Palm oil is the world’s second largest oil crop. It is extracted from the fruit of palm tress and use primarily in the production of food and personal care products, and for industrial purposes. The largest producers of palm oil currently are Indonesia and Malaysia. These countries have extensive plantations of palm trees that have resulted from the destruction of native rainforest.

People tend to overlook the repercussions of palm oil plantations. The environmental impact of producing palm oil has a disastrous effect, causing deforestation and threatening the habitat of both indigenous human communities and orangutan populations. Other species such as Sumatran rhinos and tigers have also fallen victim to the destruction of their homes. Undeniably, the eradication of rainforests releases extreme levels of carbon dioxide into the environment. Consequently, 15 percent of C02 emissions derive from the fossil fuels of rainforest removal. This method of farming palm oil is not only morally reprehensible, it heightens the seriousness of global warming; an issue that needs solutions, not greater contributing factors.

It is fair to say that the big wigs from international palm oil corporations don’t negotiate satisfactory terms with the Asian communities they come into. Social conflicts, disputes and abuses are prevalent as locals are forced to surrender their land. In spite of their outcry for justice or compensation for violations of their basic human rights, indigenous peoples are ignored because of their ‘lack of value’ in the global economy. Producers claim they add value to communities by creating employment opportunities for locals in the palm oil plantations. This type of reasoning is the epitome of ridicule when most of palm oil companies offer meager salaries, embodying the principles of slavery instead.

Consumers often disregard the negativity associated with palm oil production because they are uninformed, which is understandable when the truth about the social and environmental impact of palm oil is concealed. What lies beneath the food labelling on mass produced items we purchase are secrets marketing executives have left out: ‘Only about 50 orangutans were slaughtered and a couple of rainforests were cleared for your pleasure and consumption’ is a truth they conveniently left out.

Labelling regulations in Australia are quite lax with regard to palm oil, easily fooling consumers. Even if palm oil is a key ingredient in a food product, it does not have to be labelled as such. A popular and people-friendly substitute is for it to be labelled as ‘vegetable oil’.

As consumers we have a lot more influence and power than we think we have with regard to palm oil production; without our spending, there is no business. Therefore we have every right to voice our beliefs and concerns over this important issue. A simple, thoughtful and effective option is to write a letter to someone who has involvement in palm oil production or manufacturing. Write to a food company suggesting they should stop telling fibs on their labels because as a comsumer you deserve the right to know.

There are alternatives to palm oil that are healthier for people, animals and the planet, and it is a failure to the indigenous people and orangutans that have to suffer in order to feed corporate and consumer greed.

Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize for his meticulous PowerPoint presentation, An Inconvenient Truth. Well, the ‘Uncomfortable Truth’ about palm oil, won’t be made into a movie but it is just as important and relevant.

Be outspoken, be passionate and be the change you wish to see in the world.

Source: Aduki
http://www.aduki.net.au/aduki-online/other-stuff/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-palm-oil.html

Methinks a time for protest is upon us! ~ Rich

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta 22nd July

Samsung Group, South Korea’s largest company, plans to develop a 25,000-hectare oil palm plantation and a biodiesel refinery in Riau province with an investment of up to Rp 15 trillion (US$1.63 billion).

Head of the national team for biofuel development Al Hilal Hamdi said Monday the company had spent Rp 1.5 trillion on acquiring the land and the factory.

“They bought the land recently and that was their first investment. The total investment will likely increase by 10 times,” he said, refusing to reveal the exact location of the land.

He said the Samsung factory was expected to go online next year and produce 50,000 kiloliters of biodiesel per year.

“Samsung is one of many investors interested in taking part in the country’s biodiesel development project in Sumatra,” he said.

However, Indonesia-based Kang Hyonghyun of Samsung C&T Corporation said he had yet to be informed of the plan.

As of March 2008, bio-energy development investment in the country had reached Rp 31.47 trillion.

To reduce dependency on fossil fuels, including oil, the government will in October impose a new regulation requiring that at least 2.5 percent of fuel consumed by manufacturers be biofuel.

The first law will initially be enacted in Java and Sumatra only.

Indonesia produces two types of biofuel — bioethanol, made from cassava, sugarcane and sorghum; and biodiesel, made from castor and crude palm oil.

The country’s annual biofuel production is currently 2 million kiloliters and is expected to grow to 5 million kiloliters by 2010.

The country’s annual bioethanol production capacity reached 192,349 kiloliters as of the end of the year’s first half. This figure is expected to increase to 4 million kiloliters by 2010.

Samsung’s business operations include electronics, engineering, construction and shipbuilding.

