VICTORY! Oil Palm Companies Pledge to Stay Out of Indonesian Rainforests
Palm oil companies operating in Indonesia have pledged to stop expanding plantations into rainforests [ark]. In late 2006 Ecological Internet was the first to launch a large international protest campaign on this matter -- bringing to the world's attention how oil palm plantations on carbon rich tropical rainforest peatlands were destroying biodiversity, global climate and orangutan habitat. Over 11,000 protestors from 114 countries sent one quarter of a million protest emails to the Indonesian government. On another occasion similar numbers brought the matter to the attention of every UN climate change national focal point. Others including Greenpeace later followed our lead [ark | search].
Together we -- including EI Earth Action Network members -- have achieved these pledges to keep oil palm out of rainforests, and this is a tremendous victory for rainforest and climate protection movement. Certainly more remains to be done. It is still questionable to use food for fuel. Indigenous and other local peoples may still lose their land to corporations. Already cleared peat soils that should be reflooded and restored to hold their carbon are likely to be developed. And the Indonesian government is notoriously fast and loose with promises to disarm environmental campaigns, and enforcement may well lag. Without continued monitoring, this pledge will be disregarded and oil palm will continue to expand even into protected areas [ark] and orangutan habitat [ark]. Yet what makes this victory so savory is that it is the companies buying the palm oil themselves that have made the pledge -- it will be hard for them to renege.
Ecological Internet brought Indonesian rainforest destruction for oil palm to the world and our key demand to keep production out of rainforests has been met. This makes four victories for our Earth Action Network in the past six months, six in the last year. From Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, the Congo to Australia, and all along the East Coast of the U.S., the message is being heard that ancient forest destruction and diminishment must end to maintain the world's biodiversity, ecosystems and climate. We are successful even though we are not afraid to confront difficult issues like FSC greenwash, and over-population and consumption. And realize action alerts are but one of the free services we supply; others including the only true green search engine, news tracking, biocentric blogging, exhaustive links and more.
No one takes an ecological science based and sufficient green message to the world like Ecological Internet. And this is why it is so important that you make a donation to support our efforts now. We must achieve our $70K goal to remain operational. No longer can we creak by with inadequate computer hardware and unpaid staff. This is the minimum we must raise to cover basic costs, even as we have commenced applying for foundation grants for more stable funding to consolidate and expand our efforts. But this takes time and we need continued support from our members to stay operational now. Please donate now and let's avoid service disruptions.
g.b.
