Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, will arrive in Indonesia on October 6 to promote forest and climate conservation as part of the environmentalist organization`s `Forest for Climate` campaign, a spokesperson said.

The Esperanza would arrive in Jayapura, Papua, on October 6 and remain until Nov 15 to spotlight the need to defend the last remaining natural forests in Indonesia, according to Greenpeace media campaigner Nabiha Shahab in an e-mail to Antara on Saturday.

“The last natural forests are to be found in a belt that stretches from South East Asia through Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific,” she said.

The natural forests consist of tropical rain, mangrove , coastal and peatland forests that are home to many kinds of plants and animals non-existent in other parts of the world. These forests also held hundreds of original cultures and traditions.

“Indonesia`s forests are shrinking at a very fast rate. Deforestation destroys people, cultures, and biodiversity. It also accounts for about 20 percent of the world`s gas emission which eventually causes climate change,” said Rustar Maitar, spokesperson for Southeast Asia Greenpeace`s Forest Campaign.

The campaign director of Southeast Asia Greenpeace, Shailendra Yashwant, said Esperanza`s visit to Indonesia was meant to urge the government to implement a moratorium soon on all forms of forest conversion, including industrial deforestation, expansion of oil palm plantations, and other activities which can cause deforestation

Esperanza is the biggest ship in Greenpeace`s fleet. Launched in February 2002, it is 72m long and can cruise at a maximum speed of 16 knots.

On its journey to Indonesia, the ship will have Madeline Habib as captain.

Source: http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/9/27/greenpeace-ship-visits-indonesia-to-promote-forest-conservation/

Scientist Jane Goodall takes time out with the orang-utans at Perth Zoo.

Story and Photo by Andrea Hayward

Leading conservationist Jane Goodall has called on Australia to think about urban sprawl and the effect it has on native animals.

Dr Goodall kicked off her Australian and New Zealand tour in Perth today where she engaged in a bit of artwork with 38-year-old orang-utan Puteri at her home in the Perth Zoo.

Preparing to launch a book on species that are on the brink of extinction, Dr Goodall said Perth, like many other places around the globe, needed to arrest urban sprawl to protect native wildlife.

“One of the problems here, as with so many, many, many places in the world, is urban sprawl,” Dr Goodall said.

“And when you have developers going in and paying absolutely no attention to anything that’s out there, just going in thoughtlessly ripping up the natural habitat to put in their developments, then you get all types of animals who are endemic, at risk of extinction.

“It’s something people need to think about - we should think about this terrible urban sprawl and arrange things so that animals have corridors so they can continue living there.”

Dr Goodall who is well known for her work with chimpanzees in Africa, travels the world 300 days a year to raise awareness about at-risk species, particularly among young people, through her “roots and shoots” campaign.

She has been critical at times about zoos. But Puteri and her hairy friends at the Perth Zoo enjoyed the kind of enrichment many orang-utans do not, Dr Goodall said.

“It is possible to do a good job,” she said.

“Sometimes they are almost hairless, they sit moping around in the corner, they don’t really have good places to climb, they are on cement, they don’t have the kind of enrichment they do hear.

“Unfortunately there are still zoos around that should be closed.”

Perth Zoo is a world leader in the breeding of Sumatran orang-utans such as Puteri, the first of 26 born at the zoo since 1970 after the breeding program started in 1968.

The primates are losing more and more habitat as forests are cleared for palm plantations to provide palm oil products, Dr Goodall said.

There are fewer than 6600 Sumatran orang-utans left in the wild.

Perth Zoo made history in November 2006 when it successfully released Sumatran rang-utan Temara into the protected Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The release was part of an international effort to re-establish a population of the species in the national park.

Two years later Temara is tracked daily and doing extremely well.

Dr Goodall will deliver a lecture at the Perth Concert Hall tomorrow at 6.30pm.

Tickets are available at the Perth Zoo at a cost of $25 for adults and $15 for concession holders, students and children.

Puteri’s artwork will be sold as a fundraiser for the Jane Goodall Institute to promote awareness about animals in their natural habitats.

Source: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/stop-urban-sprawl-to-save-species-goodall-20080930-4qyd.html

PARIS - The French government said on Friday it will phase out tax breaks for biofuels by 2012, arguing that higher oil and grain prices have removed the need for fiscal support.

In its draft 2009 budget, the government said it will remove in stages from January reductions given to biodiesel and ethanol on France’s national fuel tax (TIPP).

