The Orangutan Film Protection Project

Latest News

2008-01-18T14:39:00.000Z

Frequent visitors might have noticed the Orangutan Blog has gone a little quiet in the past few months. We are still active in Indonesia, and heavily involved in forest conservation issues, but we are working on a number of different projects.

On the orangutan front we are currently working with SOS to provide them with more films for their roadshows that are running our in the field throughout 2008, and we hope to join them in the field at some point this year to get feedback from the audiences and help us refine our outreach work as we go. It also helps to have filmmakers on hand to answer questions and to further enthuse the audience about the importance of conservation of the areas where we work.

For those of you have have stumbled across this site as a standalone blog - you should visit our more fully encompassing website of Films4Conservation - which manages the Orangutan Film Protection Project, but which also works specifically on issues of palm oil, and of social and land rights issues.

Visit www.films4.org and be sure to check out our most recent projects which we are currently editing www.films4.org/forests

See you there!

Photo Album: Orangutans

2007-09-13T16:49:00.000+01:00

Asda Palm Oil Ban to Save Rainforests

2007-07-22T23:13:00.000+01:00

Spreading plantations are blamed for a threat to wildlife

Juliette Jowit, environment editor
Sunday July 22, 2007
© The Observer

Two of the country's biggest retail names are to ban the sale of palm oil from unsustainable sources because of fears that it is leading to the destruction of rainforests. Palm oil has become one of the world's biggest traded commodities and is now the unidentified 'vegetable oil' in an estimated one in 10 of all products sold in Britain, from chocolate to cosmetics to animal feed.

The booming demand in Europe and Asia has led to growing concern that huge swaths of rainforest are being cut down to make way for plantations - damaging important eco-systems on which animals and local people depend - and threatening the survival of one of the world's last great apes, the orang-utan, the poster boy for a gathering global campaign. Rainforest destruction also accounts for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for climate change.

Asda has become Britain's first supermarket chain to tell suppliers it will not accept products unless they can guarantee their palm oil is from sustainably run plantations. Body Shop, the toiletries and cosmetics company, has established a sustainable organic supplier in Colombia. Asda has banned palm oil sourced from the worst affected regions in Borneo and Sumatra and within a year hopes to have banned all unsustainable palm oil from 500 products.

Later this year retailers and manufacturers across Europe who have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil are expected to publish details of how they will create a network of certified sustainable plantations. The move by Asda and Body Shop prompted calls for other companies to speed up the changes.

'It sends a very strong message to the Indonesian and Malaysian governments that, if they don't stop destroying rainforests, they'll be destroying their international market,' said Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth. 'Our fear is that all the supermarkets have joined the Roundtable but they are not going to really implement the policy. What we saw when we got these companies to join is once one joined, another joined and it built up a head of steam. If they are now competing with each other to say, "We're not going to source it from Borneo or Sumatra", they are likely to do the same thing.'

The move to crack down on the damage caused by palm oil production follows a three-year intensive campaign by environment groups that won Friends of the Earth an award in this year's Observer Food Monthly awards.

Chris Brown, Asda's head of sustainable sourcing, said it would take time to work with suppliers to find sustainable supplies, but the supermarket was starting before the Roundtable report because of the speed of rainforest destruction. Friends of the Earth calculates an area the size of Wales is being cut down in Indonesia alone every year, and a 'major driver' is palm oil. 'I don't want to be associated with orang-utan habitat destruction,' said Brown. 'We can wait while committees pontificate, or say, "Let's get on with it".'

Body Shop, which has 2,200 stores in 57 countries, said within six months it planned to source only sustainable palm oil for soap, which accounts for 80 per cent of its use of the ingredient.

Given the scale of global demand for palm oil, a shift to sustainable production will be difficult in the near future, but supporters say there is scope to ban crops from newly cleared forests because of inefficient practices and 'millions of hectares' of already cleared forest land.

Rikke Netterstrom, Body Shop's head of ethical policy, called on other companies to follow to drive producers of unsustainable oil out of business: 'There's a definite tipping point once you get sufficient volume to drive the price down for the whole supply chain.'

Deforestation Diesel - Choose the Right Biofuel

2007-06-08T20:04:00.000+01:00

OrangAid

2007-05-14T14:38:00.000+01:00

Dear friends and supporters of orangutans, The UK’s best cult comedians are coming together for one night only in a fundraising stand-up comedy night, ‘OrangAid’, to celebrate the Sumatran Orangutan Society’s 10th anniversary. The night will be headlined by Bill Bailey, famous for BBC 2’s ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ and Channel 4’s ‘Wild thing I Love You’. Supporting him will be a fantastic line-up: Simon Amstell of 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks', Kevin Eldon of ‘Hot Fuzz’, Stewart Lee of ‘Jerry Springer: the Opera’, and British Comedy Award winner Sean Lock. Phil Jupitus will host the event, which will take place at the Lyceum Theatre, London on Monday 14th May. All proceeds from the evening will go to SOS projects for the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. Please see the above flyer, and pass the information on to friends and
colleagues.

Date: Monday 14th May
Doors open at: 7.00pm
Comedy starts at 7:30pm and runs until around 9.30pm
Venue: Lyceum Theatre, Wellington Street, London WC2 (Tube: Covent Garden / Charing Cross)
Cost: £20 per ticket
For bookings please call the theatre box office on 0844 412 1742
or visit www.ticketmaster.co.uk - type in "ORANGAID" into the event search
box, or click on the image above.

We hope to see you there - it promises to be a fantastic evening!

Biofuels and Orangutans

2007-05-08T23:35:00.001+01:00

Biofuels Orang-utan Advert.JPG
Originally uploaded by Films4Conservation.

Find out more about palm oil: http://www.films4.org/palmoil

Environmentalists launch ad campaign warning “green fuels” could do the planet more harm than good

8th May 2007

A coalition of some of Britain’s biggest green groups is launching an advertising campaign attacking environmentally destructive ‘bio-fuels’.

The adverts feature a petrol pump held to the head of an orang-utan. “Tell the Government to choose the right biofuel.” it says. “Or the orang-utan gets it”.

The groups believe a misjudged push for the wrong kinds of ‘green’ fuels could damage the climate and destroy some of the world’s last remaining rainforests. Biofuels can be used in place of petrol and diesel - because they can be produced from crops they could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can play a small part in reducing emissions from transport. However a coalition including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, RSPB and WWF are warning that the Government risks implementing an ill-thought out policy which lacks the appropriate safeguards, meaning that the Government could be creating more problems than it solves.

Last week the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating that protecting the world’s forests is one of the single biggest steps the international community can take to lessen the effects of climate change.

The Government proposal – known as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) – could, in its present form, lead to biofuel production causing the destruction of rainforests and wetlands, not only threatening endangered habitats and species but also releasing far more carbon into the atmosphere than could ever hope to be saved by replacing fossil fuels.

The groups are demanding the Obligation is tightened up so that biofuel producers must meet minimum greenhouse gas and sustainability standards, with environmental audits of the whole life-cycle of the fuels, from growing the crop to burning it in the car.

The adverts ask members of the public to write to Government and demand tough, compulsory standards.

Dr Douglas Parr, Chief Scientist at Greenpeace, said: “In its current form, this proposal is complacent. It could see biofuel production wrecking the climate rather than helping it, at a time when scientists are warning us that we need to slash emissions to avoid dangerous global warming. The Government must sort out this botched plan or risk losing the value that biofuels could offer.”

Ed Matthew from Friends of the Earth said: "The risks are so great that biofuels should be the last option to reduce transport emissions, not the first. Not only has the Government got it's priorities wrong, its biofuels proposals are so weak that they are in real danger of increasing global warming emissions, not reducing them. The word is incompetent."

Dr Mark Avery, Conservation Director at the RSPB, said: “A rush for biofuels could considerably accelerate the destruction of habitats and loss of wildlife in areas where it already at considerable risk. The contribution forests are making to tackling climate change, as well as harbouring rare wildlife, is more than enough to make their protection a priority. Without environmental standards, biofuels are a green con."

