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Palm Oil Tax In France Opposes Continued Land Grabs and Deforestation

by Tomas DiFiore
Palm oil expansion is 70 percent nightmare and environmental catastrophe and 30 percent transparent truths and lies. It's an Indonesian roshomon, a puzzle of GDP, corruption, land grabs of Indigenous community forests and national forests, transmigrant laborers, settlements, and employment figures, and poverty amidst the wealth of ownership statistics that dominate the palm oil sector at the landscape level. Malaysia has rejected Human Right for Indigenous Peoples at the UN 5 years in a row. Indonesia is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, government officials argue that the concept of indigenous peoples is not applicable. Orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers may all but disappear from Aceh, northern Sumatra's Leuser Ecosystem. The time is critical. Boycott Palm Oil and read the labels. Palm oil is increasingly available in health foods and natural food stores in Northern California. Read the labels and ask for paperwork on supply-chain certification.
800_palm_oil_in_central_kalimantan.jpg
Palm Oil Tax In France Opposes Continued Land Grabs and Deforestation

As the oil palm industry continues to develop new palm plantings using 2 years of sprays and toxins in the nursery, and certified sustainable deforestation at the plantation, both Indonesia and Malaysia are very protective about the greening image of the palm industry. Sensitive to defending that image, the Malaysian and Indonesian response, besides jailing journalists, is always the same rhetoric…
1) the productivity of the palm over other oilseed crops; 2) the GDP; and poverty reduction through employment.

The social relevance and success of infrastructures for building community by transnationals and the mobilization of natural resources for sustainable supplies of global public goods (GPGs) are at the intersection of national development priorities, international aid, public private partnerships, and global investments in palm oil plantings, land grabs, and internally displaced populations.

As immediately, as France and Russia considered new taxation policies for palm oil imports, the industry cried foul! Discussions continue… "This is not a mere business competition but also the concern of Europe society on the environment safety," Zenzi Suhadi from The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said adding that oil palm plantations in Indonesia damages the environment from various aspects. Although palm oil is a vegetable oil, it doesn't reduce the emission, it even increases a great number of emission as the process of oil palm plantation is done in a way that damages the environment like burning the land. The destruction of forest lands for oil palm plantation reaches a great number in Indonesia. Some 800,000 hectares of forest in Papua has turned into an oil palm plantation.”

In a letter dated Tuesday, February 2, 2016 and addressed to Minister Segolene Royal of France’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Indonesian Minister of Trade Tom Lembong expressed Indonesia’s “great concern” about the French Senate’s decision to apply taxes on palm oil and palm kernel oil beginning 2017.

“The palm oil sector provides a livelihood for 16 million Indonesians through direct and indirect employment. Oil palm plantations involve small farmers living in rural and remote areas: 42 percent in Indonesia, 40 percent in Malaysia and 80 percent in Nigeria. In Indonesia alone, around 61 cities and small towns have developed from and live off this sector. Palm oil is also one of the most important sources of export earnings for Indonesia, worth US$19 billion annually, with the EU, China and India Indonesia’s main palm oil export destinations.”
http://ecodaily.org/insight-unfair-restrictions-on-palm-oil-in-global-trade/

“Proceeds from CPO exports contribute 1.6 percent to Indonesia's gross domestic product (GDP) at present. Indonesia exports up to 22 million tons of CPO per year. Its CPO exports to the European Union averages stand at 4 million tons per year. Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong said more than 16 million people in the country rely on palm oil industry to make a living, adding that the industry plays a significant role in poverty reduction in Indonesia.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-02/16/c_135100945.htm

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the broadest quantitative measure of a nation's total economic activity. More specifically, GDP represents the monetary value of all goods and services produced within a nation's geographic borders over a specified period of time. It counts all of the output generated within the borders of a country. GDP is composed of goods and services produced for sale in the market and also includes some non-market production, such as defense or education services provided by the government.

Indonesia's GDP per Capita and Unequal Income Distribution (February 05, 2016)

“Indonesia's GDP per capita has risen rapidly over the past decade although it has weakened over the past two years amid the economic slowdown. However, one can question whether per capita GDP is an appropriate measurement for Indonesia as Indonesian society is characterized by a high degree of inequality with regard to income distribution.”

“In other words, there exists a gap between statistics and reality, as the wealth of the 43,000 richest Indonesians (who represent only 0.02 percent of the total Indonesian population) is equivalent in value to 25 percent of Indonesia's GDP.”

