournal.com/animal_figures/4884.html

KOTA KINABALU (Bernama) - HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad has pledged a RM200,000 grant to the Sabah government for the conservation and restoration of the Deramakot forest reserve in Sandakan.Datuk Sam Manan, director of the Sabah Forestry Department, through which the grant was pledged, said the grant would go towards conservation work in the southern part of the forest, which has a high population of orang utans.

“There are about 1,000 orang utans in the southern part of Deramakot forest and we expect the number to increase with movements of these animals coming from the nearby Malua and Ulu Segama forests.

“That could add up to half of the Sabah population of orang utans, which is about 11,000 to 12,000,” Sam told reporters at the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the state government and HSBC here yesterday.

He said the conservation project, to be undertaken by HSBC for two years, covered 500ha (the Deramakot forest is 55,083ha in size) and is targeted to ensure that the orang utans’ habitats were sustainable for their continual survival and growth.

HSBC deputy chairman and chief operating officer Irene M Dorner said the grant was not only to conserve the endangered orang utan but also to engage the local communities in the restoration process.

“Ultimately, we hope this programme will result in a model orang utan conservation area for other stakeholders to follow as well as create ecotourism opportunities for the local people,” she said.

At the ceremony, Dorner presented Sam with a RM200,000 cheque for immediate implementation of the project.

KOTA KINABALU (NST) - Home to a third of orang utan in Sabah, the once-logged Ulu Segama and Malua commercial forest reserves are attracting international and local donors.

The donors are keen to do their part to restore degraded jungles and protect key wildlife habitats.

As pledged by the Sabah government almost two years ago, logging ceased at the end of last month at both reserves which measure 236,825ha.

The reserves, almost five times the size of Langkawi, are located within what the Sabah Forestry Department has called the “Ulu Segama-Malua (USM) project” which covers several other forest reserves, including the world-famous Danum Valley.

Sabah Forestry Department director Datuk Sam Mannan said that in the last couple of years, about RM25 million had been raised and pledged for the administrative development of the USM project, restoration of wildlife conservation zones, silviculture and wildlife surveys.

While the main funding sources are the Sabah government and Yayasan Sabah which have come in with RM12 million each, about RM1.2 million was raised by the Arcus Foundation, Alexander Abraham Foundation, the US embassy and the Regional Natural Heritage Programme of the Australian government.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is supporting the development of the “High Conservation Value Forests” concept at the project sites while Hutan is helping with the conservation of orang utan.

It has been learnt that Sime Darby Berhad is the latest organisation to have expressed interest in playing a conservation role at USM by funding restoration of degraded forests for the protection of orang utan.

The company is expected to make an announcement when the Sabah Development Corridor blueprint is launched on Tuesday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“About 35 per cent of Sabah’s orang utan population or some 4,500 are found in USM, making it one of the highest concentrations of orang utan in Borneo. It also has a population of Sumatran rhinos, Borneo Pygmy elephants, honey bears and tembadau or wild ox.”

Source: Borneo Bulletin http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/jan28b3.htm

Source: The Jakarta Post - January 23, 2008
JAMBI

Uncontrolled poaching has been spreading to protected forests and national parks, threatening rare species, local experts say. Technical coordinator of the Jambi center for natural resources conservation, Titin Heryatin, said poachers have been hunting for protected animals including Sumatran tigers, elephants, rhinos, crocodiles, snakes and forest goats. Poachers have freely hunted protected species in protected forests and national parks since special forest police were allegedly involved in a poaching and rare species trade syndicate.

“Poachers have frequently worked at night and used sophisticated weapons to avoid police,” she said here on Tuesday. She said her office and police were also lacking personnel to improve surveillance and enforce the law.

The center has deployed only some 24 personnel to conduct surveillance over the 60,500 hectare-Bukit Duabelas National Park, 4.1 million-ha East Coast mangrove forest and the 120,000-ha Durian Luncuk natural reserve, she said.

“We are working to improve coordination between relevant authorities including the Forestry Ministry and the Environment Ministry, the police and local military to control the poaching,” she said. –JP

Source: The Jakarta Post - January 21, 2008
By Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta

Forest watchdog group Greenomics Indonesia has urged the government to audit the country’s wood processing industry and respond to claims of a diminishing supply of raw materials. The call was made after a Greenomics report showed 31.9 percent of 122 wood processing companies enjoyed a surplus of raw material in 2006, while 46 firms, mostly from plywood and cut timber industries, lacked supply in the same period.