John Alker, Senior Public Affairs Officer at WWF-UK said: "A climate change policy that potentially increases rather than cuts CO2 emissions is clearly a nonsense. Biofuels could offer part of the solution to climate change - but Government needs to get this policy right in order to do so."

ENDS

For more contact Greenpeace on 0207 865 8255 or Friends of the Earth on 0207 566 1720

www.films4.org/palmoil

Orangutans Rank No.1 - Most Intelligent Non-human Primate

2007-04-15T19:32:00.000+01:00

April 15, 2007

Chimps knocked off top of the IQ tree

Jonathan Leake and Roger Dobson

ORANG-UTANS have been named as the world’s most intelligent animal in a study that places them above chimpanzees and gorillas, the species traditionally considered closest to humans.

The study found that out of 25 species of primate, orang-utans had developed the greatest power to learn and to solve problems.

Photo: Adult Male Sumatran Orangutan
Copyright Cockroach Productions www.cockroach.org.uk

The controversial findings challenge the widespread belief that chimpanzees are the closest to humans in brainpower. They also suggest that the ancestry of orang-utans and humans may be more closely entwined than had been thought.

“It appears the orang-utan may possess a privileged status among human kindred,” said James Lee, the Harvard University psychologist behind the research. “It is even possible that an orang-utan-like forager occupied a pivotal link in the chain of descent leading to man.”

Both orang-utans and chimpanzees share about 96% of their DNA with humans, although molecular studies suggest that chimpanzees are more closely related.

The study comes at a time when orang-utans are endangered as never before. Once widespread throughout the forests of Asia, they are now confined to just two islands, Sumatra and Borneo, and are highly endangered as a result of habitat loss and poaching.

Lee’s work involved collating a series of separate studies into the intelligence of different primate species. However, his research first had to overcome a much greater hurdle: would it be possible to compare different species of primates at all?

Spider monkeys, for example, have developed brains to cope with a fast-moving life in the tree tops, while slow lorises are small and leisurely nocturnal hunters.

The conventional belief is that comparing the intelligence of different species is meaningless because separate evolution over millions of years will have given them very different brains.

Lee, a junior psychology researcher at Harvard, found that in primates, at least, different rules seem to apply — the development of one set of mental skills seems to prompt the primate brain to develop other mental abilities as well.

“A primate genus with a high rank in an experiment testing particular mental abilities appears to have high ranks in all of them,” said Lee.

He also found that the single most important factor in deciding a species’ intelligence was simply the size of its brain: “The correlation of brain size with mental ability found in humans appears to extend throughout the primate order.”

This “remarkable finding” suggests, he said, that all primate brains work in much the same way, however they have evolved, allowing comparisons between species.

Lee’s research threw up some other surprises, too. Gorillas, for example, emerged as less intelligent than spider monkeys while baboons, often considered relatively bright, were ranked 14th.

Recent field work by Carel van Schaik, a Dutch primatologist who is now at Duke University, North Carolina, appears to bear out Lee’s findings.

Studying orang-utans in Borneo, he found them capable of tasks well beyond chimpanzees’ abilities — such as using leaves to make rain hats and leakproof roofs over their sleeping nests. He also found that in some food-rich areas the creatures had developed a complex culture in which adults would teach youngsters how to make tools and find food.

He and Lee both suggest that the key factor in such developments is the orang-utans’ life-style, spent mostly in the tops of trees where there is little risk from predators. This has allowed them to establish long and settled lives similar to humans’ and also to develop culture and intelligence.

In his own research papers, Van Schaik has suggested that since the ancestors of modern orang-utans split from the human lineage about 15m years ago, the seeds of human culture must go back at least as far.

Chris Stringer, professor of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, agrees that the sociable lifestyles of primates are the driving force behind the development of intelligence. “Primates and early humans had not got the claws and teeth of predators so they had to rely on brainpower to communicate and protect themselves,” he said. “They are sociable creatures and living in small groups seems to have driven brain development.”

The idea that sociability and intelligence are linked is borne out by research into the relative brain power of diverse animal groups including cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and birds.

Dr Vincent Janik, of the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews University, said that some dolphin species had developed the ability to communicate far beyond that of great apes. “Dolphins have some abilities that great apes don’t have, such as copying new sounds. No primate apart from humans can do that,” he said.

Additional reporting: Max Colchester

Non-human primates in order of intelligence

1 Orange-utan

2 Chimpanzee

3 Spider monkey

4 Langur

5 Macaque

6 Mandrill

7 Guenon

8 Mangabey

9 Capuchin

10 Gibbon

11 Baboon

12 Woolly monkey

Friends of the Earth and Ape Alliance 's Palm Oil Campaign wins Observer Food Monthly award

2007-03-23T17:03:00.000Z

Cockroach Productions' work on Palm Oil recognised again by the Observer:

Press Release:

Friends of the Earth and Ape Alliance 's Palm Oil Campaign wins Observer Food Monthly award

Mar 22 2007

Friends of the Earth and Ape Alliance have won an Observer Food Monthly (OFM) Award for their campaign to help stop the trade in palm oil from driving the Orangutan towards extinction. The campaign was launched in 2005 in partnership with the Ape Alliance Palm Oil Working Group, which includes Orangutan Foundation, Sumatra Orangutan Society, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and Cockroach Productions.

Palm oil is found in one in ten products on the su permarket shelves including bread, crisps, margarine and cereals to lipstick and soap. The clearance of large tracts of rainforest in east Malaysia and Indonesia for palm oil plantations is the primary cause of the Orangutan's decline - as well as thousands of other species – these are some of the most bio-diverse forests on earth!.

Since its launch the campaign has notched up many successes including:

Attracting global attention to the devastating impact which the palm oil industry has on the Orangutan, their rainforest habitat and the communities who live alongside them.
Highlighting the need to strengthen company law so that companies are legally required to report on the social and environmental impacts of their supply chains.

Persuading all the major supermarkets to join a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The Roundtable is an association of business and non governmental organisations seeking to promote sustainable palm oil.

Helping to stop a mega palm oil plantation in Borneo, . The plantation would have led to the destruction of two million hectares of pristine forest - an area the size of .

Friends of the Earth is continuing to campaign to ensure UK supermarkets deliver on their pledge to use only sustainable palm oil and is working to ensure that the growing demand for biofuels doesn't lead to even greater destruction of the Orangutan's home forests. The organisation is calling on the UK Government to ensure no palm oil is imported for bio-fuel.

Friends of the Earth Palm Oil Campaigner, Ed Matthew said:

"We are delighted to have won this award. We have achieved a huge amount over the last few years but the sad fact is that the rainforest in and continues to be destroyed at an alarming rate and the Orangutan is still gravely threatened. Now the use of palm oil as a bio-fuel could push the Orangutan over the edge. The UK Government must ensure no palm oil is imported for use as bio-fuel."

The Ape Alliance Palm Oil Working Group has produced a postcard for people to send to their MPs and MEPs on the issue of palm oil and bio-fuels. Click here to find out more.

Friends of the Earth's Ed Matthews, with Helen Buckland of SOS and Ian Redmond of Ape Alliance, received the award from Alex James of Blur and Nicola Jeal, editor of OFM at a ceremony in London on 22 March. The awards, now in their fourth year, recognise and reward those who have made a contribution to the food industry for the better.

Winners were selected by a combination of OFM (OFM) reader votes and a celebrity judging panel which included: cookery expert Nigel Slater; Ruth Rogers, of the River Café; Tom Conran, restaurateur; Joanna Blythman, food writer; Jay Rayner, Observer restaurant critic; Robbie James, Waitrose; Caroline Boucher, deputy editor OFM and Nicola Jeal, OFM editor and chair of the judging panel.

For further information, contact:

Ape Alliance : 01453 765 228 or visit www.4apes.com/palmoil for contact details of the Ape Alliance Palm Oil Working Group members.