“The 40 richest Indonesians account for 10.3 percent of GDP (which is the same amount as the combined wealth of the 60 million poorest Indonesians). These numbers indicate a huge concentration of wealth within the small elite. Moreover, this income distribution gap is estimated to widen in the foreseeable future.”
http://www.indonesia-investments.com/finance/macroeconomic-indicators/gross-domestic-product-of-indonesia/item253

The GDP of Papua New Guinea (PNG) – A Stolen State;
Stolen by an 'Act of Free Choice'

“Papua makes up 22 per cent of Indonesia’s total land area, but with only just over 2 million residents it contains only 1 per cent of Indonesia’s population. Mineral and oil exports together account for over 60 percent of GDP. The second key sector is agriculture, which accounts for 32 percent of GDP. The main export crops are palm oil, coffee, and cocoa.” (more on the 1969 'Act Of Free Choice' in Papua towards end of article.)

“A remarkable characteristic of Indonesia is that the western part of the country has a significant larger share with regard to its contribution to GDP growth. Java (especially the greater Jakarta area) and Sumatra, together, account for more than eighty percent to Indonesia's total GDP. Primary reason for this situation is that western Indonesia is located close to Singapore and Malaysia.”

Now from the Singapore Stock Market News - Russia and France are reportedly planning to impose taxes on palm oil. In 2014, France and Russia imported around 126,000 and 748,000 tonnes, respectively, of palm oil. In total, these make up around 1.5% of total global palm oil output of 60m tonnes in 2014. Indonesia and Malaysia palm industries have stated that: “Although the amount of palm oil that may be at risk of being substituted with other edible oils may not be significant on paper, we are concerned that the negative sentiment on and image of palm oil could spread to other countries, in particular within the EU, which is a big consumer of palm oil at 12% of total palm oil output.”

Yet palm oil expansion is 70 percent nightmare and environmental catastrophe and 30 percent transparent truths and lies. It's an Indonesian roshomon, a puzzle of GDP, corruption, land grabs of Indigenous community forests and national forests, transmigrant laborers, settlements, and employment figures, and poverty amidst the wealth of ownership statistics that dominate the palm oil sector at the landscape level.

1) “Indonesia's attractiveness for being the preferred destination of Malaysian oil palm planters was almost quashed by Indonesia's plan for a plantation bill that would have limited foreign ownership to 30% from the present 95%. This had the potential to hurt foreign plantation firms and top palm oil producers, including Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), Wilmar International, Sime Darby Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK), IOI Corp Bhd, Genting Plantations Bhd, TSH Resources Bhd and IJM Plantations Bhd - some of the big names with hefty investments in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Riau, Aceh and Jambi as part of their expansion plans.”
http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2014/09/30/indonesia-drops-foreign-ownership-clause-from-plantations-bill/?style=biz

2) There are numerous voluminous reports including interviews on labor issues within the industry and migrant worker clashes with indigenous communities over land disputes.

3) Free Prior Informed Consent (PIC, FPIC) for Indigenous Cultural Rights and the use of community lands vs living in exile as Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP). Years of Human Rights reports by civil society organizations and NGOs in every country have documented the effects of transmigration settlements on Indigenous and community lands, the lack of legal boundaries and clear land titles, land use changes, degazetting of previously protected forest lands - and the resulting community protests, arrests and imprisonment of indigenous leaders for trespass.

4) The 'Rights of Nature” vs stolen natural resources dividends and corruption;

And that's just a short list pertaining to the larger picture of employment and poverty, whose poor, who's rich, the GDP, development aid, corruption, palm oil and deforestation.

Masyarakat Adat - Indigenous Peoples

In 2011, “Indonesia had a population of around 237 million. The government recognizes 365 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups as komunitas adat terpencil (geographically-isolated customary law communities). They number about 1.1 million. However, many more peoples consider themselves, or are considered by others, as indigenous. The national indigenous peoples’ organization, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), uses the term masyarakat adat to refer to indigenous peoples. A conservative estimate of the number of indigenous peoples in Indonesia amounts to between 30 and 40 million people.”

“The third amendment to the Indonesian Constitution recognizes indigenous peoples’ rights in Article 18b-2. In more recent legislation there is an implicit, though conditional, recognition of some rights of peoples referred to as masyarakat adat or masyarakat hukum adat, such as Act No. 5/1960 on Basic Agrarian Regulation, Act No. 39/1999 on Human Rights, MPR Decree No X/2001 on Agrarian Reform.”