We have laws in Spain to protect the rights of orangutans and laws to protect trees in California… What we need now is a law to protect the orangutans’ and trees’ rights in Indonesia! ~ Rich

By FELICITY BARRINGER

SAN FRANCISCO — Neither State Senator Joe Simitian of California nor the state’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, bears much resemblance to Dr. Seuss’s Lorax. But on Tuesday, like that fictional defender of the environment, they spoke for the trees.

More than six months after two Santa Clara residents were convicted under a state nuisance law for letting their redwoods cast shade on a neighbor’s solar panels, the governor signed into law a bill that gives trees the right to grow as they please — as long as they predate any solar panels they might be shading.

“I think we’ve demonstrated that there is nothing mutually inconsistent about trees and solar,” said Mr. Simitian, a Democrat who wrote the bill, shortly after the measure was signed on Tuesday. “I was frustrated by the tone of the debate at the outset — that it was somehow about trees versus solar. I thought it should be about trees and solar.”

He added, “We need to get past talking about who’s right and talk about what’s right.”

But back in his Santa Clara County district, the dispute between the neighbors, Mark Vargas (he of the solar panels) and Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett (of redwood-tree fame) still simmers.

Mr. Vargas had tried to get his neighbors to remove or drastically prune a group of redwoods they had planted beginning more than a decade ago. The trees now loom over Mr. Vargas’s home and over solar panels he installed in 2001, six years after the first redwoods were planted.

After the conviction of Mr. Treanor and Ms. Bissett, one of the seven redwoods was extensively pruned.

The new law is not retroactive; the original conviction stands. But the neighborhood fight is not over. Mr. Vargas has gone back to civil court, suing his neighbors in part because of the solar-panel issue, but also because he claimed the trees’ roots damage an underground storm drain and because they violate state laws prohibiting spite fences.

Source: The New York Times

By KEITH BRADSHER

JAKARTA, Indonesia — While prices have been rising in the United States and Europe, the biggest increases are being felt in Asia, and countries like India and Vietnam are already having to deal with double-digit inflation.

Sharp rises in global food and oil prices are now spilling over into wages and broader measures of inflation across Asia, as the Asian Development Bank noted in a report released Tuesday.

Workers are demanding higher wages to cover their rising living costs, and companies are imposing higher prices for a wide range of goods to cover accelerating production costs.

“The epicenter of the inflationary storm is really in Asia,” said Cyd Tuano-Amador, the managing director of monetary policy at the Philippines Central Bank.

Higher inflation in Asia is also starting to contribute to higher prices in the United States. According to the Labor Department, prices for imports from Pacific Rim countries — mostly Asian goods — rose 2.7 percent in the 12 months through June, after falling 1.4 percent in the preceding 12 months.

Asia’s central bankers, who are preparing for their annual gathering July 28 in Shanghai, have been unable to develop a united response to deal with the worst inflation threat in at least a decade.

In an interview Tuesday, Boediono, the governor of the Bank of Indonesia, called for a coordinated international move toward tighter monetary policy, including higher interest rates by the United States, so as to slow inflation.

In an era of global capital flows, so much excess money is now flowing through world markets that no single country can fight the international problem of inflation effectively by tightening its own monetary policy, Boediono said. (Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.)

“I don’t think any one country, even as big as China or even the United States, would be able to stomach the adjustment” of raising interest rates far enough to slow global inflation, he said.

World oil prices could fall by 30 percent if countries took coordinated action to reduce liquidity, he said. He attributed much of the recent rise in global commodity prices to excess money in circulation.

But Boediono said he was not recommending that Asian central banks sell any of their dollar reserves to put pressure on the United States to raise interest rates. Asian purchases of dollar-denominated securities, led by China’s $1.8 trillion in foreign reserves, have played a central role in financing the American trade and government budget deficits and in holding down interest rates on mortgages during the recent American housing market decline.

Most central banks in Asia have been reluctant to give up any of their economic independence or challenge the United States by coordinating their monetary and currency policies, even as they fret about rising prices.

“There is a legitimate concern about the recent developments on the inflation front,” said Y. Venugopal Reddy, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, in a speech late last month. “Oil price increase is now a global problem, making inflation a problem for all countries, both developed and developing. Hence, our solutions to the problem will also be similar, but tailored to suit our conditions.”

Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, said this month during a visit to Switzerland that an interest rate increase might be needed in China to combat inflation. While the rise in consumer prices slowed slightly in China last month, to 7.1 percent from 7.7 percent in May, inflation accelerated at the producer level, to 8.8 percent in June from 8.2 percent in May.

Ms. Tuano-Amador said the meeting in Shanghai was unlikely to produce any consensus on monetary policy coordination. “I don’t think that it’s on the table right now,” she said.”