Check out the video evidence at www.films4.org/palmoil
Contact Nick @ Films4Conservation: 01823 451 790; nick@films4.org

Friends of the Earth
26 - 28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ

Tel: +44 20 7490 1555
Fax: +44 20 7490 0881

Palm Oil and the Illegal Animal Trade in Indonesia

2007-03-09T10:17:00.000Z

This film illustrates the links between the expansion of the palm oil industry and the booming illegal trade in endangered wildlife for pets and entertainment.

The majority of the captured animals seen in the film were being kept on palm oil plantations or nearby villages in various locations across Borneo and Sumatra. The caged gibbon is one of 300 000 captive gibbons across the Indonesian archipelago.

Dawn with the Gibbons, Central Kalimantan

2007-03-07T13:13:00.000Z

Filmed by Pramudya Harzani (Cockroach Indonesia), Edited by Nick Lyon (Cockroach Productions).
www.cockroach.org.uk
www.films4.org

Gibbon Research In Sebangau

2007-03-07T13:08:00.000Z

Dr Susan Cheyne
Pre-Dawn Interview in Sebangau National Park

0400 Hours and we're setting off into the forest with Susan.

SC: "We’re now at the junction of transect zero, which is our main transect into the forest, and transect B. We’re more or less in the centre of group C’s territory, so, because we don’t know exactly where they are going to sing, we wait in the middle of the territory and that means when they do start singing we’re very well placed to go after them."

"Most of the 11 gibbon species… 9 of them have these duets where the male and female have very distinct songs. The Javan gibbon doesn’t and the Kloss gibbon doesn’t, we’re not entirely sure why, but the rest of them have these very distinct male and female parts and within that the female’s the most distinctive, she has the longest and loudest call, that part of the song is called the “great call”."

Pram: "How many gibbons in this area, Susan?"

SC: "In the grid system, which is 2km2, we have 12 groups, and if we average 4 gibbons per group – that’s 48. It’s not high-density forest, but there are definitely gibbons here and we reckon this is probably the largest population of gibbons in Indonesia at around 30,000 animals, if you include the whole Sebangau, not this particular area."

"We’re looking mainly at the feeding ecology of gibbons, the types of trees that make up the majority of their diet, which part of those trees they’re eating, whether it be the fruit or the seeds or the leaves or flowers, and we’re also collecting samples of the all the food the gibbons eat to do mechanical and nutritional analysis on, to actually work out how much energy they are actually getting from the food. We’re also, because noone has studied the gibbons here before, we’re also doing behavioural study, looking at where they go, what they do, group interactions, interactions between gibbons and orangutans and indeed gibbons and any other animals, to build up a good overall picture of the behaviour of gibbons in this forest."

"As I said before, gibbons here are at quite low density, but there certainly are gibbons here, they’re certainly thriving and they’re definitely reproducing. So, we’re wanting to understand how they’re managing to survive, first of all in a relatively low-productivity peat-swamp forest, and second – a low productivity peat-swamp forest that had been a logging concession for 30 years."

"This here is… we actually did this because orangutans eat the bark of this tree, and what they actually want is this sap and the cambium which is underneath the bark, so they actually get the tree and strip the bark themselves. Because its an orangutan food and that’s part of Mark’s study, which is the comparison to mine between orangutans and gibbons in this forest, we had to get samples of the bark to send off to the lab in Bogor for nutritional analysis. When we’re taking samples from trees and things like this, especially taking bark, we take it from many different trees, there’s no way we could take enough bark from one tree without doing a lot of damage."

"Right, the gibbons are singing so we better go… so now we go and find them!"

See the video above to find out more about our morning in the forest following the gibbons. This blog entry is a precursor to a broadcast project we are developing with Susan and Chanee.

Protecting Indonesia's Forests - EIA

2007-03-05T10:48:00.000Z

A new film from our friends at the Environmental Investigation Agency

Every year 2.8 million hectares of Indonesia's forests are illegally felled. The vast profits from this trade benefit a small minority of ... all » powerful timber barons with little or no return for local people.

This film shows how civil society groups in Indonesia have joined together to tell their story and press for change in the major market for unsustainable timber - the European Union.

"The Last Stand of the Orangutan" - Cockroach Productions' OFPP donates images to UNEP

2007-02-07T16:48:00.000Z

Cockroach Productions' filmmakers and photographers: Nick Lyon, Evie Wright and Pramudya Harzani have had 13 photos published in the latest report from UNEP/UNESCO. The team were especially pleased to find that both front page images came from Cockroach Productions. Read below for more about the report.

Globalization and Great Apes: Illegal logging destroying last strongholds of Orangutans in National Parks

6 February 2007

24th Session of UNEP’s Governing Council/ Global Ministerial Environment Forum 5-9 February 2007.

The report says that natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98% may be destroyed by 2022 without urgent action. The rate of loss, which has accelerated in the past five years, outstrips a previous UNEP report released in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) Then, experts estimated that most of the suitable orangutan habitat would be lost by 2032.

The illegal logging, driven by global demands, accounts for tens of millions of cubic metres annually and an estimated more than 73% of all logging in Indonesia. Approximately 20% of the logs are smuggled directly out of Indonesia, the remaining is used to support an extensive international and local wood industry, and then exported to the international markets by well-organized, but elusive commercial networks.

Related resources from UNEP/GRID-Arendal:

New satellite imagery reveals that the illegal logging is now entering a new critical phase: As the demands grow, the industry and international market are running out of cheap illegal timber and are now entering the national parks where the only remaining timber available in commercial amounts is found.

Satellite images confirm, together with data from the Indonesian Government, that illegal logging is now taking place in 37 out of 41 national parks, and likely growing. “At current rates of intrusions, it is likely that some parks may become severely degraded in as little as three to five years, that is by 2012”, says the new study “The last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency.”

Overall the report is concluding that loss of orangutan habitat is happening at a rate up to 30% higher than previously thought. The report, compiled by a wide range of experts, is being launched at UNEP’s 24th Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum. Here, close to 100 environmental ministers and state secretaries are meeting under the theme of globalization – environmental risks and opportunities

Indonesia is active in fighting illegal logging and has worked with a series of international programmes and initiatives to reduce the logging. However, says the report, while many of these initiatives are valuable, they require the assistance of the international community to stop the demands for illegal timber, and they are also mainly long/term in effect. In response, the Indonesian government has on several occasions in recent years directly used support from the Navy and Army to arrest, confiscate timber and drive companies out of the parks.

Recently, the Indonesian government has launched perhaps one of the most promising initiatives in recent years, namely the training of specially equipped ranger units (SPORC) to protect the parks.

Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “Globalization is generating unprecedented wealth and lifting millions out of poverty. But in this case, the illegal logging is destroying the livelihoods of many local people dependent upon the forests while it is also draining the natural wealth of Indonesian forest resources by unsustainable practices. The logging at these scales is not done by individual impoverished people, but by well-organized elusive commercial networks“.

“National Parks form a cornerstone in the 2010 target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss and are also so valuable for eco-tourism and in generating new livelihoods. Their protection is vital to these international goals and to the entire concept of protected areas”.

He called on governments and the international community to assist the Indonesian authorities with the equipment, training and particularly funding needed to enforce and patrol their national parks from illegal loggers.

H. E. Rachmat Witoelar, Indonesia’s environment minister and outgoing president of UNEP’s Governing Council, said; “We are currently in an unequal struggle over illegal logging, which in the medium to long-term could be won through certification processes. Such processes can help global consumers choose between sustainably produced wood and palm-oil products and those produced illegally and unsustainably”.