But The Concept Of Indigenous Peoples Is Not Applicable

“Indonesia is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, government officials argue that the concept of indigenous peoples is not applicable, as almost all Indonesians (with the exception of the ethnic Chinese) are indigenous and thus entitled to the same rights. Consequently, the government has rejected calls for special treatment by groups identifying themselves as indigenous.”

“In 2011, Indonesian society was haunted by more than 1,000 cases of agrarian conflicts, leading to deprivation of indigenous peoples’ territories in almost every province. In the course of these conflicts, several indigenous communities were deprived of their territories. HuMa, an Indonesian NGO working for law reforms concerning natural resources, noted 108 conflicts, Sawit Watch, an NGO committed to social justice for farmers, workers and indigenous peoples, 663 conflicts and the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) 163 conflicts, while AMAN recorded 130 agrarian conflicts. These conflicts often involved violations of indigenous human rights, mainly committed by police and other security forces.”

“The International Work Group On Indigenous Affairs” has a well designed site, each project location is well documented over the years, and (in this case) includes a long published list of important Indonesian agrarian conflicts and human rights violations from 2011 onward.
http://www.iwgia.org/regions/asia/indonesia/43-eng-regions/asia/871-update-2011-indonesia

There are 'Yearbook' summaries for each year since 2011 posted. Here is the report for 2015:
http://www.iwgia.org/images/stories/sections/regions/asia/documents/IW2015/Indonesia_IW2015_web.pdf

In 2015, “Indonesia has a population of approximately 250 million. The government recognizes 1,128 ethnic groups. The Ministry of Social Affairs identifies some indigenous communities as komunitas adat terpencil (geographically-isolated indigenous communities). However, many more peoples self-identify or are considered by others as indigenous. Recent government Acts and Decrees use the term masyarakat adat to refer to indigenous peoples. The national indigenous peoples’ organization, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), estimates that the number of indigenous peoples in Indonesia falls between 50 and 70 million people.”

It has taken too many years… but in May 2014, Indonesia began the “Probes Into Violations Of Indigenous Rights In Contested Forests.”

“People usually associate human rights violations with social and political rights, but these (indigenous) people are also suffering from human rights violations. They lost their rights to their lands, they lost their political rights, and most of these conflicts ended up with deaths, Abdon Nababan, secretary general of the Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago, agrees with this characterization.”

“We are referring to economic, social and cultural rights,” said Nababan. “These are the same rights being taken away from indigenous people. Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission has launched the country’s first national inquiry into alleged human rights violations related to land conflicts involving indigenous people.”

“It is the first inquiry into these land conflict cases on a national scale because we have indications of the same patterns of human rights violations for these conflicts, said Sandra Moniaga, a member of the commission, which is known as Komnas HAM, before the launch of the initiative in Jakarta on May 20, 2014.” Public hearings would be held in seven regions – Sumatra, Java, Bali-Nusa, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Maluku and Papua – in addition to a national hearing. Each hearing would involve witnesses, experts, local leaders and advocates from civil society organizations.

Then on December 22, 2014, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry agreed to be the trustee of 4.8 million hectares of indigenous maps to be included in the One Map Initiative.

“With President Jokowi at the helm, there is tremendous hope among indigenous peoples that he will initiate a reconciliation process between the Indonesian state and indigenous peoples. These actions must include, as a matter of urgency, official recognition of the systematic prejudice and injustice that indigenous peoples continue to suffer and immediate release and rehabilitation of indigenous victims of violence and criminalization. In the medium term, the President must fulfill his commitment to establish a permanent and independent commission
on indigenous peoples in order to ensure the full enjoyment of their collective rights as constitutionally afforded them as citizens of Indonesia.”

It was in 2014, that the Indonesian government “launched the much-anticipated 'one-map policy' as stipulated in Law No. 4/2011 on geospatial information, which is aimed at helping to resolve disagreements resulting from the use of different data and maps, which often result in land disputes and overlapping permits for plantation and mining operations. The National REDD+ Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry officially agreed to include 4.8 million hectares of indigenous maps in the One Map Initiative. It is provided that in cases of permits issued to private companies where the target areas overlap with indigenous territories, a special procedure will apply with regard to indigenous rights.”

