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Action Alert: Swiss Francs Threaten Indonesian Rainforests
Major Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS are to further fund Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), the world's largest listed palm oil company, which currently produces 10 percent of Indonesia's palm oil. A further 1.3 million hectares of land are to be developed for palm oil plantations with Swiss finance on the island of Indonesia Kalimantan (Borneo) and in Papua on the Western half of the island of New Guinea.
By
Rainforest Portal, a project of Ecological Internet
-
July 9, 2009
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1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
Oil palm has devastated Indonesia's rainforests and life including orangutans and local peoples (link)
Indonesia is in the process of sacrificing its great island kingdom's most important treasures -- the last of its unique rainforests -- for more toxic palm oil monocultures on stolen lands. Those responsible for this terrible policy include the Indonesian government, multinational corporations and sadly, European banks and population. German and European thirst for palm oil to make agrofuel to feed their automobiles is driving the whole process of destruction. Indeed, Europeans are filling their tanks at the expense of the livelihoods of Indonesia's indigenous peoples, plants and wildlife. And this appetite for rainforests and agrofuel threatens to destroy the entire world's shared climate.
In recent years, seven million hectares of rainforests and peat bogs have been sacrificed for palm-oil plantations. And the government plans to further expand these toxic monocultures by a further 20 million hectares. To do so successfully, they will need to attract foreign investors through such banks as Credit Suisse and UBS, which sadly have become some of the largest sources of funding for deforestation of rainforests for oil palm. Golden Agri-Resources is the holding company of Indonesia's infamous-Sinar Mas Group in Indonesia. They have repeatedly demonstrated they will stop at nothing -- using land grabs, human rights violations, and corruption -- to achieve their goal of replacing rainforests with palm-oil.
In the pursuit of endless profit, neither Credit Suisse nor UBS adequately examine the impact of their activities upon people and the environment. High-risk companies such as Indonesian palm oil and paper industry members place investors at a high risk of liability for social and ecological harm, including future climate change. Credit Suisse has already financed much of the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) company's activities, another subsidiary of Sinar Mas. APP is not only responsible for continuing large-scale forest destruction, but its unscrupulous activities caused one of the largest bankruptcies in Asia in 2001. Please express your opposition to UBS, Credit Suisse and the palm oil company Golden Agri- Resources' planned capital increase and expansion. Join our protest, and ask these leading banks to immediately discontinue the sale of shares of Golden Agri Resources' rainforest destruction.
Sample Email Sent
End Credit Suisse and UBS investment in Indonesian rainforest destruction
Dear Mr. Dougan and Mr. Grübel,
I am shocked and disappointed to learn that your Swiss
banks -- Credit Suisse and UBS -- are taking the lead in
the raising of capital investment funds for Golden
Agri-Resources Group. This group is the holding company of
the rainforest destroying activities of the infamous Sinar
Mas Group in Indonesia, known for ruthlessly destroying
rainforests and local cultures for toxic palm-oil
monocultures. The capital you are to provide will be used
to expand their palm-oil plantations and to construct palm
oil mills and refineries. Using funding you arrange, the
group plans to further develop 1.3 million hectares of new
rainforest destroying palm-oil plantations in the
Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan and Papua. This gravely
sullies both you and Switzerland's international image, and
we demand that you stop this funding immediately.
In Indonesia alone there are already 7 million hectares of
carbon and species rich rainforests and peat bogs that have
been sacrificed for oil palm monocultures which are
biological deserts. As much as 20 million more hectares of
plantations are planned for the future, further uprooting
local peoples, and burning and clearing their rainforests.
The rainforest destruction is of global importance because
of the climate change emissions it causes. Indonesia's
intact rainforests and peat bogs are immensely important
carbon sinks. Despite years of appeals and efforts to get
the Indonesian government to stop converting rainforest
peatlands to oil palm; because of the bad impacts upon
biodiversity, climate and local peoples, the government
continues with plans to sacrifice massive areas to further
rainforest conversion and deforestation from oil palm.
Golden Agri-Resources and the Sinar Mas Group are known to
be particularly ruthless rainforest destroyers. In the past
they have disastrously impacted indigenous populations,
small farmers and indigenous people such as the Dayak,
displacing indigenous and other local peoples from their
land and depriving them of their livelihoods. For example,
a subsidiary company of Golden Agri-Resources named Kresna
Duta Agroindo (KDA) is currently involved in a serious land
conflict with the village of Karang Mendapo in Sumatra.
In January 2009, the mayor of Karang Mendapo, Muhammad
Rusdi, who is also a dedicated environmentalist, was
arrested under bogus accusations in order to silence
farmers protesting loss of the lands and livelihoods. Soon,
on 11 July 2009 Rusdi's fate will be determined. It is
vital that he not be falsely convicted because pressure
from the companies you support that are stealing their
land. Rusdi is a role model for hundreds of thousands of
small farmers and indigenous people in Indonesia, where the
palm oil industry has stolen their rainforests and country.
The European Union's recently adopted sustainability
criteria for biofuels and the standards of the Round Table
for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) prevent continued
rainforest destruction and land grabs from indigenous
peoples. Indeed, the RSPO label is a pure sham as
rainforests and peoples continue to suffer from oil palm.
Those investing in Sinar Mas Group, as well as those
arranging the financing such as your banks, are faced with
serious long term risk. At any time investors could be held
accountable for carbon being emitted, human rights
violations against local peoples and poorly conceived
business plans based upon rainforest liquidation.
This was shown in the case of the pulp company Asia Pulp
and Paper (APP), which also belongs to Sinar Mas. APP has
not only been responsible for devastating large-scale
forest destruction, but has been poorly managed and went
spectacularly bankrupt in 2001, causing one of the largest
bankruptcies in Asia. Credit Suisse was up to then the most
important provider of capital to APP. Clearly industrial
conversion for oil palm and logging of the last of
Indonesia's primary rainforests is not a good investment.
I therefore call on Credit Suisse, UBS and BNP Paribas to
immediately stop the process of raising further investment
capital for Golden Agri-Resources, and to permanently end
its business relations. I strongly urge you and your
potential oil palm investors to look for environmentally
and socially acceptable investment opportunities elsewhere.
This clearly means no money for Indonesian palm oil and
paper industry stuck.
Yours sincerely,
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