He said that the government was acting in the short term with counter measures including through the development of Ranger Quick response Units to counter illegal forest destruction. “However, the challenge of policing and enforcing Indonesia’s vast parks is immense and rangers have currently little access to ground vehicles, boats, arms, communications or aerial surveillance such as planes or helicopters. In 35 of our national parks we have over 2000 rangers but they have to patrol an area of over 100,000 km2”

The scale of illegal logging, including into national parks is likely to increase not only in Indonesia, but also in other parts of Asia, Africa and Latin-America. “The situation is now acute”, says Christian Nellemann, leader of the Response team. “The recent Indonesian initiatives on law enforcement will require the necessary scale, financial and logistical support in order to stop the extent of this illegal logging. If successful, the Indonesian experiences gained in the coming years may substantially improve our ability to protect national parks and fight illegal logging in other parts of the World“.

The report is prepared by GRASP, the Great Ape Survival Partnership lead by UNEP and UNESCO in collaboration with a wide range of NGOs.

Note to Editors:

Bornean and Sumatran orangutans are classed as Endangered and Critically Endangered and are listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Recent estimates suggest there are between 45,000 and 69,000 Bornean and no more than 7,300 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild.

The orangutans share their habitat with a wild range of other threatened and ecologically important species including the Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhinoceros and Asian elephant. UNEP and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have launched the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) in response to growing concern over the plight of the orangutan, chimpanzee, bonobo and gorilla.

The report “Last stand of the orangutan: State of emergency” can be downloaded at:

http://www.grida.no/products.aspx?m=23&amid=571
http://www.unep.org/grasp/docs/2007Jan-LastStand-of-Orangutan-report.pdf
www.globio.info including high and low resolution graphics for free use in publications.

For more information, please contact Nick Nuttall, UNEP spokesperson
Tel: +254 207623084, Mobile: +254 733 632755
E-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org

For photos and broadcast quality film footage, please contact Nick Lyon, Producer at Cockroach and the Orangutan Film Protection Project
Tel: +44 1823 451 790, Mobile: +44 7850 921 208
Email: nick@cockroach.org.uk

Palm Oil threatens 1600 Orangutans

2007-01-24T22:00:00.000Z

Minister warns company for posing threat to 1,600 orangutans

Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister MS Kaban has strongly warned the Makin Business Group for planning to open an oil palm plantation in an area which hosts the habitat for about 1,600 orangutans in Katingan district, Central Kalimantan.

"We have given the company a warning and asked it to save the life of orangutans in the area," Minister Kaban said here Tuesday night.

Kaban made the remarks during a meeting between Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Central Kalimantan`s regional government officials, mining, plantation and forestry businesses.

The minister said if not seriously reprimanded Makin Group`s plan could lead to the [loss] of thousands of orangutans in the area.

Therefore, he called on the business group to save first the rare animals in the area which was to be turned into a plantation.

"I think Indonesia has been under a heavy spotlight for incompetence in preserving its biodiversity," the minister said.

Makin Group is planning to open a 50 thousand hectare oil palm plantation in Katingan district, Central Kalimantan, in 2007.

In the area, there is a habitat for orangutans with a population of 1,600.

In the meantime, Assistant Manager of the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), Hardi Baktiantoro, said the opening of the plantation in Katingan district was a serious threat to 1,600 orangutans in Kalimantan.

"Based on our data, the area, where Makin Group is to open an oil palm plantation, is host to some 1,500-1,600 orangutans. If the company resumes its planning, it will exterminate the rare animals," he [said].

He predicted the population of the Kalimantan orangutan would have been extinct by 2010 in line with the opening up of forests to make way for palm oil plantations.

"The biggest threat to orangutans is the expansion of oil palm plantations," he said. (*)

Introducing Kalaweit (Cockroach Productions 2007)

2007-01-23T12:18:00.000Z

Shooting Diary - Notes from the Oil Palm

2007-01-18T12:05:00.000Z

Tsunami-like devastation in the palm oil, surprisingly convincing acting from security guards, apocalyptic floods, and turtle rescues...

Shooting for the conflict-mitigation training film necessitated the inclusion of a re-enactment of palm oil workers following the correct procedure having encountered an orangutan entering the plantation boundaries. We arranged to film this re-enactment at a plantation about 7 hours' west of Palangkaraya, near the city of Sampit. The plantation in question was in the process of being established - and the land was being rapidly deforested, drained, bulldozed, and planted. This was previously prime orangutan habitat, and the BOS-F rescue team have made countless orangutan rescues from the small forest islands yet to be cleared in the vast new plantation. The small patches which remain are full of endangered species, competing for increasingly scarce resources and all slowly dying from starvation. An extract from our shooting diary…

“Unable to find a 4WD to hire, Pram and his friend Udin tracked down a fairly battered Kijang for the trip. We arrived at the plantation late at night, hoping to be able to find a couple of rooms in the workers' accommodation in which to stay. The plantation’s Indian-Malay manager was in town watching a World Cup match, but fortunately the satpam (security guard) let us use the room next to his (wooden slat floor for a mattress, hot and full of mosquitoes, but better than a night in the car).

The grey dirty water in the mandi next door was surprisingly effective at refreshing our already sweating and aching bodies at sunrise next day. We were up early to meet with the plantation staff manager, Pak Hari – a Sumatran with a love of Country and Western music and line dancing. Our tour of the clear-felled plantation in Pak Hari’s spotless and aircon-cooled pick-up was made more surreal by the in-car soundtrack of “Country Road” (interpreted by the famed Indonesian singer Tantowi Yahya). We arranged to film the reconstruction at daybreak next morning, and then set off in the Kijang in order to get some documentary evidence of the devastation wrought on the plantation.

Forest clearance at this plantation was happening so rapidly and on such an extensive scale that Pram likened it to the 2004 Tsunami. Mile-upon-mile of fallen trees has replaced one of the most bio-diverse areas of the planet. Workers live under makeshift plastic shelters near the plantation’s edge, where the forest topsoil, not quite destroyed yet, has turned into a tar-like inky mud.

They do have plantation accommodation, but the plantation is so vast that this would add a 14 mile hike to their daily grind, and as they work from sunrise to sundown, navigating the treacherous paths in the dark is no fun. There’s no shade and I had to shamefacedly revert to walking around with an umbrella, neo-colonial style, to hide from the blazing equatorial sun.

Although the Kijang had done well at navigating the extensively potholed road to Sampit, the thick mud of the plantation tracks proved too much for it and we almost immediately got stuck for several sunburnt hours.

After various attempts to free the car ourselves we were joined by a young plantation worker. Originally from Jakarta, he had left his job at a textile factory in the capital to come and find work in Kalimantan. Eventually it transpired that the plantation employed him as an “orangutan guard”. From 5am till 7pm it is his job to patrol a 3-mile section of the plantation perimeter keeping an eye out for desperately hungry orangutans damaging the palm oil saplings in search of food. According to him, the managers had recently ordered 300 snares to be set within the small patch of forest under his guard, in order to capture any orangutans remaining within it. We filmed an interview with him, Pram acting as interpreter. This snared forest patch and this guard were part of a much larger team operating along the plantation boundaries.

At sunrise next morning, fortified by a paper bag full of deep-fried tofu sold to us by an ancient old man on an equally ancient pushbike, we set off to film the re-enactment. There were some early glitches – when our “actors” started shouting “Let’s kill it!” at the imaginary orangutan they were trying to scare back into the forest, we had to have a bit of a chat with them and shoot the scene again. Pak Johannes, the security guard, turned out to be a surprisingly competent and confident thespian, although his overly cautious motorbike driving (despite us leaning out of the window of the Kijang shouting “lebih cepat pak!” at him) meant that we were left worried about how to convey an appropriate sense of urgency in the scene.

During our three days spent working and filming on the plantation, we heard countless stories of the suffering endured by the remaining wildlife that used to live in this forest. Workers responsible for forest clearance around the edges of the forest islands saw orangutans entering the plantation in search of food everyday. We found a captured gibbon, one of many caught and held captive on the plantation by workers, destined to be sold into the pet trade in Sampit and sent downriver on a logging boat to Jakarta.