“The Constitutional Court’s Ruling on Customary Forest in May 2013 provided another push for the Indigenous Peoples Act. However, despite a series of public consultations, dialogues and hearings held by parliamentarians and indigenous organizations throughout 2013 and 2014, Parliament failed to adopt the Act when its term ended in September 2014. The Chair of the Special Committee publicly noted that the Ministry of Forestry had stalled the process, sending only low-ranking officials to the meetings with Parliament, without authority to take any decisions on behalf of the government.”

And then... 17,216 new Legislators were elected;

In rather big news overlooked in most foreign media- “In July 2014, 17,216 new legislators were elected at district, provincial and national levels, with at least 25 legislators officially backed by indigenous organizations and communities through different political parties. As of December 2014, these legislators have shown some promising progress, with the protection of indigenous peoples being included in the Local Regulation Program for 2015 in seven districts.”

But then; “The Law on Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction, which was adopted three months after the Constitutional Court Ruling on Customary Forest, continues to bar indigenous peoples from living in their forests. While legal reform at the national level is increasingly recognizing and protecting indigenous peoples, this progress does not translate into enforcement on the ground.”

The Law on Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction;
And The Continued Arrests of Indigenous Leaders

A lengthy list is presented in the International Work Group On Indigenous Affairs report of the recent arrests and subsequent imprisonment of Indigenous leaders for continued trespass onto customary lands.

“Indigenous peoples continue to be the victims of systematic land grabbing through various policies, although the most significant threat remains that of the government’s designation of ancestral territories as part of the State Forest Estate, covering approximately 70% of the country. During 2014, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) led a National Inquiry on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to their Territories in Forest Areas.”

PNG – Hidden Secret of the Blue – A Hub of Transnational Exports

“Natural resource exploitation in Papua has had serious consequences in the form of physical conflicts involving torture; intimidation, environmental degradation and pollution; and consequences for the people’s health status, particularly the reproductive health of women. They are exposed to chemicals used in the operations of the gold mines and oil palm plantations.”

“The Commission’s initial conclusions noted that all cases also contained significant internal conflicts fostered by companies and governments in order to take advantage of community divisions. The Commission is preparing its final report, which will include a set of policy recommendations for the new administration and Parliament.”

(credit) Abdon Nababan is a Toba Batak from North Sumatra. He is the Secretary General of Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara/AMAN. Erasmus Cahyadi belongs to the Terre Clan from Flores, and has been working with AMAN since 2004. He is currently serving as Director of Legal and Human Rights. Rukka Sombolinggi is a Toraya from Sulawesi, and is Deputy to AMAN’s Secretary General on Policy Advocacy, Legal Issues and Politics.

Visit “The International Work Group On Indigenous Affairs” at:
http://www.iwgia.org/regions/

All Roads Lead To Gold – The Freeport Goldmine PNG

“Papua’s geography includes a wide ranging variety of natural formations, which include 15 mountain ranges and glaciers, 40 major rivers, and many coastal plain regions. This barely penetrable landscape has given rise to tremendous diversity of language and identity, with more than 250 distinct languages.”

“Papua’s vast resources include petroleum, copper, gold and silver. Papua’s largest mine, run by Freeport, contains one of the world’s largest known gold deposits valued at US$40 billion. Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc (FCX) subsidiary, PT Freeport Indonesia Company (PT-FI), is not only the largest investor in Papua, where it dominates, but one of the
biggest mining companies in the world.”

Free West Papua - “In an attempt to control the Papuans, and to claim the land to make way for resource extraction, the Indonesian army has systematically murdered, raped and tortured people in numbers that could constitute a genocide. One of the worst examples of this is the displacement and killing of thousands of people to make way for the giant American- and British-owned Freeport gold mine, the largest gold mine in the world, which has reduced a sacred mountain to a crater and poisoned the local river system.”

Today, “West Papuans are forging international links via the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) - something which clearly alarms the Indonesian authorities. On 13th January 2014, Indonesian police arrested 47 West Papuan activists who were gathered at the office of the Papuan Legislative Council (DPRP) in Jayapura to welcome and support MSG representatives. These included the Foreign Ministers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Kanaky who were on a fact finding mission ahead of the decision on allowing West Papuan membership to the MSG.”
http://freewestpapua.org/2014/01/23/mass-arrests-attack-helicopters-and-backstabbing-during-msg-delegation-to-west-papua/