“The cost price of biofuels is no longer structurally disconnected from those of standard fuels,” the government said, stressing that crude oil prices will remain high.

“Tensions affecting agricultural raw materials have reached levels that no longer justify tax exemptions on the grounds of helping to provide outlets for farm production,” it said.

The government also argued that the continuation of a penalty on fuels that do not meet national targets for biofuel incorporation would maintain support for biofuel production.

“It’s incomprehensible,” Philippe Tillous-Borde, head of Sofiproteol, owner of France’s largest biodiesel maker Diester Industrie, told Reuters.

“This will favour imports from non-EU countries like the US and Argentina — products that benefit from export subsidies –, which will further distort competition.”

Tillous-Borde also said the planned measures ignored biofuels’ contribution to the environment compared to standard fuels.

French producers are currently exempt from paying 0.22 euros per litre of the TIPP fuel tax for biodiesel and 0.27 euros per litre for bioethanol.

Under the proposed changes, the tax break on biodiesel will fall to 0.135 euros a litre in 2009, 0.10 euros in 2010, 0.06 in 2011 and then zero in 2012.

For ethanol, the tax reduction will be cut to 0.17 euros a litre in 2009, 0.15 in 2010 and 0.11 in 2011, before also ending in 2012.

The government had planned to reduce progressively tax breaks for biofuels as the sector expanded.

But the size and timing of the cuts represents a setback for the biofuels sector as it faces mounting criticism over its environmental impact and contribution to rising food prices.

The government said biofuel investment in France has reached 1.7 billion euros. It expects to save 401 million euros next year from the reduced tax breaks.

Alain Jeanroy, coordinator of a French ethanol industry group, said the planned measures were incoherent.

“We are developing a policy which taxes renewable energies more than fossil fuels,” he told Reuters.

He said in the future ethanol would be taxed much more heavily than petrol given that more ethanol is needed to travel the same distance.

“I would like to think that this is purely budgetary reasoning,” he added, calling for the government to respect its recently reaffirmed commitments to reduce carbon emissions.

The French authorities said their move was in keeping with Germany’s decision to end a tax break for biofuels blended with standard fuels.

(Reporting by Valerie Parent; Writing by Gus Trompiz)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE48P76Q20080926

BY PATRICK McDONALD

ADELAIDE Zoo yesterday hastily dropped plans to photograph ginger-haired people to promote the plight of orangutans, after patrons saw red.

“We seem to be getting quite a bit of a negative reaction to that request,” Zoos SA’s director of conservation programs, Kevin Evans, said.

“People are possibly more sensitive about it than we thought.”

Last week, advertisements ran offering “free Zoo entry for all rangas” during the school holidays.

“Ranga” – an abbreviation of orangutan [in Australian vernacular] – is a common nickname for redheads.

RANGAS: Tell us your ideas for other wacky Adelaide Zoo promotions in the comment box below.

“We have a campaign over the school holidays because of orangutans being an endangered species – and so are human redheads,” Mr Evans said. Less than 2 per cent of the human race has red hair.

“Because of the way people move around these days, the genes that carry redheads are breeding out to brunettes and blondes,” Mr Evans said.

“Eventually it looks like they are going to be extinct, as well.”

The Zoo will continue to offer free entry to people with red hair for the next two weeks, to raise awareness about orangutans being endangered in the wild.

The campaign is timed to coincide with the birthday of the Zoo’s male orangutan, Pusung, and will include daily talks about the species.

Dyed red hair will qualify for free entry and zoo staff will not seek proof that patrons are natural redheads.

“We’re not actually checking tops and tails, or anything like that,” Mr Evans said.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24417098-5006301,00.html

From The Understory, the official blog of the Rainforest Action Network

On Lake Minnetonka today, just down the road from Cargill’s world headquarters, the rainforest agribusiness campaign set sail amongst the hundred or so sailboats participating in a regatta in Wayzata Harbor. We turned an M-20 sailboat into a floating banner in order to send Cargill a clear message in their own backyard. The main sail read, “Cargill: Biofueling Climate Change.” A green canoe paddled alongside the sailboat with a massive helium balloon attached to it that read, “Cargill: Foe to the Family Farmer.”

