tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:/xml/asia1asia news from mongabay.com2009-11-24T04:04:37Ztag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/51612009-11-24T03:54:00Z2009-11-24T04:04:37ZREDD may not be enough to save Sumatra's endangered lowland rainforests<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/1124.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>A prominent REDD project in Aceh Indonesia probably won't be enough to save Northern Sumatra's endangered lowland rainforests from logging and conversion to oil plantations and agriculture, report researchers writing in Environmental Research Letters. The study highlights the contradiction between the Ulu Masen conservation project; which involves Flora and Fauna International, Bank of America, and Australia-based Carbon Conservation, a carbon trading company and the continuing road expansion, and establishment of oil palm plantations in the region.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/51582009-11-23T22:30:00Z2009-11-24T01:03:02ZIndia scraps plan to build physics lab in tiger reserveIndian officials have decided against a plan to built a Neutrino Observatory, an underground experimental physics laboratory, in Mudumulai Tiger Reserve, an area conservationists say serves as an important corridor for elephants and other wildlife.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/51412009-11-19T14:45:00Z2009-11-19T14:49:26ZIndonesian government suspends license of logging company in controversial forest areaThe Indonesian government today temporarily suspended the license of Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) for developing an area of forest and peatland in Sumatra pending a review of the company's permits, reports Greenpeace.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/51102009-11-10T16:40:00Z2009-11-10T19:57:50ZPalm oil developers push into Indonesia's last frontier: PapuaOil palm developers in the Indonesian half of New Guinea are signing questionable deals that exploit local communities and put important forest ecosystems at risk, alleges a new report from Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/51062009-11-10T00:31:00Z2009-11-10T01:48:35Z40% of lowland forests in Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo cleared in 15 yearsForty percent of lowland forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) were cleared from 1990 to 2005, reports a new high resolution assessment of land cover change in Indonesia.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50882009-11-04T16:18:00Z2009-11-05T03:31:24ZConservation and Carbon in Borneo’s Heart and Ours<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/1104salv.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>My friend Rezal Kusumaatmadja contacted me in July to ask if I could join him and some of his associates for a couple of days in the village Mendawai, located along the Katingan River in south central Kalimantan. The purpose of the gathering was to bring everyone in the group up to date on progress and challenges related to the Katingan Peat Conservation Project, as well as to give the group an opportunity to meet one another. The Katingan Project aims to create a forest-based carbon containment facility defined and guided by REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Destruction in the developing world) principles and methodology. Currently, nearly 25% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are caused by felling, burning and converting the world’s remaining primary forests. While areas surrounding the Katingan peat forest vividly express this statistic, Katingan is part of a growing strategy to reverse the trend. The Katingan project endeavors to transform conservation into a product that might offer strong competition against illegal logging and expansion of industrial agricultural plantations - whose practices cause enormous emissions of greenhouse gasses, as well as destroying biodiversity, depleting and polluting watersheds and corroding native cultures.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50852009-11-04T12:20:00Z2009-11-04T12:22:51ZNon-Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil producers pledge not to develop peatlands for plantationsPalm oil producers outside of Malaysia and Indonesia pledged to stop developing new plantations on peatlands, circumventing an impasse that developed between palm oil producers and environmental groups meeting this week at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Kuala Lumpur. The factions deadlocked over plans to account for emissions from plantation development, delaying the criteria for a year.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50812009-11-04T00:58:00Z2009-11-06T15:32:56ZImpasse over palm oil emissions at RSPO meetingEnvironmentalists and palm oil producers meeting at the annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) were locked in an impasse over how to account for emissions from converting forests and peatlands to oil palm plantations, report conference attendees.