45 years had passed when on March 4, 2014 “the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Moana Carcasses gave the cause powerful support when he called for international action on West Papua at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva: Since the controversial Act of Free Choice in 1969, the Melanesian People of West Papua have been subject to on-going human rights violations committed by the Indonesian security services. The world has witnessed the litany of tortures, murders, exploitation, rapes, military raids, arbitrary arrests and dividing of civil society trough intelligence operations.”
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2311015/west_papuas_act_of_free_choice_45_years_on.html

Going Back In Time In Film

“Rapid Deforestation - Papua New Guinea” filmed in July, 1999 - This film examines the opposition to logging in Papua New Guinea. Produced by ABC Australia, and distributed by Journeyman Pictures. (Uploaded on Dec 19, 2007 actual length: 25 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aJZB2jNHRY

Palm Oil Production, Transmigrant Labor, And The GDP

Second image is of transmigrant housing on a palm oil plantation in Central Kalimantan, taken by Chris Lang of the REDD Monitor Project. The palm oil industry uses transmigrant labor from the Phillipines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, anywhere in the SE Asia where poverty abounds. The Industry is rife with labor abuses.

“Central Kalimantan’s Oil Palm Catastrophe In 24 Pictures” By Chris Lang January 9, 2013
http://www.redd-monitor.org/2013/01/09/guest-post-central-kalimantans-oil-palm-catastrophe-in-pictures/

There's also a lot of deforestation and development destroying the “Lungs of the Earth in the Heart of Borneo.” Kalimantan is Indonesian Borneo. Pulp plantations, airports, roads, mining operations, and palm plantations fragment the once forested Borneo Island landscape.

Almost 70 percent of Indonesia's oil palm plantations are located on Sumatra where the industry was started during the Dutch colonial days. The remainder, of around 30 percent, are largely found on the island of Borneo - Kalimantan, and about 2 percent on PNG.

“Once The Most Equal Distribution Of Land On Earth - Papua New Guinea has a population of approximately 6.5 million people who speak a total of over 800 indigenous languages. With around 83 percent of the population living in rural areas, most people still live traditional lifestyles based on small-scale agriculture, hunting, fishing, and gathering. Most people’s cash income comes from the sale of garden produce, food and non-food forest products, and small-scale cash cropping, such as cocoa, coconut, vanilla, betel nut, and coffee farming."

Until 2007, ninety-seven percent of the land of PNG was held under customary rights, owned and controlled by the clans and the tribes who live on the land. In recent years though, Now, 12 percent of the country (5.5 million hectares) has been leased out to foreign corporations under a government scheme called Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs). “As a result of the SABL framework, PNG has seen a sharp increase in logging and log exports. It is now the second largest exporter of tropical logs in the world, after Malaysia.”

“In 2011, the PNG government established a Commission of Inquiry into the SABLs that confirmed dire facts about these recent land allocations in PNG. The commission’s findings included widespread lack of free, prior, and informed consent of the local people; failure by state agencies in performing their duties; and fraud, misconduct, and incompetence as well as overall lack of adherence to proper procedures. In many deals, landowners were blatantly misled about the size and the nature of an agribusiness project.”

“On September 18, 2013, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill tabled the commission’s report in Parliament and stated that it revealed a shocking trend of corruption and mismanagement and that the first priority of the government’s development strategy, is to develop agricultural plantations, primarily palm oil. The government plans to reduce the amount of customary land from 97 percent in 2009 to 80 percent by 2030. With the SABLs, it has reached its 2020 goal nine years ahead of schedule.”

“Through extensive field research, the Oakland Institute and the Pacific Network on Globalization have examined what development looks like on the island of West New Britain, home to the largest and oldest palm oil plantations in Papua New Guinea. The island is held up as a model for what the government intends for the rest of the country. yet there is no sign of development in the villages that have been cultivating palm oil for several decades. A lack of basic infrastructure and services is a common feature in all villages visited in West New Britain. People have little or no access to safe drinking water, health facilities, nor schools.”
“Modern Land Grabs Reversing Independence In Papua New Guinea” (PDF 36 pages 2.4 MB)
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_Report_On_Our_Land.pdf

Ongoing deforestation in the Orangutan capital of the world, on the island of Sumatra.
The Tripa Peat Swamps - Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh - Northern Sumatra – Indonesia

“From 1990 to 2011, (21 years) about 70% of Tripa’s original forest and its orangutan population had been destroyed, and the peat lands continue to be drained and burned. Between mid-2007 and the end of 2009, almost 8,000 ha or roughly 28 percent of the remaining Tripa Peatland forests were lost. Despite considerable lobbying by local communities and environmental groups, no action was taken to stop the burning or land clearing.” (Tripa Truths August 2011)

“The Tripa peat swamps consist of 3 main peat blocks, separated by 4 rivers: from west to east the Tripa, Seuneuam , Seumayam, and Batee rivers. Until 1990, the peat swamps were covered by almost 61,000 ha of primary forest, which was home to a rich and diverse fauna including a large population of the endangered Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), and numerous other threatened species, many of them unique to peat swamps.”