“It shows a contradictory fact… On one hand, many wood players protest the declining amount of raw material but others enjoy a surplus,” Greenomics national coordinator Vanda Mutia Dewi told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. “If the government takes no action, such contrary conditions will remain in place this year.”

Greenomics reported its finding to the Forestry Ministry on Friday.

“We just analyze reports of wood processing firms submitted to the ministry. The ministry knows the names of the companies that recorded a raw material surplus,” she said. Vanda said the raw material surplus absorbed by processing companies reached 2.22 million cubic meters.

“Seventy percent of raw materials were absorbed by the plywood and cut timber industries, and the remaining by the pulp and paper firms,” she said. Vanda alleged the wood supply surplus resulted from illegal logging activities that would further damage the forests.

“The ministry also needs to audit companies experiencing a lack of raw materials supply,” she added.

The forestry ministry issues different quotas of wood raw material that can be harvested by wood processing firms every year.

Vanda said the number of idle logs was 3.4 million cubic meters and 2.7 million cubic meters in 2007 and 2006, respectively. She said some companies had complained about the government’s slow action to issue licenses to operate heavy equipment for legal logging activities.

“It leaves forest concession holders without enough time for to log and supply wood to timber industries,” she said.

Data from the ministry showed cut timber productions reached 4.3 million cubic meters in 2006, nearly a third of its peak of 10.4 million cubic meters in 1989. It also showed plywood production hit its peak in 1997 with a total 9.7 million cubic meters before dropping nearly in half to 4.7 million cubic meters in 2006.

Indonesia is home to the world’s third-largest forest areas, at 140 million hectares, of which 60 percent has been designated natural production forest.

The ministry has set up a roadmap stipulating strategies for 2008-2014 to revitalize the country’s timber industry. Among the long-standing problems the plan addresses are insufficient supply of raw materials, low industry efficiency and low added value of wood processing. The roadmap says to achieve a sustainable and legal supply of timber, the government would intensify forest plantation development and increase forest plantation productivity.

The ministry also planned to boost efforts to eradicate forestry crime and promote the use of alternative supply sources. To resolve industry inefficiencies, companies were urged to improve wood processing technology.

Space imaging gives the lie to Brazil’s recent ‘great achievement’ of halting rainforest destruction

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
January 25, 2008
Guardian

In a world of climate change and general environmental degradation, it was one ecological disaster that had apparently been averted.
After decades of steady obliteration, the tide appeared to have turned against the illegal deforestation that has disfigured the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva, went on the radio in August to trumpet the breakthrough. His environment minister, Marina Silva, hailed “a great achievement for Brazilian society”.

Yesterday, however, the good news came to a halt when ministers admitted that after three years on the wane deforestation had once again risen sharply.

Government satellite images show that at least 1,280 sq miles (3,235 sq kilometers) of rainforest were lost between August and December last year, mainly because of soy planting and cattle ranching. Environment ministry officials believe the true figure could be as high as 2,700 sq miles (7,000 sq kilometers).

“Never before have we detected such a high deforestation rate at this time of year,” said Gilberto Câmara, the head of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which is responsible for monitoring the Amazon region. “We had never seen this before in Amazonia.”

The Brazilian Amazon has been decimated by a combination of loggers, farmers and ranchers over the last 40 years. Environmentalists say as much as 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed, mostly since the 70s. A further 40% could be lost by 2050 if that trend is not reversed, they estimate.

Yesterday, after Lula called an emergency cabinet meeting, officials announced a crackdown on loggers and farmers. João Paulo Capobianco, the executive secretary of the environment ministry, said the figures were “extremely worrying”.

They show that the state with the highest level of deforestation is Mato Grosso, an agricultural frontier that produces the bulk of Brazil’s soy exports.

Paulo Adario, the Amazon director of Greenpeace in Brazil, said government measures had brought some success but that “what the government does not control is the economic reality. It is the economy that controls deforestation. Each time the prices of meat and soy rise so does deforestation.”

Adario said it was particularly worrying that the rise had taken place towards the end of the year, a period when traditionally less deforestation takes place because rain makes cutting or burning down trees more difficult.

