18 June 2009
A University of Pittsburgh anthropologist argues in a paper published today that humans most likely share a common ancestor with orangutans, and not chimpanzees, which is the prevailing belief.
16 June 2009
The nation's most recalcitrant fast food chain has capitulated. Yum! Restaurants, makers of KFC, will ditch its artery- clogging palm oil for a healthier alternative, two years after the company stared down the Federal Government and refused to change its ways.
In conjunction with the Sydney Film Festival's screening of The Burning Season, Sydney's Customs House is sceening documentary trailers on its Digital Media Wall and displaying still photographs of the orangutans highlighted in the film along with stills from the film.
10 June 2009
Next month, Zoos Victoria, which manages Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary, will release its postcard campaign, Don't Palm Us Off. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the destruction of forests in South-East Asia, home of the orang-utan.
6 June 2009
Humans aren't the only ones who like it in the armpit. Our fellow great apes - orangutans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas - also squeal in response to tickling, and new research shows this behavior may be the evolutionary root of human laughter.
6 June 2009
Selling credits for the billions of tons of carbon that are locked in Indonesia's tropical rain forests could be as profitable as converting these areas into palm oil plantations, a study released Friday found.
29 May 2009
Carbon credits derived from a fledgling forest conservation scheme for developing nations will struggle to compete with palm oil as an investment, industry advisers and conservationists said on Friday.
The acclaimed documentary The Burning Season is coming to Melbourne with a special 6:30pm screening on 3rd June. Join Cathy Henkel and Dorjee Sun this Wednesday evening for a Q&A session afterwards.
28 May 2009
Indonesia aims to more than double its crude palm oil output to 40 million tonnes by 2020 through increased yields and more plantations, officials said Wednesday.
An important orangutan habitat in Sumatra is to be logged to provide pulp. Please make your voice heard on this issue.
21 May 2009
Two female orangutans have been seen cannibalising the bodies of their recently deceased babies. Such behaviour has never before been recorded in any great ape species.
19 May 2009
AN INDONESIAN paper company is planning to log an area of unprotected jungle which is being used as a reintroduction site for about 100 critically endangered orangutans, activists said on Monday.
15 May 2009
The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) has recorded a significant decrease in the population of the morio (Pongo Pygmaeus Morio) orangutan in Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan.
11 May 2009
The operators of Britain's first "biofuel" power plants are considering burning palm oil, which is blamed for causing rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.
2 May 2009
It's an invisible ingredient, really, palm oil. You won't find it listed on your margarine, your bread, your biscuits or your KitKat. It's there though, under "vegetable oil". And its impact, 7,000 miles away, is very visible indeed.
1 May 2009
My biggest wish is that people in the western world could understand what is happening here in Borneo, and how the demand for palm oil is devastating the rainforests and contributing to the extinction of the orangutan.
1 May 2009
A cooking oil that is driving the destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in dozens of Britain's leading grocery brands, an investigation by The Independent has found.
29 April 2009
Growing economic pain may increasingly force consumers to turn to palm oil, one of the cheapest cooking oils, a move that could scupper nascent plans to slow deforestation in Southeast Asia.
26 April 2009
A battle has broken out between conservationists over attempts to save the orang-utan. The groups are divided over the issue of reintroducing to the wild orphaned animals that are now living in refuges in Borneo and Sumatra.
25 April 2009
We draw supporters attention to the proposal by timber giant, Asia Pulp & Paper, to clear 33,776 hectares of forest in Bukit Tigapuluh, Sumatra, Indonesia.
16 April 2009
Over the last 40 years, global oil palm cultivation has increased exponentially, with 43 percent of the total cultivated oil palm crop currently produced in Indonesia. This inception of palm oil as a valuable commodity, particularly as biofuel, has dramatically accelerated deforestation in Borneo, with only a third of the original forest cover expected to remain by 2020.
16 April 2009
The trade in Sumatran orangutans for pets shows little sign of decline and is taking the species to the brink of extinction, a report concludes.
12 April 2009
Conservationists have discovered a new population of orangutans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia — perhaps as many as 2,000 — giving a rare boost to one of the world's most critically endangered great apes.
12 April 2009
A protected Sumatran forest which is home to a Perth-raised orang-utan released into the wild in a worldwide first two years ago could be logged, according to Australian Orang-utan Project president Leif Cocks.
8 April 2009
New US and European Union efforts to clamp down on the illegal timber trade are expected to take a multi-billion dollar annual toll on Indonesian exports because the south-east Asian nation has failed to enact standards for wood-based products in spite of years of debate.
19 March 2009
Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Wild orang-utans spend 90 per cent of their time on treetops, and very rarely descend to the ground, unless disaster strikes, according to a press release.
15 March 2009
This is not a documentary for the faint-hearted but it is a documentary that should be viewed by as many people as possible. Winner of Best Documentary Short in the recent Durango Independent Film Festival, and directed by Moez Moez, ôGreenö documents the last hours of a female orangutan's life.
9 March 2009
Indonesia has applied to join a World Bank programme that supports developing nations' efforts to fight deforestation and help them earn cash through the sale of tradeable carbon credits. The Bank's $350 million Forest Carbon Partnership Facility aims to support developing states design and create projects under a U.N.-backed scheme that could eventually earn poorer nations billions of dollars a year by protecting their forests.
6 March 2009
Indonesia's Government has approved a big increase in logging of its tropical forests, a decision that could lead to a major jump in carbon emissions and, most likely, cause further deadly attacks on villagers by tigers and elephants.
Founder of BOS, Willie Smits, gave a 20 minute speech at the recent TED conference in the US. He explained the concept behind the Samboja Lestari reforestation model and how it is working for the environment and for the people.
24 February 2009
WHEN he's in Scotland, GP Dr David Irons runs an accident and emergency unit in Stranraer, but when he's in Borneo his patients are much hairier, and more orange. That's because he's Medical Director of Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), and at their rehabilitation centre at Nyaru Menteng, he heads a team meeting the medical needs of around 650 orangutans and 200 staff. About 150 of his young, hairy charges are playing around him as we chat.
16 February 2009
Environmental activists have mounted a challenge against the government's plan to allow palm oil companies to set up plantations in the country's remaining peatlands.
13 February 2009
The Agriculture Ministry will issue a decree to allow businesses to dig up the country's millions of hectares of peatland for oil palm plantations.
2 February 2009
The word came last spring at a climate change conference here. Unilever, the world's largest buyer of palm oil, would publicly call for a moratorium on deforestation by Indonesian growers of the coveted oil used in food, soaps, detergents, cosmetics and biofuel.
2 February 2009
The Forestry Ministry has said it has received a mounting number of requests from local administrations for permits to convert IndonesiaÆs dwindling forests into plantations, mostly due to uncertainty surrounding the spatial planning law.