As the Asian Development Bank said in its report issued Tuesday in Singapore, inflation has risen across the region. “The external economic outlook for emerging East Asia has dimmed amid prospects for slower growth, tighter credit conditions and higher inflation,” the bank said.

The report also mentioned that “heightened inflationary pressures will require more decisive tightening of monetary policies across much of emerging East Asia.”

The initial reaction of many governments and private sector economists across Asia over the winter was to see price increases as largely confined to food and energy — and therefore not requiring monetary policy responses like interest rate increases. But broader inflation trends are now starting to become apparent.

The core inflation rate, excluding food and energy, accelerated in Indonesia to 8.7 percent in May from 6.3 percent in December. During the same period, the core rates rose in May in the Philippines and Singapore to 6.2 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively, from 2.6 percent and 3.5 percent.

Strong demand for Indonesia’s many commodities, from coal to palm oil, have insulated it somewhat from slowing growth elsewhere. But rising prices are starting to take a toll, particularly on the poor.

Halimah, a teacher, echoed the unhappiness of many Indonesians as she bought milk on Sunday at a street market in Karawang, a town in west-central Java. “It has been very difficult for us, especially on kerosene, cooking oil and eggs — they have been rising in price dramatically,” she said.

Central banks in the region have been struggling for months to respond to the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates. Low American interest rates are making it harder for the region’s central banks to raise their rates; doing so would make them more attractive for international investors and could produce rapid appreciation in their currencies.

Stronger currencies would lower the cost in local currency terms of importing oil and other goods. But stronger currencies would also reduce the competitiveness of exports at a time when demand for Asian goods is weakening in the United States.

Boediono said he saw some room for the Indonesian rupiah to rise against the dollar, but that the timing could not be forced on his country. “Some orderly appreciation,” he said, “would be helpful for us.”

Boediono said that the Federal Reserve should raise short-term interest rates, and that his experience during the Asian financial crisis made him believe that the Fed could act without causing excessive damage to the American banking system.

“I don’t think a move of 25 or 50 basis points,” or 0.25 or 0.5 percentage points, “would collapse it,” he said.

Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, told the Senate Banking Committee in testimony on July 15 that the United States economy faces risks of a further slowdown and higher inflation. Analysts interpreted his comments as meaning it was unlikely that the Fed would either raise or lower interest rates soon. The target for the overnight borrowing rate among banks, or federal funds rate, stands at 2 percent.

Boediono spoke in an interview in his elegant, wood-paneled offices, where the international décor and even the styling of the paneling bear a striking resemblance to the governors’ suites at the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington.

Source: The New York Times

By Qistina Rangga

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei is planning to expand its forest reserve cover from 41 per cent to 55 per cent of the country’s forested area, a forestry officer said yesterday.

Muhd Safwan Abdullah Bibi from the Forestry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources (MIPR) said that the increase in coverage will fulfill the 55 per cent forest reserve commitment embodied in the 1989 National Forestry Policy.

To date, 76 per cent of Brunei’s land area of 5,765 sq km is covered by forest, according to Muhd Safwan, a decrease from 78 per cent.

In addition, “logging is limited to an area of 100,000 cubic metres which is a 50 per cent reduction from previous logging area coverage,” he told The Brunei Times, noting it as one of the government’s preservation strategies.

Muhd Safwan was speaking at the opening of the training workshop on “Timber Verification of Legality Systems” at MIPR yesterday.

Officiating the event was Pg Hjh Mariana PDNLDR Pg Hj Abdul Momin, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of MIPR, who spoke about Brunei’s commitment to forest protection and illegal logging, in particular the Heart of Borneo project.

According to Pg Hjh Mariana, 58 per cent of Brunei’s total land area is allocated to the Heart of Borneo initiative to sustain the island’s natural richness. It is perceived to be a “giant step forward”.

“(This is to ensure) that the natural riches of the Island of Borneo is developed and managed sustainably for the benefit of the present and future generations,” she said.

Illegal logging contributes to the continued degradation of the ecosystem and has far-reaching environmental and economic implications. As such, implementation of appropriate forest governance to sustain economic growth is needed, she added.

She also said that commitment at all levels, including the government, non-government organisations and the private sectors, is needed in the development of policies in both the consumer and producer countries.

“There is a need to implement appropriate forest governance, cooperation between the local communities, public and private sectors. It would also call for the establishment of collaborations and networking between enforcement agencies of member countries,” she said.

She also stressed the importance of investing in the development aspect of forest management. This will see the involvement of the forestry stakeholders and allow them to have abetter appreciation of the basic resource.