“The end game for the forests of Tripa and their orangutans is approaching. Despite the establishment of the Leuser Ecosystem as a Strategic National Area for Environmental Protection in the National Spatial Plan in 2008; just three months after the announcement of the recent Presidential Instruction forbidding any new permits in peat lands, on August 25, 2011, the Governor of Aceh issued a Permit for a new plantation area in the Tripa peat swamps. With this permit, the carving up of Tripa peat swamp ecosystem for conversion to oil palm plantations is virtually complete.”
http://photos.mongabay.com/11/Tripa-Truths.pdf

For the history (felled forests, protests, and lawsuit up through the court's rejection of the Palm Oil Company appeal visit: “Appeal Rejected In Landmark Case Against Palm Oil Company In Indonesia” story by Annette Gartland published on September 14, 2015.

https://time2transcend.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/appeal-rejected-in-landmark-case-against-palm-oil-company-in-indonesia/

2016 Campaigns - Links to become involved in Saving the Leuser Ecosystem

“Since 2013, more than a million people around the world have signed petitions calling on the Governor of Aceh province in Sumatra to abandon plans to carve up the irreplaceable Leuser Ecosystem with new roads, plantations and gold mines. These forests are the last stronghold for Sumatran orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos, as well as providing crucial ecological services to more than 4 million people in Aceh.”
http://www.orangutans-sos.org/campaigns/save_aceh

Please visit and support the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) Center.
http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/save-aceh-campaign
Visit the SOCP home page:
http://www.sumatranorangutan.org/

The SOCP is involved in protection, conservation, and restoration, along with caring for over 1000 young and orphaned baby orangutans. Please support their work, they are based outside of Medan, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

Please donate to the campaign to protect the Leuser Ecosystem. The Leuser Ecosystem is a global priority for tropical forest protection. Stretching over 6.5 million acres, the Leuser Ecosystem is a vast, teeming, ancient landscape on the island of Sumatra and considered to be one of the most important forests left in Southeast Asia.

To help understand the plight of the red ape, and at least 130 other species, view the National Geographic article by the International League of Conservation Photographers published one year ago, with eleven stunning photographs working with OIC Orangutan Information Center and next to me is Panut Hadisiswoyo, its founder and director: “Orangutan Rescue in the Land of the Chainsaw.”
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/09/orangutan-rescue-in-the-land-of-the-chainsaw/

Visit the Orangutan Information Center:
http://orangutancentre.org/

Now to close with a really positive ray of hope for orangutan species survival and the Sumatra forests, visit: “Growing Safe Forests For Orangutans” a project of Global Giving – UK.
https://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/restore-rainforest/updates/

Helen Buckland, Director goes on to give the project report in a story: “about 27,500 tree seedlings that have been planted on 25 hectares of degraded land at our newest restoration site in Bukit Mas. When an area of orangutan habitat is destroyed by people or companies who want to use the land to grow crops, it's not enough to simply plant trees and put up a signboard claiming the land back as a reforestation site. We must ensure that those trees, and the untouched primary forest, remain standing, becoming valuable habitat for orangutans and other species.”

“No matter how many trees we plant, the most essential element of our habitat restoration programme is the true, deep engagement of the communities who live next to the Leuser Ecosystem.”

The Project Report is in 5 sections… with great photos throughout!

“With the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradigm
Mother Earth cannot afford to repay
One Point Four Quadrillion Dollars
in debt through economic growth
and she will not.” (Michael C. Ruppert)

Boycott Palm Oil and Palm Oil Products Now!
Tomas DiFiore

By invoking the 'Copyright Disclaimer' Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights- Fair use: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

If you or anyone wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Tomas DiFiore

Indonesia GDP, Reducing Poverty, New Palm Oil Plantings, Papua New Guinea, Reducing Poverty, global public goods, sustainable palm oil, palm oil tax 2016, orangutans, Leuser ecosystem.





§
by Tomas DiFiore
800_transmigrant_worker_housing_palm_oil_industry.jpg
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