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