Welcome to Forest School 101

Forest School 101 is our group for young supporters. There are members from all around the world and they are dedicated to protecting orangutans and raising awareness of the issues surrounding palm oi and deforestation. Membership is free. If you’d like to join, please contact us.

Recent activities

Local Forest School 101 kids often take part in our Mother’s Day zoo activities for the M.O.M. – Missing Orangutan Mothers Campaign.

Forest School 101 Greeting Cards Sets -- Sold Out!

Lainie Hampton Takes Prestigious Conservation Champion Award at Oregon Zoo ~ Read more

 

Allie Boyer doesn’t just talk the talk… She recently took her passion for orangutans to her local eco-fair, where she set up an orangutan awareness table and collected donations for Orangutan Outreach.

Allie also set up a booth at her local Endangered Species Fair. (Below, with her mom Pam)

Allie also pioneered the ‘300 Letter’ campaign, in which she took it upon herself to write to (nearly) 300 companies that use palm oil in their products. Her letters managed to rub a few folks the wrong way– which is always a good sign that one has struck a nerve! One gentleman even took the time to write a series of nasty emails back to Allie and her mother in which he implied she was an idiot for not yet having studied organic chemistry. (FYI–Allie’s 11).

Here’s the text of Allie’s letter, in case some of you out there want to send your own letters:

Dear Sir or Madam,

You are receiving this letter because your product contains palm oil. This is a problem because in Indonesia where the palm oil comes from they are tearing down the rain forest to plant palm oil trees. This doesn’t just affect my favorite animal, the orangutan; it also affects other animals and the villagers as well. The burning of the rainforest causes smoke to linger in the air for such a long time it increases global warming and causes the local children in Indonesia to suffer greatly.

I really want you to ask yourself if your product needs palm oil that much. When you look at the harm it is causing why even use it? You could use American grown oil and help our economy and not take part in killing an endangered animal or hurting indigenous people. I am only 11 and I can see that is a better choice.

Thanks for listening,

Allie Boyer
President of the Chico Chapter of Forest School 101
(A division of redapes.org)

P.S The RSPO is not as strong as you think. Don’t trust “farmed palm oil”