We know that many Cargill executives, as well as Cargill family members (Cargill is privately held and 90% family owned) live, work, and play on Lake Minnetonka. Yet, many in the surrounding community (an insular, wealthy town of approximately 4,000 people) seem to be unaware of the fact that Cargill’s operations are contributing to rainforest destruction, the often-violent displacement of small farmers and Indigenous communities and climate change.

Cargill’s insatiable appetite for converting ever-more land across the globe into green deserts of soy and palm oil makes them a primary culprit in exacerbating our climate crisis. Cargill is a top investor, trader and transporter of soy and palm oil. Cargill is the fourth-largest exporter of palm oil from Malaysia and holds 14,000 acres of plantations–all on newly cleared forestland–throughout Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Cargill is also currently finishing construction on a soy processing facility and mega-port in Asuncion, Paraguay, only 500 meters upstream from the main public water utility, raising grave concerns about contamination of the entire capital city’s water supply.

Cargill corporation operates with impunity and blatant disregard for the environment and human rights. Today’s action on the lake was intended to precipitate a few ripples. These ripples are only getting bigger, as the wave of resistance grows in opposition to corporations such as Cargill who show minimal initiative or leadership in finding legitimate solutions to our climate crisis.

Orangutan Outreach would like to honor Paul Newman not only because of his amazing career in Hollywood, but also for his charity work with his Newman’s Own brand. Newman’s Own brand does not use palm oil that has been sourced from Indonesia and Malaysia. They care about orangutans and don’t want to see them harmed.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Newman. The world will miss you.

The following excerpt comes from the Newman’s Own website:

Newman’s Own®, Inc., founded on a lark by Paul Newman and his buddy A.E. Hotchner in 1982, is now (to our own surprise!), a leading (and growing) premium food company that offers more than 150 varieties of delicious all-natural food and beverage products. Based in Westport, CT, the charitable mission of Newman’s Own is expressed in its Company motto: “Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the Common Good.” Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation donate all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes. Paul Newman and the Newman’s Own Foundation have given more than $250 million to thousands of charities worldwide.

Photo: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Read about the life of Paul Newman in The New York Times

Queenstown wildlife cameraman Alex Hubert with Chen Chen the orangutan

By Danielle Kirk

Chen Chen is nine, has one eye and lives with 35 teenagers in a Borneo jungle.

He’s an orangutan and Queenstown-based wildlife cameraman Alex Hubert will make him into a worldwide star.

The orangutan’s parents were shot by loggers illegally clearing the way for palm plantations – crops producing oil for consumer goods and biofuels.

Hubert, 40, has been shooting the second series of Orangutan Island, a documentary made by Natural History New Zealand for Animal Planet.

Orangutan Island traces the lives of rescued orphan orangutans being prepared for life in the wilds of Central Kalimantan, an Indonesian province in Borneo.

After spending four months observing them on a 20-hectare rehabilitation island, Hubert has been accepted as family.

“As soon as you meet them and look into their eyes, you have them around your neck and fall in love with them,” he says.

“When I first got there, I crouched down beside a group of them. One picked up a seed from the ground, put it in my hand and pushed it towards my mouth – as if I should eat it.

“It blows you away. Then you realise they’re endangered and are being killed at an incredible rate.”

Orangutan Island is Hubert’s first wildlife doco – he says it’s his best job yet.

Since starting with Dunedin-based Natural History, Hubert has chased pirates in the South China Sea and mountain biked in the Andes, filming TV programmes.

He says filming in Borneo’s wet season knocked him for six.
“The environment out there is incredibly tough – you have 45deg heat, 95 per cent humidity. There are parasites, snakes, spiders, people are dying from malaria.”

It’s a change from Queenstown, where he landed 10 years ago after working in the United Kingdom.

He’s back home for a breather with wife Tina and dog Jake but returns to Borneo shortly for the final month of filming.

Hubert appears on TV One’s Sunday programme this weekend. The first series of Orangutan Island airs in NZ on Animal Planet next Wednesday at 9.30pm.

Source: http://www.scene.co.nz/7587a1.page

Source: The Star - September 23, 2008
By HILARY CHIEW

Peat forests are worth more as they are, than chopped down.

By nature it is waterlogged. So, when humans try to alter its traits, the system bites back. As though furious with the violation, the land combusts, sending out sporadic fires which foul the air with smoke. And these spats have been occurring for the past decade with ad hoc solutions that only stop the symptoms but do not address the root causes. This is the seemingly never-ending plight of the highly fragmented peat swamp forests in Selangor, where rapid development comes with the pressure to venture into areas that are highly sensitive to human disturbance. Not that there is lack of recognition of the socio-ecological value of this semi-submerged ecosystem.