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50762009-11-02T23:15:00Z2009-11-04T04:06:33ZPalm oil lobby group launches public relations push to counter environmental complaintsA report released by World Growth International in late September claimed that environmentalists are waging a “morally indefensible” campaign against palm oil. The report accurately highlighted the high productivity of oil palm — the world's highest-yielding commercial oilseed — and noted that the crop has created jobs and driven rural development in Malaysia and Indonesia. Critically, World Growth also downplayed chief concerns about the rapid expansion of oil palm cultivation across southeast Asia, notably worries that palm oil production is contributing to deforestation, putting endangered wildlife like the orangutan at risk, and adversely affecting climate. To make its case, the report made some questionable claims, asserting that oil palm plantations sequester more carbon than natural forests and that deforestation is driven by poverty rather than industrial activities.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50452009-10-21T18:18:00Z2009-10-21T18:56:40ZEmotional call for palm oil industry to address environmental problems<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/borneo_5427-1.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>During what was at times an emotional speech, Sabah's Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun, called on the palm oil industry to stop polluting rivers and work with NGOs to save orangutans and other wildlife. He delivered the speech on the first day of an Orangutan Conservation Colloquium held in early October in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50362009-10-17T05:04:00Z2009-10-17T05:18:38ZMajor Chinese Lead Smelter Admits Fault in Poisoning, Environmental ContaminationThe largest lead smelting company in China has recently admitted responsibility in contributing to pollution leading to poisoning in almost 1,000 children residing near lead factories. Out of 2,743 children tested for lead poisoning, 968 were determined to have excessive lead levels in their blood. Lead poisoning causes anemia, brain damage, and muscle atrophy, among other serious medical and environmental problems. Lead levels in blood samples from the children were 5 times higher than safe limits.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50292009-10-14T02:42:00Z2009-10-17T05:02:44ZForests versus oil palm plantations in Sumatra<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/1014Leuser150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>A chainsaw chugs into life and tears into the trunk of a tree as tall as a two-story house. Petrol and man work together as the chain sets its teeth into the wood and edges its way through. The tree creaks, leans, and falls with a great crash to a backdrop of whoops and cheers. The sight and sound of tree felling is common in Indonesia, the country with the highest rate of deforestation in the world. The destruction of forests in this archipelago, draped like an emerald necklace across the equator, can be measured in hectares per minute. Today, though, is a good day for the conservationists.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50162009-10-03T11:24:00Z2009-10-05T17:20:12ZPalm oil industry pledges wildlife corridors to save orangutans<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/borneo_5424a-2.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>In an unlikely—and perhaps tenuous—alliance, conservationists and the palm oil industry met this week to draw up plans to save Asia's last great ape, the orangutan. As if to underscore the colloquium's importance, delegates on arriving in the Malaysian State of Sabah found the capital covered in a thick and strange fog caused by the burning of rainforests and peat lands in neighboring Kalimantan. After two days of intensive meetings the colloquium adopted a resolution which included the acquisition of land for creating wildlife buffer zones of at least 100 meters along all major rivers, in addition to corridors for connecting forests. Researchers said such corridors were essential if orangutans were to have a future in Sabah. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50132009-09-24T21:57:00Z2009-09-25T17:07:17ZCould agroforestry solve the biodiversity crisis and address poverty?, an interview with Shonil Bhagwat<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/Photo_Shonil_Bhagwat.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>With the world facing a variety of crises: climate change, food shortages, extreme poverty, and biodiversity loss, researchers are looking at ways to address more than one issue at once by revolutionizing sectors of society. One of the ideas is a transformation of agricultural practices from intensive chemical-dependent crops to mixing agriculture and forest, while relying on organic methods. The latter is known as agroforestry or land sharing—balancing the crop yields with biodiversity. Shonil Bhagwat, Director of MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, believes this philosophy could help the world tackle some of its biggest problems. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50112009-09-24T13:23:00Z2009-09-24T14:13:34ZRoads are enablers of rainforest destruction<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/sat/americas/br_230-150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Chainsaws, bulldozers, and fires are tools of rainforest destruction, but roads are enablers. Roads link resources to markets, enabling loggers, farmers, ranchers, miners, and land speculators to convert remote forests into economic opportunities. But the ecological cost is high: 95 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon occurs within 50-kilometers of a road; in Africa, where logging roads are rapidly expanding across the Congo basin, the bulk of bushmeat hunting occurs near roads. In Laos and Sumatra, roads are opening last remnants of intact forests to logging, poaching, and plantation development. But roads also cause subtler impacts, fragmenting habitats, altering microclimates, creating highways for invasive species, blocking movement of wildlife, and claiming animals as roadkill. A new paper, published in <i>Trends in Evolution and Ecology</i>, reviews these and other impacts of roads on rainforests. Its conclusions don't bode well for the future of forests.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49902009-09-24T08:47:00Z2009-09-24T14:46:04ZPalm oil both a leading threat to orangutans and a key source of jobs in Sumatra<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/sumatra_0364_150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Of the world's two species of orangutan, a great ape that shares 96 percent of man's genetic makeup, the Sumatran orangutan is considerably more endangered than its cousin in Borneo. Today there are believed to be fewer than 7,000 Sumatran orangutans in the wild, a consequence of the wildlife trade, hunting, and accelerating destruction of their native forest habitat by loggers, small-scale farmers, and agribusiness. Gunung Leuser National Park in North Sumatra is one of the last strongholds for the species, serving as a refuge among paper pulp concessions and rubber and oil palm plantations. While orangutans are relatively well protected in areas around tourist centers, they are affected by poorly regulated interactions with tourists, which have increased the risk of disease and resulted in high mortality rates among infants near tourist centers like Bukit Lawang. Further, orangutans that range outside the park or live in remote areas or on its margins face conflicts with developers, including loggers, who may or may not know about the existence of the park, and plantation workers, who may kill any orangutans they encounter in the fields. Working to improve the fate of orangutans that find their way into plantations and unprotected community areas is the Orangutan Information Center (OIC), a local NGO that collaborates with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS).Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/50022009-09-22T18:14:00Z2009-09-22T18:38:35ZIndonesia: emissions to rise 50% by 2030, 3rd largest GHG emitterA report released by the Indonesian government shows the country is the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, largely as a result of the destruction of rainforests and carbon-dense peatlands. Indonesia accounts for 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49982009-09-21T19:16:00Z2009-09-21T20:01:48ZEU biofuels policy undermines governance in Indonesia, alleges report<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://travel.mongabay.com/indonesia/150/kalimantan_0034.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Indonesian authorities are failing to prevent illegal logging and conversion of protected areas for oil palm cultivation used to supply the European market with supposedly "green" biofuels, alleges a new report from Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) and WALHI KalBar (Friends of the Earth Indonesia, West Kalimantan). The report, "Failing governance - Avoiding responsibilities", claims that European biofuel policies have driven reckless oil palm expansion in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan, resulting in illegal issuance of development permits and land conflicts, thereby undermining governance structures.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49912009-09-20T20:08:00Z2009-09-22T14:05:35ZAfter declining 95% in 15 years, Saiga antelope begins to rebound with help from conservationists<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/SeverewinterinUstyurtPhotobyAlexand.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>In a decline on par with that suffered by the American bison in the Nineteenth Century, in the 1990s the saiga antelope of the Central Asian steppe plummeted from over one million individuals to 50,000, dropping a staggering 95 percent in a decade and a half. Since then new legislation and conservation measure have helped the species stabilize in some areas but in others the decline continues. Working for six years with the Saiga Conservation Alliance, Founding Member and Executive Secretary Elena Bykova has helped bring the species back from the very brink of extinction. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49952009-09-20T10:48:00Z2009-09-21T12:17:42ZCarbon Financing and Community ForestryDeforestation and forest degradation contribute some 20 percent of global greenhouse