Pg Hjh Mariana also mentioned that Brunei has successfully completed the pilot Peer Consultation Framework (PCF) in which Asean member states have assessed the country’s National Forest Policy.

Recommendations were made to improve policymaking, emulate best practices and to consider recognised standards and principles.

Also present at the opeling ceremony was Hj Saidin Salleh, Director of Forestry, Dr Andreas Obser, principal advisor of Asean-German Regional Forest Programme and Brunei’s senior government officials.

Source: The Brunei Times

iReport for CNN “Rebuilding the Gulf Coast”
The struggles of The Zoo Northwest Florida
This is Part 1 of 3. Visit CNN to watch the videos and see the photos: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-48179
Check out Part 3 to see the orangutans and chimps in action!

You might call it the little zoo that could take the beating of three major hurricanes and still keep going. But the momentum that’s kept The Zoo Northwest Florida afloat through some of the toughest times in recent history along the Gulf Coast, is quickly fading to economic hard times.

Located about 150 miles east of Biloxi, Mississippi, you’ll find the small zoo in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Biloxi is where the eye of Hurricane Katrina, a Cat 5 storm, plowed onto shore on Aug. 23, 2005. Even though this zoo was not in the direct path of this storm, the effects - wind, rain and loss of tourism dollars - were still felt. A few months before Katrina hit, the zoo, which is just a few miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, was dealt a mighty blow from the eye of Hurricane Denise, a Cat 3 storm that knocked down hundreds of trees, flooded coastal properties and derailed tourism. These two hurricanes could not have come at a worse time. The zoo was still trying to repair and financially recover from one of the worst hurricanes to hit this area in recent history — Hurricane Ivan, a deadly Cat. 5 storm that brought the Pensacola and Gulf Breeze areas to its knees. The zoo was in the direct path of the northeast quadrant of the hurricane…the worse side of this massive storm.

So I don’t need to tell you that this Zoo has had its share of struggles. It seemed as though every time it was getting back on its feet, another storm would makes its presents known. And each time the struggles grew harder, to the point that today The Zoo Northwest Florida might have no other choice than to close its doors and start yet another struggle to find homes for more than a 1,300 animals. For a community that’s still in the recovery stages from the one, two, three punches of the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes, this would be a big blow.

This beloved zoo has been a large part of this community for many years. A non-profit zoo that has made ends met with ticket sales, corporate and private supporters, fund raisers and donations, including penny drives from local school children. And many of these children are ones who lost everything during hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. Unlike many zoos that have the support of their local city, county and state governments, this zoo operates solely on its own.

But its battle to keep the doors open and animals here is at the 11th hour. If the local city and or county government can’t find room in their budgets, the zoo has no other choice but to put a lock on its doors and spend the next projected 12 to 16 months finding homes for all of the animals that range from large exotics, such as giraffes, lions, gorillas and a chimpanzee named Zackary, who waves and smiles at visitors, all the way down to the smallest of bats and snakes.

I grew up in this area and like many people here, we feel a kinship with the zoo and its animals - some of which have been born at the zoo. I have attended events here, taken my nephews and niece here, and they offer many more things to do than just a day at the zoo, such as “Senior Keeper Programs”, “Zoo Camp” and “School at the Zoo,” all events directed to adults and children with the intent of educating them about exotic animals and wildlife.

This zoo has over 30 acres for free-roaming animals that you can see up close via the Safari Line Train and stroll though the gardens, gift shop and children’s petting zoo.

A dear friend of mine and fellow animal lover, Betsy Bragg, came to me one day and asked if I could donate some artwork to the zoo to be a part of its fundraiser “Feast with the Beast”. I felt that I could and should do more than just that. So that is why I’m doing this “iReport” for CNN. I hope that through my story and photos that it will bring attention where it is greatly needed.

Betsy got me in touch with one of the board members of the zoo, Janie Switzer. And with my partner, Jeff Griffey, the four of us took off on a photo shoot, Safari style. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see these wonderful creatures up close and personal. And to see how hard every one at this zoo has worked to recover from those storms. So many trees down, so many fences destroyed, damage to property, and loss of revenue and rising operational costs, with the change in the economy it’s a lot to deal with when you are a non-profit zoo. Every day it’s face with making sure that the animals are safe, getting them to shelter, keeping them calm, keeping them fed, keeping them healthy, paying the employees, maintaining and rebuilding the property, paying the utilities…the list goes on and on.
As I was asked before, to donate artwork to the zoo for “Feast with the Beast” in September, chances are there won’t be a fund raiser to donate to. So, with the help of Jeff, Betsy, Danyelle, Janie and the Pensacola News Journal, we are putting together a fund raising auction on eBay next week. With the photos that I have taken and the help of Akiens Framery, we are putting together a dozen 11×17 signed, matted, and framed photo prints of the animals that live at this zoo. One hundred percent of the net profits will go directly to the The Zoo Northwest Florida to help feed and maintain the animals, no matter what path this zoo takes.