Unfortunately we were powerless to release this gibbon… neither could we blame the guard. This was his job, and his salary could be traced back through management to the parent company and some big well-known investors and buyers. On the edge of the clearing the gibbon’s mate (gibbons are one of the rare pair-bonded primates) was screaming for its imprisoned partner. It was a disturbing scene.

On the return journey, the trusty Kijang was again put through its paces. Extensive deforestation along the banks of the Kasongan River has made it prone to bursting its banks during heavy rain, and the road from Sampit to Palangkaraya travels alongside the riverbank for extended distances. The flooding on our return journey was severe – waist-height in certain places – and without a 4WD we shouldn’t really have been attempting to get through it. In typical opportunistic fashion, local villagers were spear-fishing in the dark with flashlights where river had replaced road – quite helpful for us as they marked the boundaries of the tarmac. Water was at times coming in through the doors of the car and the exhaust pipe was fully submerged. Pram gunned the engine in first gear for almost an hour, at times Udin ran in front of the car to keep us on track – the slightest deviation off the raised road and we would be washed away. It was a nerve-wracking return journey for all of us except our unexpected reptilian passenger - a turtle found belly-up in the middle of the road earlier in the day, fallen from the back of a smuggling truck ahead of us – which we later released into the swampy land near to Palangkaraya.

This was a depressing return to the palm oil plantations of Central Kalimantan. Despite the successes of the UK palm oil campaign in the previous 12 months, positive change is not happening quickly enough in the Armageddon-landscape of Borneo. One small positive result was that Pram was able to return to the plantation with the BOSF rescue teams and the captive gibbon we found was released – one can only hope her haunting song has brought her mate back to her. Pram is now field-coordinator for Cockroach Indonesia and we’re very pleased and privileged to have him on our team.

South-east Asia's Peat Fires and Global Warming

2006-11-12T10:54:00.000Z

Press release
-for immediate release-

South-east Asia's Peat Fires and Global Warming
Joint Press Release by Ecological Internet, Biofuelwatch, Watch
Indonesia and Save the Rainforest (Germany)

November 11th, 2006

At Nairobi, governments are debating the future of the Kyoto Protocol and action to prevent the most serious impacts of climate change. So far, they appear to have ignored pleas to address one of the greatest single sources of carbon emissions: the destruction of South-east Asia's peatlands and forests. The annual emissions from annual peat and forest fires are about five times as great as the total annual emission cuts which the Kyoto Protocol aims to make by 2012, from 1990 levels.

Indonesia alone holds 60% of all tropical peat, containing some 50 billion tonnes of carbon. This is equivalent to 7-8 years of global fossil fuel emissions. Timber and oil palm plantations are draining the peatlands and also pushing local communities and small-holders into peat areas and rainforests. Once this peat is drained, all this carbon will eventually be released into the atmosphere, unless the peat is subsequently re-flooded and restored. Annual fires, many of them set deliberately by plantation owners, speed up the process.

This year's fire season has been one of the worst on record. Wetlands International warned earlier this week that the boom in biofuels is speeding up the destruction, and further that one tonne of palm oil grown on peat is linked to the release of around 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide released from that peat. Due to its low cost, palm oil is set to become the prime feedstock for biodiesel. Biofuelwatch member UK Green Party Councillor Andrew Boswell says from Nairobi: "Over 6600 people from 75 countries have emailed governments to call for real action to address the causes of the annual peat and forest fires. So far, there are no signs that delegates have listened. UNFCCC exists to prevent dangerous climate change and to stabilise levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This will be even harder to achieve unless tropical peatlands are protected and restored. Ecological Internet, Biofuelwatch, Save the Rainforest (Germany) and Watch Indonesia are calling on the Conference to agree to international assistance with fighting the fires which are still burning on Borneo, and to set up a working group which will draw up proposals for the protection and restoration of the peatlands which must report back within a year. They stress that those proposals must be developed in close co-operation with local communities and the South-east Asian NGOs representing them and must take full account of the needs of local people, and also of the need to protect those forests which are not part of the peatlands. "

Contacts:
Andrew Boswell, Biofuelwatch: Nairobi contact 0720833788 (until 17/11
only); from outside Kenya 254-720833788

Dr Glen Barry, President of Ecological Internet, USA:
GlenBarry@..., Tel +1 920 776 1075

Notes:

1. Biofuelwatch is a UK campaign which seeks regulation to ensure that only sustainably-sourced biofuels can be sold in Britain in the European Union. See Biofulewatch

2. Ecological Internet (EI) provides the most successful Internet based environment portals, search engines and international Earth advocacy network ever, regularly achieving environmental conservation victories around the world. EI specializes in the use of the Internet to achieve environmental conservation outcomes. Ecological Internet's mission is to empower the global movement for environmental sustainability by providing information retrieval tools, portal services and analysis that aid in the conservation of climate, forest, water and ocean ecosystems; and to commence the age of ecological sustainability and restoration. On average 30,000 visits a day are made to our environmental portals. See
Ecological Internet

3. Save the Rainforest (Rettet den Regenwald e.V.) campaigns against the abuse of rainforest by industrialised countries and organises support for indigenous people in the forests. See
Save the Rainforest

4. Watch Indonesia is a German-based working group for democracy, human rights and environmental protection in Indonesia and East Timor. See Watch Indonesia

5. For a fully referenced background paper about the peat and forest fires in south-east Asia, and their contribution to global warming, see Biofuelwatch PDF

6. For the figures provided by Wetlands International, see Wetlands International

Burning Peatland is threatening the Orangutan

2006-11-10T18:52:00.000Z

Burning Peatland is threatening the Orangutan

BOS Mawas, PRESS RELEASE, Friday 10th November 2006

Pandu B.Wahyono, manager of Mawas Conservation Program of The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), is overwhelmed by this year’s fire desaster in Mawas. Since the great fires in 1997/8, Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo) has never experienced such terrible fires again.

BOS Mawas (Mawas means Orangutan) aims to convert approximately 500.000 hectares into a Mawas reservation. This land is situated in Central Kalimantan between the Kapuas and the Barito Rivers. It mainly consists of tropical swamp forest, under which precious CO2-rich peat, and even peat domes thicker then 15 meters, can be found. The Mawas area consists of many different landscapes and ecosystems. Some areas still are virgin swamp forest, home to approx. 3000 wild orangutans. Other forests have been logged for about 20 years and are therefore highly degraded. The worst destruction took place in the western part of Block AB, where a misguided governmental project had been planned. There, the ambitious million hectar ricefield project (Proyek Pengembangan Lahan Gambut, PLG), a project of the Suharto era, allegedly was to raise the economical welfare. Now, this exPLG area is drained, dead and cleared land. Furthermore, it still has major negative impacts on the neighbouring peatlands, because the drains feed on the water, which is stored in the peat like in a sponge.

In Mawas, many peat domes with a thickness up to 20 meters can be found. These peat domes grow very slowly and only under specific conditions. Over 5,000 years organic material has been accumulated under very acidic conditions to form this extraordinary carbon sink, which is highly important as a fresh water supply for the river systems. When these peat domes are logged or planted with oil palms, they dehydrate and collapse. Large amounts of CO2 are emitted because of the drainage. Annually, 600 million tonnes of CO2 are emitted in Indonesia alone by the oxidation of peat. Another 1.5 billion annually emitted CO2 result from forest and peat fires. Normally, the peat is soaked with water, but once the peat is drained, it ignites easily. Peat fires burn underground, they travel unseen beneath the surface and break out in unexpected locations.

Although BOS fire fighters are on duty in Mawas night and day, since yesterday (even supported by fire-fighting plans) large areas of peat forests were burnt. The peat swamp forest of Mawas is home to about 3000 wild orangutan. Only recently, 148 orangutans have been translocated to Blocks AB in Mawas. Now the fires are threatening the unique biodiversity of the peat swamp forest, they put one of the last wild orangutan populations into danger, and they may release the three gigatonnes of carbondioxide which are bound in the peat.