gas emissions. Forest-related mitigation measures are now recognized to be amongst
the most practical and cost-effective interventions to slow global warming – as well as
providing a host of other environmental products and services. However, rural poverty, weak law enforcement, and escalating demand for food and
fuel continue to drive forest destruction at an alarming rate – in the Asia-Pacific region
alone, some 3.7 million hectares of natural forest are lost every year. This also threatens
millions of already vulnerable rural livelihoods, often undermining traditional rights to
vital forest resources.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49732009-09-15T02:44:00Z2009-10-29T18:52:35ZSaving the last megafauna of Malaysia, an interview with Reuben Clements<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/Onanti-poachingpatrolPerakPeninsula.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Reuben Clements has achieved one success after another since graduating from the National University of Singapore. Currently working in peninsular Malaysia, he manages conservation programs for the Endangered Malayan tiger and the Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino with World Wildlife Fund. At the same time he has discovered three new species of microsnails, one of which was named in the top ten new species of 2008 (a BIG achievement for a snail) due to its peculiar shell which has four different coiling axes. ie7uhig Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49622009-09-10T03:44:00Z2009-09-23T15:29:35ZWorld’s only Sumatran rhino to give birth in captivity dies at Cincinnati ZooEmi, the world’s only Sumatran rhino to give birth in captivity, died on Saturday at the Cincinnati zoo. She successfully gave birth to three offspring, one of which has been released back into the wild in Indonesia. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49592009-09-09T17:04:00Z2009-09-09T18:30:53ZSouth Korea's frogs have avoided amphibian crisis so far, an interview with Pierre Fidenci<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/DSC_0199-1.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Frogs are on the edge. Blasted by habitat loss, pollution, and a terrible disease, the chytrid fungus, species are vanishing worldwide and those that remain are clinging to existence, rather than thriving. However, an interview with Pierre Fidenci, President of Endangered Species International (ESI), proves that there are still areas of the world where amphibians remain in abundance. South Korea is not a country that is talked about frequently in conservation circles. Other nations in the region attract far more attention, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. But it was just this neglect that drove Pierre Fidenci to visit the nation and survey the amphibians there. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49522009-09-08T16:15:00Z2009-09-08T16:36:24ZElephants on the rampage in India: 500 homes destroyed, seven people deadA herd of 12-13 elephants has caused havoc in the Kandhamal district of India, reports the BBC. The elephants have completely destroyed 500 homes, left seven dead, and sent another 500 people to camps for shelter. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49462009-09-07T19:32:00Z2009-09-07T20:25:27ZApple's Snow Leopard helps real-life catsApple's release of its new operating system, dubbed "Snow Leopard", is helping raise awareness of the plight of one of the world's most endangered big cats, reports the Snow Leopard Trust, a group working to protect the real-life snow leopard in its mountainous habitat across Central Asia.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49392009-09-05T20:59:00Z2009-09-06T05:14:13Z46 rescued orangutans returned to the wild by helicopter in BorneoThe Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) has successfully released 46 orangutans back into the wild. The orangutans had been rescued from forest fragments and housed for months at the Nyaru Menteng Rescue and Reintroduction Project in Central Kalimantan until suitable — and secure — habitat was located. The release site is a section of rainforest in the upper Barito region of Central Kalimantan, within the Heart of Borneo.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49342009-09-03T16:53:00Z2009-09-06T05:15:44ZLast chance to save a 'singular beauty' of Asia: the shy soala <table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/3-2.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Only discovered in 1992, the reclusive and beautiful saola <i>Pseudoryx nghetinhensis</i> may soon vanish from the Earth, if rapid action isn't taken to save one of Asia's most enigmatic and rare mammals. Listed as Critically Endangered, the species has experienced a sharp decline since its discovery due largely to poaching. "The animal's prominent white facial markings and long tapering horns lend it a singular beauty, and its reclusive habits in the wet forests of the Annamites an air of mystery," says Barney Long, of the IUCN Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group.Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49312009-09-03T13:58:00Z2009-09-03T17:23:30ZPower, profit, and pollution: dams and the uncertain future of Sarawak<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/0903dams.