After having this chance to see the zoo from a different angle and to learn more clearly about the challenges they are faced with, I hope this story inspires more people to help.
If you would like to bid on one of our prints, you can go to eBay. Link below…

http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_dmptZArtQ5fPhotoQ5fImages?_nkw=zoo+northwest+florida&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270

I want to thank CNN for giving me the chance to get this story about The Zoo Northwest Florida out there and thank the viewers for taking the time to watch.
James Amerson
Animal Lover

Source: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-48179

By James Ken

Bandar Seri Begawan - Illegal logging continues to be the major cause of deforestation and forest degradation in Southeast Asia. Although five per cent of the world’s forests are located in this region, the World Bank estimates that Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) accounted for nearly 25 per cent of the global forest loss over the past decade.

In an effort to overcome the situation, Asean has called for national policies to be intensified and regional collaborations strengthened.

Uncontrolled illegal logging could harm the Heart of Borneo (HoB) project, an ambitious initiative to conserve the richness of the forests that was undertaken by Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Mr Hugh Blackett, a forestry consultant at the training workshop on “Timber Verification of Legality System” held at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources yesterday, in an interview said, “The Heart of Borneo project can face an uphill task if illegal logging continues in the island of Borneo, especially in Indonesia.

“The Heart of Borneo project is an inter-government project supported by WWF. It’s a very good and important idea because there is still a lot of forest cover in the Heart of Borneo and many wildlife habitats need to be conserved. It will require a lot of cooperation between governments particularly Malaysia and Indonesia.”

Describing the problem of illegal logging in the region, Mr Blackett said, “Illegal logging happens in remote areas and it’s difficult to exercise control. Therefore making money from harvesting timber is very easy and gives a quick return. A lot of people have taken advantage of weak government controls. Unfortunately, there are some instances of corruption being allow it to happen.

“If logging is uncontrolled, and people take out too much of timber (from the forests), it will destroy the forest environment, the animal habitat, erosion control and subsistence for local community, as well as the future access to raw materials in the timber industry,” he said.

On countering illegal logging, he said, “NGOs specifically in Europe have been actively campaigning against people using tropical timber and demanding them to take a responsible attitude to ensure that the timber purchased is not from illegal logging. So there is a huge pressure to try to find ways on improving control in a country like Indonesia where there is a high incidence of illegal logging, making sure that the law is applied.

“Now in Europe, the governments’ public procurement policies system has set up a standard to see that any purchase of timber for projects come from a responsible source thereby ensuring sustainable, managed forests. We have in existence a certification standard that comes from the forest timber certification council setting the standard for forest management.”

About illegal logging at the borders, he said, “It can happen, and there are forest concessions at the border between Malaysia and Kalimantan and I have reports that there are companies doing cross border logging. A lot of wood is coming into Malaysia from Indonesia mainly across the borders of Sarawak and Kalimantan.

“The Malaysian government has accepted to cut down on the activities and it’s very much reduced. It’s very hard to quantify the volume of illegal trade of timber but it does seem that the cross border illegal trade between Malaysia and Indonesia has drastically reduced,” he added.

“There has to be a high level of government cooperation and support to combat illegal cross border activities. However, in addition to Europe, North America and Japan, other big markets like China and India should also set standards for timber import to help reduce illegal logging.”

He added, “It’s very difficult to detect when timber goes to the mills whether the timber has come from legal sources. Technologies are being developed like timber tracking where details of trees are recorded and marked before they are felled. Therefore timber tracking offers one way of knowing where it comes from to determine whether it’s under legal licence.

“Currently, there are technologies to help control the problem through record keeping in computerisation system,” he added. — Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

By LOUISE WATT
The Associated Press
Monday, July 21, 2008; 1:12 PM

LONDON — After traveling around the Arctic Circle alone, walking across South America, venturing through African war zones and hiking deep into the Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra jungles, Mike Horn is ready to embark on his most ambitious project yet.

The 42-year-old South African adventurer is set to go on a four-year environmental outreach expedition around the globe, aiming to cover 62,000 miles, cross all the continents and oceans, and reach the North and South Poles.

He will walk, kayak, cycle, paraglide, ski and sail across rivers, lakes, mountains, desert, jungle, tundra and ice fields. Working with educational specialists along the way, Horn hopes to inspire young people to clean up the planet and make people aware of the Earth’s gloriously uninhabited areas.