Kisar Odom, representative manager of the BOS Mawas Conservation Program and leader of the research and development team, is constantly monitoring the orangutans. “Several orangutans have tried to escape the fires, others have already crossed the Mantangai River to an area that is regarded to be safer. We are constantly monitoring the situation and, thankfully, have not yet found one dead orangutan.” Ironically, now, while observations are badly needed to monitor the situation of the threatened orangutan population, Kisar Odom and his team have difficulties observing the animals because of the thick smoke.

Three orangutans had to be saved from fires and translocated to a safer forest. Those orangutans had not long ago been introduced to a forest in Block AB which was regarded as safe. But during the last months, 17.815 hectares or 17 % of this forest has been destroyed by fire.

“Fleeing from fires or wandering around in search for food, orangutans often enter oil palm plantations and eat palm seedlings. Farmers, defending their harvest, often hit or kill the animals.” Willie Smits, the founder of the BOS Foundation, further explains that “10-15 orangutans recently died as a result of their injuries. Currently, 120 orangutans are treated in three rehabilitation centres, suffering of dehydration, acute breathing diseases, and starvings and even from wounds.”

Last month, more than 30 Orangutans had to be rescued. They were either driven out of their forest by fires, or they were desperately looking for food in plantations, because their habitat has been destroyed by oil palm plantation companies.

“At the moment we are putting a lot of energy in law enforcement. We hope that offenders and involved parties will be prosecuted. We are supporting the government’s efforts in taking action against plantation companies that are suspected of burning the forest to establish new plantations.” Hardi Baktiantoro, assistant manager of the BOS orangutan reintroduction centre Nyaru Menteng, says. Additionally to law enforcement, BOS conducts community development and education programs in Central and East Kalimantan, with the aim to prevent land clearing, illegal logging, animal abuse and forest fires.

Ironically, more and more oil palms are planted to produce “biofuel”. In Indonesia one quarter of all oil palm plantations are grown on peat land. According to several environmental organisations the establishment of oil palm plantations is not only responsible for a great loss of animal lives and biodiversity, but also for immense emissions of carbondioxide. Data from Wetlands International show that 1 tonne palm oil grown on peat land results in the release of about 20 tonnes of CO2.

Thus, the so called “biofuel” is rather responsible for unrecoverable destruction of unique biodiversity and for irretrievable release of green house gases from ancient carbon sinks than to be the renewable sustainable energy source we are searching for.

By Rita Sastrawan
BOS International
rita@orangutan.or.id

Indonesia: Smoke and Corruption

2006-11-08T16:04:00.000Z

Indonesia: Smoke and Corruption

Source: Copyright 2006, Jakarta Post
Date: November 7, 2006
Original URL

Indonesia must certainly approach this yearly problem with a high degree of seriousness. In fact, Indonesia should ratify the ASEAN transboundary haze agreement. But Indonesia also has something to tell to its neighbors -- in particular those who harbor members of the corrupt elite, who move around like smoke.

The smoke from Indonesian forest fires has created havoc not only in various parts of Indonesia, but in Malaysia and Singapore too. The Malaysians, acting to protect their interests, have made an open demand to the Indonesian government to stop the fires. They have even brought the issue to ASEAN. Singapore, while reacting less aggressively, is also unhappy with the way Indonesia has dealt with the smoke.

In an article written by Todung Mulya Lubis called Singapore Paradox (Kompas, Nov. 2), the nation-state is accused of abetting Indonesia's corruption problem. Singaporeans have argued corruption is rampant here because Indonesia has not made a serious effort to fight it. But Singapore itself is a safe haven for corrupt Indonesians. Thus, the paradox is that while Singapore claims to be one of the "cleanest" countries in the world, it provides a den for its dishonest neighbors.

Smoke and corruption have a common thread. Indonesia can argue that it does not intend for the fires on its territory to send smoke to neighboring countries. Smoke is spread by the wind, which is not under the control of Indonesian government.

By the same token, Singapore can argue it does not intend to spread corruption, since it has very strict laws in that matter. They might point out that corrupt people, from Indonesia or anywhere, can come and go to Singapore, as do other people from ASEAN countries. But the problem is, in Singapore they are not considered practitioners of corruption, but investors.

So, will the next ASEAN conference focus on smoke? If it does, Indonesia should raise the "Singapore paradox."

The problem of smoke is usually not discussed in terms of sovereignty. Since smoke is no respecter of borders, every country can demand that the country in question fix the problem. That makes sense.

Diplomats tend to view corruption, however, from the standpoint of state sovereignty. If Indonesia raises the issue of corruption in Singapore, it can be accused of interfering in Singapore's affairs and violating Singapore's sovereignty. It is the right of the Singaporean government to decide who can and cannot enter its sovereign territory.

The problem of smoke and corruption should be instead be understood from the perspective of "global public good." In her book bearing that term as its title, Inge Kaul argues that as globalization becomes intensive and extensive, the public good cannot be viewed simply in terms of one's country or region. What affects one country or region can affect countries around the globe. Pollution, for example, including global climate change and the greenhouse effect, are global concerns. So is oil policy. Global public good should overcome the constraints of sovereignty.

If clean air is a global public good, what about a "clean neighborhood"? The problem of corrupt people who move from one country to another should be tackled within that framework. "Good governance" refers to the fight against corruption at the national level, and a "clean neighborhood" policy would entail a similar effort at the regional and global level.

No country can argue that corruption is strictly a national problem. We are living in the era of globalization. Bad operators fly around the world and can move their money around the world with the click of a mouse. If one country wants to eliminate corruption, other countries must join its efforts, just as in the case of preventing global warming.

A "clean neighborhood" should be considered one of the "global public goods." It is high time to have a treaty to establish a clean neighborhood.

ASEAN may become a pioneer as the first international organization to tackle this issue. If it can force Indonesia to deal with the smoke, it should be able to put Singapore under similar pressure to cleanse its territory of both domestic and global corruption. That would create a truly clean neighborhood.

The writer is a lecturer on globalization at the Postgraduate School of Political Science, University of Indonesia.

Borneo on Fire...

2006-11-07T21:50:00.000Z

Below is a piece from BBC News online. We have worked in the field alongside these rescue teams and know how bad things are. The fires in Borneo will only get worse as more peat is cleared for oil palm plantations, meanwhile the orangutans will continue to suffer. These fires are strong evidence that Kyoto should really call an emergency meeting to bring in new measures to protect existing forest. Can we really wait till 2012?

Orangutans perish in Borneo fires
By Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Jakarta

Fires on the island of Borneo may have killed up to 1,000 orangutans, say animal protection workers in Indonesia.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation says the animals are facing severe problems as their natural habitat is burnt away.

Rescue workers have found several dead orangutans in burnt-out areas, but have no way of reaching animals still trapped in the burning forests.

The fires have been raging across central Borneo for months.

Erosion

One of those involved in the rescue effort, Pak Hardy, told the BBC that more than 40 animals had been saved after finding their way to the edges of the fires. Many have severe burns.

Others have been killed by local people after eating from the area's profitable oil palm plantations.

One of the problems, says Pak Hardy, is that erosion of the animals' natural habitat means there are few places for them to go to avoid the fires.

The teams have put up posters asking local people not to kill orangutans which are fleeing the fires and to contact them instead, but it is not working.

Four times in the last 24 hours Pak Hardy's team has been too late.

Threats to orangutans' natural habitat are largely responsible for them becoming an endangered species.

Indonesia's annual problem with forest fires is widely blamed on farmers and logging companies clearing land for oil palm plantations.
The fires routinely cause a smoky haze to settle over a wide area and have brought criticism from Indonesia's neighbours as well as from environmental groups.

Cockroach and SKY News Special

2006-10-30T16:51:00.000Z

Cockroach Productions works with SKY News to tell the story of orangutans and palm oil. Exclusive footage of the impact of palm oil on the habitat of the endangered orangutan

Deforestation and Palm Oil

2006-10-30T16:48:00.001Z

A look at recent documentary footage of areas of Borneo and Sumatra that have been deforested in the name of development. Some facts that ... all » show that Indonesia's local people may not benefit from this 'development' in the way we might think.