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Sarawak, land of mystery, legend, and remote upriver tribes. Paradise of lush rainforest and colossal bat-filled caves. Home to unique and bizarre wildlife including flying lemurs, bearcats, orang-utans and rat-eating plants. Center of heavy industry and powerhouse of Southeast Asia. Come again? This jarring image could be the future of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, should government plans for a complex of massive hydroelectric dams comes to fruition. The plan, which calls for a network of 12 hydroelectric dams to be built across Sarawak's rainforests by 2020, is proceeding despite strong opposition from Sarawak's citizens, environmental groups, and indigenous human rights organizations. By 2037, as many as 51 dams could be constructed.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49252009-09-02T05:41:00Z2009-09-02T06:02:05ZVietnam outsources deforestation to neighboring countries<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://travel.mongabay.com/laos/150/laos_0442.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Taking a cue from its much larger neighbor to the north, Vietnam has outsourced deforestation to neighboring countries, according to a new study that quantified the amount of displacement resulting from restrictions on domestic logging. Like China, Vietnam has experienced a resurgence in forest cover over the past twenty years, largely as a result a forestry policies that restricted timber harvesting and encouraged the development of processing industries that turned raw log imports into finished products for export. These measures contributed to a 55 percent of Vietnam's forests between 1992 and 2005, while bolstering the country's stunning economic growth. But the environmental benefit of the increase in Vietnam's forest cover is deceptive: it came at the expense of forests in Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Authors Patrick Meyfroidt and Eric F. Lambin of the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium calculate that 39 percent of Vietnam's forest regrowth between 1987 and 2006 was effectively logged in other countries. Half of the wood imports into Vietnam were illegal.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49212009-09-01T19:05:00Z2009-09-01T21:39:16ZPenan tribe to continue blockade against loggers with blowpipes and spearsA meeting between the Penan indigenous tribe, Malaysian government officials, and representatives of a logging company ended without an agreement on Friday. After the meeting, a Penan spokesman declared that the group's blockade would continue. Blockaders, dressed in traditional garb, have armed themselves with blowguns and spears. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49172009-08-31T23:47:00Z2009-09-01T05:32:36ZAir pollution in China reduces rainfallAir pollution in eastern China over the past half century has reduced rainfall and exacerbated the risk of drought and crop failures, reports a study published in the <i>Journal of Geophysical Research</i>.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49132009-08-31T01:11:00Z2009-09-07T23:28:10ZPhotos: snow leopard in Afghanistan <table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g94/troufs/IMG_0078-1-1.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Using camera traps, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has captured the elusive and rare snow leopard on film in Afghanistan for a second time. The feline was caught on film in the Sast Valley in Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. The snow leopard is currently listed as Endangered by the IUCN. The cat is also listed as protected under Afghanistan's new endangered species list, which outlaws hunting it. The IUCN estimates that only 100-200 snow leopards still survive in Afghanistan. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/49012009-08-26T16:48:00Z2009-08-26T17:19:29ZTrees sprout across farmland worldwideHalf the planet's farmed landscapes have significant tree cover, reports a new satellite-based study. The research, conducted by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's World Agroforestry Centre found that tree cover exceeds 10 percent on more than 1 billion hectares of farmland, indicating that agroforestry is a "vital part" of worldwide agricultural production. 320 million hectares of forested agricultural land are found in Latin America, 190 million hectares in sub-Saharan Africa and 130 million hectares in Southeast Asia.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48932009-08-24T19:45:00Z2009-08-25T20:57:59Z20,000 orangutans killed or poached in 10 years without a single prosecutionAt least 20,000 orangutans have been killed or captured for the illegal pet trade in the past ten years in Indonesia without a single prosecution, according to a report published by Nature Alert and the Centre for Orangutan Protection, groups that campaign on behalf of orangutans.