“After 20 years of exploration I cannot change my life, so I have decided to share more what I have done with the younger generation,” Horn said Monday. “I’m just an explorer who wants to keep my playground clean.”

He spoke from his 35-meter (115-feet) yacht, Pangaea, named after the expedition and the supercontinent that existed millions of years ago, docked on the Thames close to the Tower of London.

Pangaea’s aim is to “cultivate respect for the environment and the protection of its resources for the sake of future generations.” Along the way young people aged 13-20 will be invited to join Horn and learn about flora and fauna, and humankind’s interaction with nature and the elements.
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Horn’s two daughters, aged 14 and 15, will join him in school holidays.

The aluminum boat will run on solar energy and is designed to navigate oceans and cope with all conditions from the arctic to the tropics. It will include hydrogen fuel cell technology, solar panels and recyclable materials and be used for research, environmental and educational projects.

Solar panels will charge the batteries of the vessel, and because solar energy is difficult to store over a long time, it also has a system comprising an electrolyser, hydrogen storage and a fuel cell.

The expedition kicks off October 9 from Punta Arenas in Chile. From there, Horn will head to Antarctica, where he will trek to the South Pole. Then his route meanders through New Zealand and China, then through Russia to the North Pole, across Greenland, over to North America and back down through South America to Punta Arenas.

“I think humans are one of the most dangerous animals that’s around,” said Horn. “We are basically destroying the mother that’s going to feed us …. we don’t look from the land.”

The expedition also aims to establish youth and environmental projects in some areas it visits, in particular water, biodiversity and social community projects.

Horn was born in Johannesburg and later moved to Switzerland to work as an instructor for extreme water sports, including riverboarding, canyoning and rafting. He then turned to exploring the planet.

In 1997, he undertook an unmotorized crossing of South America, using a riverboard to navigate the Amazon River.

Two years later, he traveled the world around the Equator in 18 months. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Gabon on a 28-foot trimaran, and walked, cycled and canoed from Brazil to Ecuador. He crossed the Pacific Ocean to Indonesia, journeyed through Borneo and Sumatra on foot and then continued across the Indian Ocean.

The final part of his journey took him across Africa on foot through Congo war zones. This expedition won him the 2001 Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award.

In 2004, Horn completed a two-year solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle by foot, sled and canoe, becoming the first man to travel it without motorized transport.

Two years later, Horn and Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland became the first men to travel without dog or motorized transport to the North Pole during the permanent darkness of the Arctic months.

“To really go into the unknown every day is exciting at the same time as it’s scary,” Horn said. “If I stop being afraid of doing what I do, I will stop doing what I do.”

On the Web: http://mikehorn.com/index.php/site/page/home/

Source of article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072101267.html

The New York Times Op-Ed
By STEVE ROSS
Published: July 21, 2008

CHICAGO - You see it on greeting cards and in countless TV programs and commercials: the exaggerated grin on the face of a young chimpanzee, often one that’s wearing sunglasses or a grass skirt. It’s about as common a ploy for laughs as a pie in the face. Generations have been amused by the antics of Bonzo, J. Fred Muggs, Zippy and, more recently, the business-suited chimps of Careerbuilder.com. A chimpanzee covering its eyes in embarrassment? What’s not to love?

But this picture, harmless as it might appear, is giving the public the mistaken and even dangerous impression that chimpanzees have a safe and comfortable existence — and nothing could be further from the truth.

A survey that I and several colleagues conducted in 2005 found that one in three visitors to the Lincoln Park Zoo assumed that chimpanzees are not endangered. Yet more than 90 percent of these same visitors understood that gorillas and orangutans face serious threats to their survival. And many of those who imagined chimpanzees to be safe reported that they based their thinking on the prevalence of chimps in advertisements, on television and in the movies.

In reality, chimpanzees face a severe threat in the wild: their numbers have dropped to about 20 percent of what they were a century ago, as their habitat in equatorial Africa is deforested and they are hunted as bushmeat. And once you know this, it can become more difficult to view chimpanzees as silly subhuman caricatures. Consider that chimpanzees share as much as 98 percent of our genetic makeup. They make and use tools, recognize and identify hundreds of individuals in their groups and learn from others skills like termite fishing. Of course, the reverse is also true: we are 98 percent chimpanzee. Would we condone putting funny clothes on human children so that we could laugh at the way they look like subhuman buffoons?

A progressive society should weigh the moral costs and benefits of practices like these. Misrepresentations of chimpanzees may not be as repugnant as racism, bigotry or sexism. But they can still serve as a benchmark for our society’s moral progress.