Watch and be shocked. This is Indonesia today.

Films4Apes

2006-10-25T21:03:00.000+01:00

For a while now we've been thinking of how to make ape films more widely available for conservation purposes. Our friends at GAFI manage to take films back to ape native range states, so the people who live with apes can learn about apes. This is how our Orangutan films are distributed in the field. But we wanted to make our films, and others, available to anyone who had an internet connection. Last week we were at WildScreen - "The Green Oscars" - the biggest natural history film festival in the world. It became apparent that a lot of people felt similarly that there was a need to have an online resource for conservation films.

After a discussion with Ian Redmond (UNEP/UNESCO GRASP & Ape Alliance) and Richard Brock (Brock Initiative & former senior BBC Producer) we designed this site to try and help people access rich media on apes. There are live RSS feeds, online slideshows and most excitingly - we are collecting conservation videos on apes. Please come and visit, and help us make this site grow. We are also in the formative stages of setting up Films4Tigers and Films4Elephants will follow. But for now drop by:

Films4Apes

See you there,
Nick & Evie

Producer, Orangutan Film Protection Project.

Orangutans and the Biofuel Boom - Some Grim Facts

2006-10-07T09:28:00.000+01:00

Cockroach inspire Miller Advert

2006-10-06T12:01:00.000+01:00

One of our kit sponsors, Miller Camera Support in Australia, recently sent us this image. Taking inspiration from the production still below, the image has been touring the world in their trade fairs. Whilst the interpretation of the orangutans has obviously been subject to creative license, the camerawoman is clearly a spitting image of Evie!

Carbon Dioxide, Peat, Indonesia, Orangutans...

2006-10-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

An Article from New Scientist in 2002, but still as relevant four years on as huge swathes of forest are cleared from peat domes, under the guise of palm oil development. It is important to note that oil palm does not grow well on peat, it falls over, machinery sinks, and the fire risks should mean that previously cleared, dry lowland should be used before opening peat swamp forests. We shouldn't even need to raise the point that peat swamp forest is one of the last refuges for orangutans!
N.L., OFPP

Indonesian wildfires spark global warming fears

19:00 06 November 2002
Copyright NewScientist.com news service 2002
By Fred Pearce

Burning peat bogs in Indonesia are releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in a repeat of the environmental devastation that made headlines around the world five years ago.

Tropical peat bogs, such as those beneath the forests of Indonesia, are among the planet's largest stores of carbon. They release much more CO2 when they burn than when the trees that grow on them catch fire.

Now a team of scientists from Britain, Germany and Indonesia has reported that as Indonesia's forests burned in 1997, the smouldering peat beneath released as much as 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon into the air.

That is equivalent to 40 per cent of the global emissions from burning fossil fuels that year, and was the prime cause of the biggest annual increase in atmospheric CO2 levels since records began more than 40 years ago.

Deep burn

The researchers calculate that, in 1998, the atmosphere contained almost 6 billion extra tonnes of CO2, compared with an annual average for the 1990s of 3.2 billion tonnes. Researcher Susan Page of the University of Leicester estimates that the smouldering peat bogs lost between 25 and 85 centimetres in depth.

Indonesian bogs burning during this year's El Niño are again spreading smog across southeast Asia, says her colleague Jack Rieley of the University of Nottingham. "The burning is likely to be around 40 per cent of 1997 levels, releasing up to a billion tonnes of carbon," he told New Scientist.

Formed over the past 20,000 years, Indonesia's peat bogs are up to 20 metres deep. Huge areas have been drained for agricultural projects in recent years. This leaves the peat dry and prone to fires spread when farmers clear the forest, especially when the rains fail in El Niño years.

In 1997, only 4.5 per cent of the pristine swamp areas burned, compared with 70 per cent of swamp beneath fragmented forest, the study found.

Carbon credits

As much as 50 billion tonnes of carbon is locked up in Indonesia's peat bogs - the equivalent of eight years of fossil-fuel emissions. Rieley predicts that it could all be released into the atmosphere over the coming century, adding to global warming.

David Schimel of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, says the study reveals how "catastrophic events affecting small areas can have a huge impact on the global carbon balance."

Rieley is now calling for an international effort to save the bogs. He says the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which issues "carbon credits" to countries planting new forest to soak up CO2, should be extended to allow countries to claim credits for protecting key carbon stores such as peat bogs. Selling the credits to polluters could finance conservation projects, he says.

Journal reference: Nature (vol 420, p 61)

Conflict Mitigation Film - with English subtitles

2006-08-15T16:42:00.000+01:00

Morrisons to Join RSPO

2006-08-02T19:01:00.000+01:00

Congratulations Letter Writers and Postcard Senders!

Morrisons have just announced that they are joing the RSPO, which means together we have managed to get that huge step forward in the campaign by getting all FIVE of our target supermarkets in the UK to sign up to principles of sustainability on palm oil. Next job: we need to get some politcal will-power in SE ASIA to only pursue sustainable palm oil production. More news on that will be coming soon. Meanwhile here is Morrisons' press release:

Morrisons to join Roundtable on palm oil

2nd August 2006

Morrisons has announced its intention to join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), to further demonstrate its commitment to the responsible sourcing of this ingredient and to help promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil.

The company will continue to work with its suppliers to make progress in ensuring that any palm oil used in own brand products is from verifiable, sustainable sources.

“We have always been in accord with the aim of the RSPO and to address the issue, we focused on working directly through our supply chain”, said Corporate Affairs Director, Chris Blundell. “Given the global nature of the palm oil market there is the need for collective action on an international basis and the Roundtable process provides the best means of achieving this.”

Palm Oil Advert in British National Newspaper/s

2006-07-12T08:38:00.000+01:00

Cockroach Productions' Orangutan Film Protection Project supplies the photo for Friends of the Earth's newspaper advert campaign.

Friends of the Earth said:

"We have already been contacted by Morrisons, who wanted to know if there was a specific reason why we felt we had to take the advert and also what we wanted to achieve by it. They appeared to be unaware that they were the last notable UK supermarket who hadn't joined the RSPO after Tesco announced they will join last week."

Certainly we, at the OFPP, have personally spoken with Morrisons on three or four occassions in the last few months urging them to develop a policy on sustainable palm oil, and was met with litle interest, or signs of proaction on their part. They had a fair warning that this issue would be likely to bring them some negative publicity if they did not act.

Momentous Breakthrough in Campaign!

2006-06-22T12:44:00.000+01:00

TESCO Joins the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, finally!!! Thank you to all our letter writers for your continued support and the pressure you have put on TESCOs - you have been successful.
And here is their press release:

TESCO TO JOIN SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL GROUP

Tesco today announced that it will join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to help the industry identify ways of sourcing this widely used ingredient more responsibly.

Announcing the move, Group Corporate and Legal Affairs Director, Lucy Neville-Rolfe said:

"We are deeply concerned about the loss of rainforest - and the orangutans it supports - and believe that we can make a real contribution to work in this important area.

"It is a complex problem and our technical team have learnt a lot about the issue over the last two years and we hope that by sharing our knowledge and ideas, we will make a positive contribution and help to make a difference.”

Stanley Jonhson, former MEP and senior advisor to United Nation's Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) welcomed the statement:

"This is tremendously good news. Given the enormous range of products containing palm oil marketed by Tesco in stores across the UK, it is vital that Tesco should join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – as they now have. And given Tesco's increasing international operations, constructive participation from Tesco is likely to be even more important in the future."

Tesco House, PO Box 18, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Herts EN8 9SL
Press Desk - Tel: 01992 644645

OFPP back in the field

2006-06-07T11:15:00.000+01:00

We're back off to Indonesia tomorrow for a month's filming to complete the conflict mitigation training video. This video will show plantation workers what do when they encounter an orangutan - showing how to best ensure their personal safety and the safety of the orangutan. We will be working the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation to create a number of reconstructions to complete the training video. We'll try and keep you up to date while we're away.