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48472009-08-24T05:22:00Z2009-08-25T04:43:58ZWorld's rarest camel survived nuclear tests but today threatened by hunger for its meat<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/0823-john_hare150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Camels are among the most recognizable animals on the planet, yet few realize that wild populations are at a high risk of extinction. Of the world's two camel species, the Dromedary camel, characterized by a single hump, has already gone extinct in the wild. The second species, the two-humped Bactrian camel, was on a similar trajectory until very recently, but still less than 1,000 of the world's 1.4 million Bactrians are wild. The abundance of domesticated Bactrian camels relative to wild camels doesn’t address the question of whether it matters if another species of camels goes extinct. John Hare, founder and director of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, argues that it does. Hare says the world will be a poorer place if wild Bactrian camels are allowed to follow their cousins into the sunset.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48872009-08-22T23:08:00Z2009-08-25T04:49:55ZNew Zealand dairy industry contributing to rainforest destruction, says GreenpeaceFonterra, the world's largest dairy exporter is contributing to destruction of rainforests in Southeast Asia through its consumption of palm kernal as animal feed, alleges Greenpeace.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48772009-08-20T15:39:00Z2009-08-20T17:26:48ZRehabilitation not enough to solve orangutan crisis in Indonesia<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/0820orang150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>A baby orangutan ambles across the grass at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation’s Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation center in Central Kalimantan, in the heart of Indonesian Borneo. The ape pauses, picks up a stick and makes his way over to a plastic log, lined with small holes. Breaking the stick in two, he pokes one end into a hole in an effort to extract honey that has been deposited by a conservation worker. His expression shows the tool’s use has been fruitful. But he is not alone. To his right another orangutan has turned half a coconut shell into a helmet, two others wrestle on the lawn, and another youngster scales a papaya tree. There are dozens of orangutans, all of which are about the same age. Just outside the compound, dozens of younger orangutans are getting climbing lessons from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) staff, while still younger orangutans are being fed milk from bottles in a nearby nursery. Still more orangutans—teenagers and adults—can be found on “Orangutan Island” beyond the center’s main grounds. Meanwhile several recently wild orangutans sit in cages. This is a waiting game. BOS hopes to eventually release all of these orangutans back into their natural habitat—the majestic rainforests and swampy peatlands of Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. But for many, this is a fate that may never be realized.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48752009-08-20T03:21:00Z2009-08-20T15:01:28ZWeak forest definition may undermine REDD effortsThe weak definition of what constitutes forest under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) puts the effectiveness of a proposed mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) at risk, argue researchers writing in the journal <i>Conservation Letters</i>.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48672009-08-18T19:39:00Z2009-08-18T19:48:26Z50 of the world’s most endangered crocodiles released into the wild in the PhilippinesThe wild population of the Critically Endangered Philippine crocodile <i>Crocodylus mindorensis</i> has just received a very welcome boost. Fifty crocodiles have been released into Dicatian Lake, Isabela Province on Luzon Island. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48622009-08-18T00:22:00Z2009-08-18T00:42:01ZWorld Bank violated environmental rules in lending to palm oil companies, finds internal auditA coalition of indigenous rights' organizations and green groups is calling on the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) to suspend lending to oil palm plantation developers over revelations by its own internal auditors that the loan-making entity failed to follow its own procedures for protecting against social and environmental abuses.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48482009-08-17T22:31:00Z2009-08-18T13:26:45ZWorld's rarest tree kangaroo gets help from those who once hunted it<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/0817tenkile150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>The world's rarest tree kangaroo is in the midst of a comeback in a remote part of Papua New Guinea. On the brink of extinction in 2001 with a population estimated at fewer than 100 individuals, Scott's Tree Kangaroo (<i>Dendrolagus scottae</i>), or the tenkile, is recovering, thanks to the efforts of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance to motivate local communities to reduce hunting and respect critical forest habitat. The tenkile Conservation Alliance, led by Australians Jim and Jean Thomas, works to provide alternative sources of protein and raise environmental awareness among local communities.