The good news is that a growing number of companies, including Honda, Puma and Subaru, have pledged to stop the use of primates in advertisements. The journal Science recently stopped its promotional campaign featuring chimpanzees in hats reading the magazine. That two consecutive Super Bowls have gone by without a major ad campaign featuring a chimpanzee is reason for optimism. Sometimes, success has to be measured in small increments.

Steve Ross is the supervisor of behavioral and cognitive research at the Lester Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Source: The New York Times

The following excerpt comes from our friends at Nature Alert and the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP)
If you haven’t already done so, take a look at their websites. You’ll be glad you did. ~ Rich

“I have just returned from yet another trip to West Kalimantan - the Indonesian part of Borneo. If you are not familiar with the locations mentioned in my Blog you might like to look on Google Earth.

Back in February with the help of local people we identified a number of urgent problems. This month we returned to solve most if not all of them. There is some good news!

The seven orangutans that had been held at the terrible Pontianak zoo have now been moved to a much better location where we are confident they will have a better life.

On this trip Hardi and his small but dedicated Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) team have been able to:

• locate and rescue six orangutans within two weeks. Locations are often remote and difficult to reach, but that does not stop them… they are there right now as I write.
• develop a very good working relationship with local Ministry of Forestry officials… the future of orangutans is in their hands and they do want to help.
• COP is providing them with logistical and technical support, as well as new transit cages and other things.
• promised to help rescue and rehome at a rescue/rehab centre every single wild-caught orangutan currently in captivity in West Kalimantan - an area larger than many European countries!
• promised to pay for an extra Forest policeman to accompany investigators on rescue missions. Only these officials can confiscate orangutans.
• promised to base one of its own team in the region to be proactive with orangutan rescues.

Cut a long story short COP has removed every known obstacle to rescuing and rehoming orphan orangutans in this region. So far this month COP has saved six, but also gone to rescue an orangutan only to find it had been re-sold to ’someone’ in the meantime, another had died from a bullet wound and another is currently very ill caused by malnourishment. This should never happen again. Local people and officials know they can now call on COP for help.

If you support COP, it’s money well spent. As you can see, amongst many other things they also do get on and save orangutans.”

Sean

JAKARTA: Tiger skins and rare caged primates openly sold at markets in the heart of Indonesia’s capital are the most brazen and visible aspect of a thriving illegal wildlife trade.

Indonesia is struggling to take on a multimillion-dollar industry that is stripping the archipelago nation’s vast forests of endangered species for enormous profit by selling them to buyers around the world.

With corruption rife and authorities overwhelmed, conservationists say police and forestry officials have barely made a dent.

Activists and the government estimate Indonesia loses at least $80 million a year through the illegal trade, with rare animals – dead and alive – being sold at huge mark-ups once they get to overseas markets.

“What’s interesting is that an orangutan caught in Kalimantan (on Borneo island) costs no more than three million rupiah and is sold in Jakarta for five million rupiah,” said Asep Purnama from the non-government organisation ProFauna. [1,000,000 Ind. rupiah = US $110 ]

“Once they get to Taiwan they will sell for around 100mn rupiah and in Europe they’ll sell for 400mn,” he said, adding that an estimated 100 orangutans are taken every year from Kalimantan’s forests alone.

Purnama’s group estimates around 10,000 animals found only on Sumatra island were poached in 2007 to supply the illegal trade.

While some animals are shipped directly from Kalimantan or Sumatra to Malaysia or the Philippines, much of the trade is directed through the teeming animal markets of Indonesia’s major cities, Purnama said.

“Since the illegal wildlife trade in the markets is the result of wild poaching, stopping the illegal trade in the markets would reduce the poaching itself,” he said.

A short walk through Jakarta’s Jatinegara shows a flourishing trade.

Peddlers sell slow lorises, a rare bug-eyed primate from Sumatra’s forests, for less than $10 each as pets for middle-class families.

Most buyers likely don’t know trade in the seemingly cute animals is illegal – or that they usually die within weeks from the stress of captivity – but the sellers do, and they are extremely camera shy.

A few hundred metres away in Jatinegara’s gem market, however, one trader selling tiger skins was happy to show off her wares.

The skins are from tigers killed more than a decade ago, she said, and the most valuable parts, the bones and meat, were long ago sold to China and Singapore.

What was left would only be good for making handbags, she said.

Most of Jakarta’s animal trade, including at Jatinegara, comes through the city’s massive Pramuka bird market, the largest in Southeast Asia, according to Femke den Haas from the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN).

Occasional raids have driven most of the high-profile endangered animals from clear view, but buyers from around the world still place orders for goods as exotic as tiger cubs and ivory, den Haas said.

“The bigger stuff you get from houses from behind (the markets) and the even bigger stuff, for example orangutans, you have to order,” she said.