Environmental campaigners first began to voice concern over a possible rise in deforestation in May last year. In September the Guardian flew over the north of Mato Grosso and the south of Para with a group of Greenpeace activists. In both regions signs of increasing deforestation were easy to spot. In Mato Grosso vast tracts of land smouldered, clearing the way for soy plantations. The landscape was littered with fallen, scorched trees scattered like matchsticks. In Para state a web of illegal dirt roads was visible, meandering through the relatively intact rainforest towards newly cleared areas.

In the Amazonian frontier town of Novo Progresso one of the region’s leading farmers, Agamenon da Silva Menezes, described government plans to eradicate deforestation as “the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard.

“It is definitely going to rise,” he said.

Marina Silva, the environment minister, yesterday announced a new anti-deforestation drive focusing on 36 areas. One of these is Sao Felix do Xingu, a cattle ranching town in the state of Para, where the mayor recently banned the use of motorcycle helmets because gunmen employed by powerful ranchers had used them to disguise their identities when carrying out killings. Also on the list is Colniza, an agricultural town in Mato Grosso, which has Brazil’s highest murder rate.

Silva compared the government’s attempts to preserve the rainforest to a doctor trying to save a patient: “Sometimes a doctor does everything he can for the patient but there are variables,” she said. “So the doctor adjusts the medication.”

“The government needs to act now,” said Adario. “Otherwise the measures will have an effect one year, and the next the patient’s fever will return and he will end up back in hospital.”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,2246620,00.html

January 25, 2008
By David Common, CBC

Ethanol was supposed to be this great fix for the air we breathe. Now it turns out it might be counterproductive, even dirty. At least, that is the view gaining ground in Europe.

In principle, biofuels like ethanol were supposed to partially replace conventional fuels, thereby reducing already heavy demand on fossil fuels and offering a non-polluting alternative. As a bonus, the biofuels are made from plants and so demand for the crops of increasingly desperate farmers would increase.

That was the utopia. But long before ethanol could become a regular staple at gas stations, critics were pointing out the potential downsides. Those fears appear to be coming true.

First is food. With more corn, wheat and other crops being diverted to make fuel, there is less available for human or animal consumption. Farmers are also shifting what they grow, to crops more conducive for eventually powering cars.

This helps explain why global food prices are on the rise. The cost of raw cereals doubled in Britain in 2007. Italians held a strike last September to protest the rising cost of pasta. At my local boulangerie, the baker has had to raise the price of a baguette. (Quel horreur!)

Then there’s the problem of where the crops are being grown. In Indonesia, for instance, huge tracts of forest have been bulldozed to create palm farms. The palm oil is used to create a biofuel, thus offsetting the carbon dioxide that would have been released had conventional fuel been burned.

Banning imports

But what of the trees? Had they remained standing, they would have absorbed large amounts of carbon dioxide in the air. The scientists say the benefit of creating the biofuel from sources like this is negated by the loss of a long-term carbon converter, like a tree.

The European Union is the first to do something about all this. It is proposing to ban imports of certain fuel crops whose production might do more harm than good in fighting climate change.

The draft legislation, suggests crops grown on former forests, wetlands and grasslands (all carbon sinks) be banned for use in the 27-member bloc. There is no guarantee this proposal will become policy but it is a sign of the shifting attitudes toward biofuels.

For example, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama recently warned the biofuel production could actually result in environmental pollution and damage to human health.

Other studies have suggested biofuels made from certain crops actually use more energy (between planting, harvesting, production and transport) than they create. For example, a Swiss study showed fuels made from U.S. corn, Malaysian palm oil and Brazilian soy may actually be worse than fossil fuels in the long run.

The best approach, according to the Swiss, would be fuels made from so-called residual products, like recycled cooking oil and ethanol from grass or wood. Yet another study suggested Brazilian sugar cane was best because of its extremely high energy value.

Pick your crops

In Europe, most of the biofuels come from rapeseed oil, which Canadians call canola oil. (Drive across much of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in spring, it’s in those bright yellow fields.)

The EU had planned to ensure 5.75 per cent of all the fuel used in Europe by 2010 was a biofuel. It’s not going to happen. There isn’t enough production capacity.

The industry is ramping up but still not globally mature. Following present trends, biofuels will likely account for 4.2 per cent of Europe’s fuel by 2010.

Biofuels seemed like a good idea and, generally, one worth pursuing. But clearly not every crop will work, and not everywhere.

The world — the United States especially — has jumped into the car powered by ethanol, and Europe just tapped the brakes. Everyone else in the car should pay attention.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/common/20080125.html