More than a decade ago, the importance of peat swamp was already recognised. A four-year assessment project (1996-2000) produced the Integrated Manage­ment Plan for the North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest (NSPSF) 2001-2010, arguably the largest peat forest in the state at 72,444ha. This large tract of forest in the north-western part of Selangor was not gazetted until 1990 following the recommendation of the World Bank-funded North-west Selangor Integrated Agricultural Development Project completed in 1983. It called for the protection of the forest which is a vital water source for the Tanjung Karang granary.

Prior to that, the Raja Musa and Sg Karang Forest Reserves forming the NSPSF were extensively logged, leaving only 1% of the area covered with high density forest. Despite its depleted condition, the four-year assessment found it to contain sufficient composition of seedlings, saplings and small trees aiding its recovery.

Ensuing oil palm plantation have contributed to further degradation and fire risk by its network of canals to drain the peat for planting. Other smaller peat swamps scattered south of the state are in no better shape. Take the frequent fires in Kampung Johan Setia near Klang and the recent fire along a 3km stretch of the Elite Highway at Dengkil that added to the smoky plumes drifting across from Sumatra, for example. These peatlands were cleared for agricultural purposes and deliberately torched to improve soil fertility.

“Burning the cleared land is the cheapest way to enrich the acidic soil for cultivation. It also helps in clearing the land of debris from logging,” says Faizal Parish, pointing to the heaps of branches, twigs and stumps dotting the parched landscape on the 658ha land sandwiched between the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve and the Paya Indah Wetland Sanctuary that was cleared by the Pertubuhan Peladang Negeri Selangor (PPNS) purportedly for cultivating honeydew melon and starfruit.

The director of Global Environ­ment Centre (GEC) has been highlighting the fire hazards and his organisation is the technical and operational support agency for the Asean Peatland Management Initiative, a project under the Asean Agreement on Trans­boundary Haze Pollution signed by member states in 2002. NSPSF was picked as a pilot site to demonstrate sound management but actions on the ground are making little progress. Thus far, efforts to block the 500km abandoned canals have been hampered by the lack of political will and fund. After all the prolonged delays, the fund is expected to be disbursed end of this year. There is a chance that the problem can be resolved if the state government pays heed to land use policies and the heightened awareness that peat forests are worth more standing than chopped down.

Over the years, the remaining stands of peatland on the west coast has been shrinking: the Kuala Langat North Forest Reserve has shrunk from its original 10,500ha to its present 1,265ha; the Kuala Langat South Forest Reserve has diminished from 11,663ha to 2,053ha. Although degraded, the Raja Musa (23,410ha) and Sg Karang Forest Reserves (49,034ha) are the largest chunks of peat swamp that stand a good chance of rehabilitation and preservation for posterity.

In a show of commitment to protect the sensitive peat swamps, Selangor environment executive councillor Elizabeth Wong threw her support behind the Depart­ment of Environment to drag PPNS to court €“ a rare action that aims to send a strong signal to would-be offenders.

Following the discovery of the encroachment in the NSPSF, the Government has taken a strong stance in evicting illegal settlers in the south-east corner of the Raja Musa Forest Reserve. Village committees at Kampung Johan Setia were mobilised to patrol the 1,183ha degraded peatland from further illegal activities. The state is currently mapping the boundaries of the Temporary Occupancy Land to identify the title holders in a bid to hold them accountable for their respective plots.

In fact, Wong has also expressed interest to re-gazette peatlands that were excised from forest reserves during the previous administration and sort out land ownership issues to secure these fragile yet vital ecosystem.

“Environmentally sensitive areas like peat swamp need to be preserved. There is other state land that can be developed. If we manage our peat swamp properly we could increase its economic value in the near future,” she adds.

Conservationists have noted that recommendations in existing Structural and Local Plans for development on peat need to be reviewed in light of emerging knowledge of peatland ecological sensitivities and functions. Faizal is encouraged by the state’s enthusiasm and is optimistic that restoration plan for peat swamps in Selangor will finally be implemented.

“For some time now, we had been looking at rehabilitating burnt and drained areas but very little was achieved. Now, the state government has asked us to extend the Asean Peatland Management Initiative project to the degraded south-east area outside the reserve which is a former tin mine.