Investigations by JAAN and other non-government organisations have found exotic birds brought by ferry from Papua in the country’s east and rare animals brought in from Sumatra by air-conditioned coach.

“We call them the grandmother mafia network because all these grandmothers transport the animals,” den Haas said.

While conservationists have been pushing for a crackdown, they say authorities are often either under-resourced, corrupt or unaware of the problem.

“(For a prosecution) you need to pay the judges, you need to pay the police, you need to pay for the food in the police cell,” den Haas said.

“The reason the justice system takes so long is that the judge says: ‘I didn’t know these species were protected, I have two sea turtles in my house’,” she said, adding this was a genuine anecdote from a recent trial.

Despite the slow progress, the forestry ministry says it is doing the best it can with limited resources.
“Regular enforcement is still going on. I see the enforcement making a lot of progress compared to the past,” said ministry biodiversity conservation head Toni Suhartono.

But the ministry can usually only muster small teams to go on raids, and they are often easily outwitted in the winding alleyways of the animal markets, Suhartono said.

“They’re very smart,” he said of the wildlife dealers.

“When we send people there they disappear. It’s like hit and run,” he said, adding that low penalties meted out by courts mean even successful raids are not a strong deterrent.

Corruption within the ministry also made enforcement a challenge, Suhartono said, with officials earning a basic wage of only 1.3 million rupiah a month.

ProFauna said a recent investigation found one forestry ministry officer in Medan in northern Sumatra moonlighting as a smuggler.

Another investigation by the group in 2007 found ministry officials had sold off confiscated ivory that had been stockpiled as evidence in a poaching trial. – AFP

Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=230893&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25

While this doesn’t directly involve Asian apes such as orangutans, gibbons and proboscis monkeys, it is crucial to chimpanzee and gorilla conservation efforts. ~ Rich

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July 18, 2008 - The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) called today for tougher law enforcement efforts and increased focus on Egypt as a center of primate smuggling after international authorities failed to act on mounting evidence that chimpanzees and gorillas are being illegally held there.

The 57th Session of the Standing Committee for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) met this week in Geneva, but refused to adopt international sanctions or crack down on the illegal trade in primates in Egypt. A CITES mission visited Egypt in 2007 and issued a report that characterized Egypt as a “significant” part of the black market in chimpanzees, gorillas and other primates.

But proposals put forward in Geneva by the Species Survival Network (SSN) – a consortium of conservation and welfare organizations that includes PASA – designed to strengthen law enforcement, expose smuggling routes, counter corruption, and help create proper sanctuaries were dismissed.

“CITES seems to feel that Egypt can police itself, and that all the illegal trade that has occurred in the past should be swept aside,” said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA. “But what is abundantly clear is that Egypt either lacks the capacity or the will to get tough on the illegal primate trade, and I don’t know which is worse. There is no question that a huge percentage of the chimpanzees and gorillas taken out of Africa are going through Egypt.”

Both chimpanzees and gorillas are listed as Appendix I animals under CITES and are considered as endangered. It is illegal to capture, kill or sell any Appendix I animal taken from the wild.

It is estimated that over 100 chimpanzees and gorillas currently reside in private zoos in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and other tourist destinations, yet most of them are believed to have been illegally imported. PASA offered to work with Egyptian authorities and underwrite DNA testing for the primates to pinpoint their origins, but Egypt refused.

Egyptian authorities have also refused to provide documentation on the few chimpanzees that it claims to have confiscated.

A clearly defined smuggling network from West-Central Africa to Egypt was identified as far back as 1996, and recent investigations have found that same network to be intact. It is estimated that as many as 25 chimpanzees per year are smuggled into Egypt, and many are then sold on to private zoos in the Middle East and Asia.

Egypt has been the site of some of the most high-profile primate smuggling incidents – and botched law enforcement — in recent years. In 2001, an infant gorilla and an infant chimpanzee that had been confiscated at the Cairo airport were drowned in a vat of chemicals by customs officials rather than be turned over to animal welfare organizations. Four years later, a crate that was opened at the Cairo airport was found to contain six infant chimpanzees and four monkeys. But rather than confiscate the animals, the crate was re-sealed and sent to Nairobi.

One of the chimpanzees and all of the monkeys died as a result.

“If CITES is serious about halting the illegal trade in primates, then Egypt is a problem that must be addressed,” Cress said. “PASA is ready to lend any form of assistance it can. But to leave Egypt to police itself at this point is a mistake, and the smuggling will likely go on as a result.”

PASA was formed in 2000 to unite the sanctuaries that care for chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, drills and literally thousands of other endangered primates across Africa. For more information, please visit www.pasaprimates.org.