Another perspective on palm oil

Our concern with palm oil tends to focus on the impact on orangutans, in particular on the destruction of their habitat as the industry expands further into the rainforest.  However the impacts go beyond this.  A short film, "Orang Rimba: Happiness lies in the Forest", released by films4forests, tells the story of a nomadic forest people living in Sumatra, who also have been displaced by palm oil.

Since the advent of President Suharto’s transmigration schemes in the mid-1980s, deforestation in Jambi Province, home of the Orang Rimba, has accelerated massively. Vast oil palm plantations continue to replace natural forest. For the Orang Rimba, every aspect of their life is tied to this forest. Their source of food has been destroyed, their water polluted and their customs and culture ignored.

The filmmaking process attempted to enable a neutral forum for conversation between the geographically isolated Orang Rimba and the palm oil company executives in charge of running this industry from their offices in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

It was screened to an audience of 500 of the most influential players in the international palm oil trade at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil meeting in November 2007.

To view the film, please visit the films4forests website at http://www.films4.org/forests/

10 March 2010
It is no secret that orangutans are threatened with extinction because their rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Ten years ago, Shawn Thompson, a writer, former journalist and university professor, set out to chronicle the threat to orangutans in a book released in March 2010. Read Article »

10 March 2010
Research into the long calls of male Orangutans in Borneo has given scientists new insight into how these solitary apes communicate through dense jungle. Read Article »

2 March 2010
'Environmentally-friendly' biofuels have been found to be more harmful to the planet than normal fossil fuel. Read Article »

22 February 2010
BBC documentary shows Indonesian company clearing protected rainforest.

18 February 2010
Gorillas, orang-utans and a cyanide-eating lemur are among the world’s 25 most critically endangered primates, scientists have said. Read Article »

5 February 2010
The European Commission and some EU member states hope to redefine palm oil plantations as "forests," according to a leaked document from the EU executive. Read Article »

26 January 2010
Project to create sustainable palm oil project undermined by Western firms

25 January 2010
Payments to developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation will only succeed if corruption and lack of financial management capacity are addressed, says new report. Read Article »