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48572009-08-17T16:35:00Z2009-08-17T16:44:08ZOil companies in the UK are big users of palm oil biodieselBritish motorists are unwittingly big consumers of palm oil produced on rainforest lands in southeast Asia, reports <i>The Times</i>.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48542009-08-17T14:36:00Z2009-08-17T16:15:28ZCadbury dumps palm oil after consumer protests<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://travel.mongabay.com/costa_rica/150/costa-rica-d_0626a.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Cadbury New Zealand, responding to widespread consumer protests, will stop adding palm oil to its milk chocolate products, reports the <i>New Zealand Herald</i>. The candy-maker substituted palm oil and other vegetable fat for cocoa butter earlier this year. The company cited cost savings for the decision, but the move triggered outcry from environmental groups who blame palm oil production for destruction of rainforests across Indonesia and Malaysia, key habitat for orangutans and other endangered species. Concerns that Cadbury chocolate could be imperiling orangutans led the Auckland Zoo and others to ban Cadbury products. Meanwhile consumers swamped the company with letters and petitions protesting its use of palm oil.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48432009-08-13T20:38:00Z2009-08-13T21:01:32ZWorld population set to reach 7 billion in two yearsDespite declining birth rates in some developed countries, the world population is still growing—and fast. A new study by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) finds that the human population will hit a new milestone of seven billion people by 2011.
Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48332009-08-12T17:25:00Z2009-08-12T19:32:10ZIssues around palm oil development prove complex, controversial<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://travel.mongabay.com/malaysia/150/borneo_4666.JPG" align="left"/></td></tr></table>A new report from published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) highlights the benefits — and controversies — of large-scale expansion of oil palm agriculture in Southeast Asia. The review, titled "The impacts and opportunities of oil palm in Southeast Asia: What do we know and what do we need to know?", notes that while oil palm is a highly productive and profitable crop, there are serious concerns about its environmental and social impact when established on disputed land or in place of tropical forests and peatlands.Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48212009-08-10T23:48:00Z2009-08-11T03:20:39ZLUSH cosmetics launches campaign against palm oil<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://www.mongabay.com/thumbnails/indonesia/kalimantan/kali9753.JPG" align="left"/></td></tr></table>LUSH Cosmetics, a leading cosmetics-maker, will no longer use palm oil due to environmental concerns over its production. LUSH, which is now selling a palm oil-free soap, has launched a two-pronged campaign to make consumers aware of the impacts of palm cultivation on tropical forests and encourage other consumer-products companies, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle, to reformulate their products using alternatives to palm oil.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48222009-08-10T23:37:00Z2009-08-11T00:41:13ZAir quality worsens in Malaysia due to forest firesAir quality in Malaysian Borneo is worsening as large numbers of fires rage near the Sarawak-Brunei border, reports the <i>Star</i> newspaper.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48182009-08-10T16:47:00Z2009-08-11T03:19:10ZPhotos: hundreds of new species discovered in Himalayan region, threatened by climate change<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/09/0810snake.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Scientists from a variety of organizations have found over 350 new species in the Eastern Himalayas, including a flying frog, the world’s smallest deer, and a gecko which has walked the earth for 100-million-years, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The report, entitled Where World’s Collide, warns that these rare biological treasures, as well as numerous other species, are threatened in the Eastern Himalayas by climate change. Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48132009-08-10T15:16:00Z2009-08-10T15:25:15ZDespite legal protection, Indian turtles are poached for restaurant tradeDespite being accorded the highest level of protection under Indian law, soft shell turtles are regularly trafficked in Kerala for the restaurant trade, report researchers writing in in the journal <i>Tropical Conservation Science</i>.
Rhett Butlertag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/48052009-08-06T22:43:00Z2009-08-11T04:34:26ZLimit palm oil development to lands that store less than 40 tons of carbon/ha - studyA new study finds oil palm plantations store less carbon than previously believed, suggesting that palm oil produced through the conversion of tropical forests carries a substantial carbon debt.Rhett Butler