“Rehabilitation to prevent fire and haze will benefit the state in the short term and in the long run it will gain from the growing recognition of peat swamp as a carbon sink to combat global warming,” he enthuses. He suggests allowing the forest reserves to regenerate over the next 30 years as it doesn’t make any economic sense to develop plantation or township due to the high fire risks. In the meantime, the state could explore funding sources like selling carbon credits in the voluntary carbon trading market.

Studies have shown that disturbed peat swamp in Indonesia and Malaysia would continue to emit carbon dioxide (a global warming gas) for the next 285 years even if clearing is stopped. Drainage of peatlands leads to aeration and decomposition of the peat material and hence to oxidation that triggers CO2 emission.

Wong discloses that GEC is assisting the state in developing a management plan that includes blocking the canals to prevent further peat loss and reforestation.

Source

Source : The Jakarta Post - September 16, 2008
By Jonathan Wootliff

In a new democracy like Indonesia’s, there is rightly much concern for human rights. Since the fall of Soeharto, we have witnessed the emergence of thousands of homegrown civil-society organizations intent on improving the lives of the average Indonesian. In a country rife with corruption and widespread poverty, these valiant not-for-profits play an essential role in safeguarding the rights of ordinary citizens who do not have the wherewithal to fend for themselves.

Without their determined efforts to make Indonesian society fairer, there is no doubt millions of vulnerable people would suffer a myriad of injustices.
But with all the gallant campaigning for enhanced constitutional privileges, rule of law, freedom of expression, protection of children, gender equality and so forth, there is a fundamental human right that sometimes gets overlooked. Surely there can be no more fundamental right for every man, woman and child than unfettered access to clean water and fresh air?

Without these basic requirements for our survival, there would be no point in fighting for anything else. Nothing is more fundamental — nothing is more important — than human health. Effective environmental management is the key to avoiding a quarter of all preventable diseases in Indonesia. And these diseases are directly caused by environmental factors.

The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposure to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behavior in response to those factors. According to the World Health Organization, millions of people die unnecessarily each year due to preventable environmental causes. Our disregard for the health of our planet is taking its toll on our own wellbeing.

Mitigating environmental risk could save thousands of Indonesian lives each year, and improve the health of tens of thousands more. Children and the poor are the most susceptible to many life-threatening diseases that could be so easily be eradicated if we were to pay more respect to our environment.
All too often, the protection of our ecosystem and concern for nature is considered a luxury. But it is high time we wake up and understand that environmental protection must be a priority.

The fact is that saving the birds and trees directly translates into better quality human health and life expectancy. Environmental problems are compromising Indonesians’ health, both in cities and the countryside. Respiratory diseases as a consequence of traffic pollution are rising at an alarming rate in Jakarta and other major metropolises.

The plundering of the nation’s natural resources, particularly through deforestation, is damaging the health of those living in rural areas. Food safety is becoming a growing issue as a consequence of irresponsible farming practices and a disregard for environmental protection. Coastlines are increasingly exposed to natural hazards, and there is evidence that the 2004 tsunami hit those communities hardest where mangrove belts had been cut down.

From the Indonesian tropics to the Arctic Circle, climate and weather have powerful direct and indirect impacts on human life. While people adapt to the conditions in which they live, and though the human physiology can handle substantial variations in weather, there are limits. Weather extremes — often caused or exacerbated by our lack of regard for environmental protection — such as heavy rains, floods and hurricanes, also have severe impacts on human populations. Thousands of deaths occur in Indonesia each year as a result of climate tragedies alone, many of which can be avoided through sound environmental management. In addition to changing weather patterns, climatic conditions give rise to waterborne diseases. Climate-sensitive diseases are among the largest killers on the globe.

WHO statistics show that diarrhea, malaria and protein-energy malnutrition alone caused more than 3.3 million deaths globally in 2002. Both national and regional governments must take a stand. Indonesia must focus more on the environment. Everyone from ordinary citizens through to big businesses and politicians must understand the imperative of taking better care of nature.

The country is blessed with some of the world’s most valuable natural resources. The future health of this nation depends on us taking the environment more seriously. If we squander nature, we put our very own survival on the line. It’s time we put humans on the endangered list, along with the orangutan and the tiger. Maybe then Indonesia will take more seriously its responsibility for nurturing nature.

