By Juan Fernandez, Senior Orangutan Keeper at the San Diego Zoo

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the New Living Expo in San Francisco. On behalf of the San Diego Zoo, I accepted an invitation by the director of Orangutan Outreach, Richard Zimmerman, and his wife, Robin, to help raise awareness and funds directly contributing to orangutan conservation. Armed with some show-and- tell items, information pamphlets, and 50 plush orangutan toys, we had no idea what to expect from the thousands of anticipated guests visiting that weekend.

We were very excited about this pilot program and we wanted to get people excited about conservation. To get their attention, we decorated an elaborate booth filled with cute orangutan photos and canvas art pieces made by our resident Bornean orangutan, Janey. People were naturally drawn to our booth. Once they approached, we talked about the palm oil industry and its direct effect on the ecology of many animals in Indonesia, specifically Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.

The large corporate logging industries are destroying the forests in Indonesia at a fast rate. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) reports, between the years 2000 and 2005, Indonesia had the second-most cleared tropical rain forest in the world. This diverse ecosystem is home to the only great ape that occurs outside of Africa, the orangutan. Other species include the Sumatran tiger, pygmy rhino, clouded leopards, and pygmy forest elephants.

Unfortunately, Indonesian rain forest is prime land for the world’s second-most produced crop oil in the world. The African oil palm Elaeis guineensis was introduced to Southeast Asia in the early 1600s. Roughly 90 percent of the palm oil produced comes from the Indonesian region. The problem comes into focus once we begin to see how unaware consumers contribute to this issue. Most Americans have no idea how many products in their home actually contain palm oil and palm-based products: detergents, soaps, cosmetics, and household products contain palm oil. One out of every five food items we buy at the grocery store, especially baked goods, contain palm oil. Other wording that is used in conjunction with palm oil is palmate, palm kernel, and even vegetable oil. There is little accountability from the large companies on where their palm oil is coming from. It’s cheap to produce, has a favorable taste for food items, and it’s a great preservative in many products.

Secondarily, the boom in biofuel as an alternative source of energy is using palm oil to run its machines. This low emission alternative comes with a high price as forests around the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

By becoming conscious consumers, we can have a huge positive impact on what goes on halfway around the world. Raising awareness and being able to pass this on was the message to the hundreds of people that came by our conservation booth. It was exhilarating and exhausting, but I enjoyed every second! On behalf of Orangutan Outreach, we collected over $2,000 in cash donations and another $2,000 in online adoptions. One hundred percent of the contributions went directly to benefit over 650 orphaned orangutans that lost their mothers due to the palm oil industry in Borneo.

Juan Fernandez is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Juan’s original post on the San Diego Zoo blog

Watch the San Diego Zoo’s orangutans and siamangs daily on their Ape Cam!!!!

Photo of Janey the Artiste — Check out her myspace page.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 7:19 pm and is filed under News & Updates, Take action!, Zoos & Sanctuaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.