– Jonathan Wootliff is an independent sustainable development consultant specializing in the building of productive relationships between companies and NGOs.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/09/16/environmentalism-protects-our-most-basic-human-rights.html

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations launched a program on Wednesday that it hopes could be the foundation for a system in which rich countries would pay poor ones to slow climate change by protecting and planting forests.

The new program, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme, or UN-REDD, will assist nine developing countries, including Bolivia, Indonesia and Zambia, in establishing
systems to monitor, assess and report forest cover.

“Forests are worth more alive than dead … and their ecosystem services and benefits are worth billions if not trillions of dollars if only we capture these in economic models,” said Achim Steiner, the executive
director of the UN Environment Program.

Clearing forests for timber and farmland in developing nations emits nearly 20 percent of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, according to the UN’s climate science panel. Trees store heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they rot or are burned.

Tropical countries are pushing to include UN-REDD in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Delegates representing countries around the globe are scheduled to meet in Copenhagen at the end of next year in hopes of hammering out a successor to the pact, which expires in 2012.

Under such a plan, the tropical countries would generate tradable carbon credits by saving and planting trees. Indonesia, for example, has the potential to be compensated US$1 billion a year if its deforestation rate was reduced to 1 million hectares annually, the UN estimated.

Presumably, rich countries would buy the credits to meet their own emission limits, like the way European Union countries have invested in credits representing emissions cuts generated by clean energy projects in poor countries.

Not everyone agrees such a program would be a good idea. Barry Gardiner, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s special envoy for forests, said in an interview earlier this month that the model of avoided deforestation is flawed and risks alienating voters in rich countries.

Gardiner proposed instead that rich countries should simply make payments to tropical nations based on the size of existing forests. If countries continued to log or burn they could be expelled from the scheme.

Almost all nations at a round of fractious UN climate treaty talks in Ghana last month expressed support for including ways to avoid deforestation in a new UN pact.

Norway, which is looking for ways to offset carbon dioxide emissions from its growing natural gas export business, donated US$35 million to finance the initial phase of UN-REDD.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Cynthia Osterman)
(Additional reporting by Gerard Wynn in London)

Source: Reuters

Women from the Penan tribe have accused workers from two Malaysian logging companies of harassing and raping Penan women, including schoolgirls.

‘I want to make it known that we are being sexually abused by the timber company workers on a regular basis’, one woman said.

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have spent more than twenty years trying to stop logging companies destroying their forests. The accused loggers work for Samling and Interhill, two of the major companies operating on Penan land.

According to research undertaken by the organisation Bruno Manser Fund, the perpetrators frequent several Penan settlements in the Middle Baram area, looking for women. The company workers are based in logging camps in the region and are usually drunk when they arrive at the villages.

‘When we hear their off-road vehicles coming, we just leave everything as it is and flee into the forest,’ the Penan source said. ‘They come on an almost weekly basis, but the situation is worst during the school holidays when they know the students are in the villages.’

In other cases, school runs operated by logging company vehicles had been arranged so that schoolgirls had to stay overnight at a logging camp, where they were abused.

The Penan communities are reporting several cases of pregnancy as a consequence of abuse by company workers. They also accuse the loggers of using armed ‘gangsters’ to intimidate them and of handing out alcohol to young Penan. Complaints by the Penan to those in charge of the logging camps and to the police have so far had no effect.

The Bruno Manser Fund has asked the Malaysian government to start a formal enquiry into the allegations. In particular, the government is being asked to ensure that the victims are protected and that the harassment of Penan women by company workers is brought to an end immediately.

In a separate development, the Sarawak government recently announced that it would no longer recognise elected Penan leaders in some communities. The move is seen as an attempt to break resistance to logging.

Source: Survival

Oil palm is one of the world’s most rapidly increasing crops. We assess its contribution to tropical deforestation and review its biodiversity value. Oil palm has replaced large areas of forest in Southeast Asia, but land-cover change statistics alone do not allow an assessment of where it has driven forest clearance and where it has simply followed it. Oil palm plantations support much fewer species than do forests and often also fewer than other tree crops. Further negative impacts include habitat fragmentation and pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions. With rising demand for vegetable oils and biofuels, and strong overlap between areas suitable for oil palm and those of most importance for biodiversity, substantial biodiversity losses will only be averted if future oil palm expansion is managed to avoid deforestation.

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