We should remain in email contact periodically - so please drop us a line at info@cockroach.org.uk
We will return to the UK on the 9th of July. We plan to have the video completed by mid-July

Wish us luck!

BBC1 16:30 Really Wild Show, Weds 17th May

2006-05-12T15:07:00.000+01:00

Palm Oil story reaches a Younger Generation

Those of you in the UK keep your eyes peeled for the Really Wild Show on the BBC this Wednesday (May 17th) at 4:30pm. The show will feature a special report on the palm oil industry and its negative implications for the protection of rainforests and biodiversity in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Some of the footage shot by Cockroach Productions on location in Borneo and Sumatra will be included in the report, including rare film of a captured baby sun bear, a baby macaque being kept as a pet in a palm oil plantation in Central Sumatra, and an unusual shot of a (completely arboreal) gibbon running bipedally across cleared forest land.

Hopefully the show will inspire a new generation of budding conservationists to join the campaign.

2006-05-02T09:11:00.000+01:00

Orang-utan campaign heads to Westminster

Tuesday, 02 May 2006 08:35 Copyright InTheNew.co.uk

Orang-utan campaign heads to Westminster

Leading members of Britain's campaign to save endangered orang-utans are to lobby MPs at a Westminster reception this evening.

Hosted by Lib Dem MP Norman Baker and organised by Friends of the Earth, the event will be attended by prominent orang-utan campaigners including celebrity actress Joanna Lumley.

They will attempt to highlight the plight of the orang-utans, whose rainforests are being steadily destroyed by Britain's demand for palm oil, in an attempt to gain changes to the company law reform bill currently passing through parliament.

"Demand for palm oil is threatening the survival of these fantastic creatures and it is shocking that our demand for cheap food and other products is behind this," Mr Baker, the party's environmental affairs spokesperson, said.

"I believe we must take this opportunity to use the company law reform bill to ensure that UK companies take more responsibility for the impacts they have on the environment."

At present British supermarkets including Tesco, Somerfield and Morrisons are refusing to subscribe to an agreement on the "sustainable use" of palm oil, showing a disinterest the bill could forcibly change.

"The growth in demand for palm oil is putting pressure on precious areas of rainforest in Borneo and Sumatra, threatening the survival of the orang-utan," Friends of the Earth oil campaigner Ed Matthew said.

"MPs have the power to do something about this and we urge them to take this chance."

Palm oil, harvested from the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, can be found in one in ten products sold in Britain's supermarkets.
_____________________________________
The Orangutan Film Protection Project Team from Cockroach Productions will be attending this event and showing a video report from Indonesia, highlighting the plight of orangutans and local people in the face of the growing palm oil industry. Our hope is to rally British Government support for the sustainable sector of the industry, being led by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Find out more at www.cockroach.org.uk

Orangutans WILL go home!

2006-04-25T23:20:00.000+01:00

Subject: RE: Press release - Orangutans will go home!

53 of 61 smuggled orangutans will be sent home soon

April 23, 2006

On Saturday the 22nd of April 2006, officials from Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants announced their decision to allow 53 smuggled orangutans to go back home to the forests of Indonesia. The decision was made during a meeting between Thai and Indonesian officials in Bangkok. A large group of NGO's worldwide campaigned hard to have the Apes repatriated after two and a half years being kept in sub-standard conditions at Safari World, Bangkok and wildlife breeding centers in Thailand. The pressure of the campaign, which was stepped up only six months ago, finally bears fruit.

Although the Thai authorities still want to check DNA of all the orangutans to verify that the animals originate from the Indonesian part of Borneo, scientists and experts believe all but two are from this area. Two of the orangutans might be Sumatran orangutans and therefore also Indonesian. The Indonesian authorities have agreed to allow the second DNA test so long as it does not delay the repatriation process. The animals will be returned to Indonesia before the results of the DNA check are available. Two years ago, DNA tests, financed by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) in cooperation with the Thai Forestry Police, were conducted to prove that these same orangutans were not born of the legal orangutan stock at the zoo.

The 53 orangutans will all be moved to the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. It is expected that the first half of the orangutans will be shipped back to Indonesia within the next eight weeks; a second group should follow within four weeks after the first. Due to the level of care required for each individual animal, transporting too large a group at one time will be too stressful for the animals.

Veterinary and orangutan experts from BOSF and the Indonesian government will soon begin a thorough health assessment to check all the orangutans for zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, as well as the presence of parasites, bacteria and fungi. Local Thai universities such as Chulalongkorn and/or Mahidol might be asked for assistance with this process. If animals are not 100% healthy, the stress of transportation might be detrimental and, in some cases, fatal. The healthiest ones will be returned with the first lot.

At Nyaru Menteng, all facilities are ready to welcome the orangutans back home; a quarantine area and new living quarters have all been constructed in the past two years awaiting the return of these orangutans.

The fate of eight additional orangutans held by the Thai authorities confiscated from Lopburi zoo and two slaughterhouses in 2003 is not yet known.

For more information and pictures:

Edwin Wiek
Monitoring unit for cross-border illegal wildlife trade
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
edwin.wiek@wfft.org
Wildlife Friends of Thailand (www.wfft.org)
Tel +6690600906 (Thailand 0906-00906)

Dr. Willie Smits
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation / Gibbon Foundation
wtmsmits@indo.net.id

Lone Droscher Nielsen
Director
Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rehabilitation Center
Project.o-u@lycos.com
Tel: +62-8125154702 (Indonesia 081-25154702)

All photographs Copyright Nick Lyon & Evie Wright
The Orangutan Film Protection Project
www.cockroach.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1823 451 790

Better Late than Never

2006-04-19T17:44:00.000+01:00

Well done Sainsburys for joing the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil! After an announcement at the end of January, Sainsburys have finally filed their application for the RSPO and, in doing so, joins the likes of ASDA, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer in the growing list of retailers that recognise the importance of taking responsible action on sustainable sourcing of products.

This announcement follows shortly after the publication of a scientific study of latent extinction hotspots that identified the Indonesian-Malaysian forests as being under the greatest threat in the world. Sustainable Palm Oil means an end to conversion of high conservation value forest. Please do your part to support the retailers who take up this innitiative.

Mega Plantation Border Project!

2006-04-12T15:48:00.000+01:00

Demand for palm oil triggers massive expansion in Borneo

Source: Friends of the Earth: Apr 12 2006

A new report released today (Wednesday 13 April) reveals how the Indonesian government could develop up to three million hectares of oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo, threatening wildlife and local livelihoods to cater for international demand for cheap palm oil [1].

One of the justifications given for this huge plantation project is the increasing international demand for palm oil to be used in food, feed and biofuels.

The report reveals how earlier plans to develop a two million hectare plantation on the Indonesian side of the border with Malaysia, are not yet off the table. Indonesia's initial proposals to develop the border area had met with international protest. The Indonesian president Yudhoyono acknowledged there were conservation concerns to be taken into account. But the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works appears to have responded to this in January 2006 by simply enlarging the area defined as the "border zone". In this broader area, up to 3 million hectares of oilpalm could be planted, according to the Ministry.

The project still threatens mayhem, damaging wildlife including threatened populations of orang-utan and elephants, and the livelihoods of local people in the Kalimantan region. Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) and local palm oil organisation Sawit Watch ('Oilpalm Watch') are calling on the Indonesian government to officially cancel the border mega-plantation plan.

Marks & Spencer Join the RSPO

2006-04-04T11:44:00.000+01:00

Thank you Marks & Spencer for taking a positive step forward for orangutan conservation by signing up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

M&S are following in the steps of other major retailers such as ASDA and Waitrose to show concern for SE Asian environmental impacts and moving towards not purchasing unsustainable palm oil that leads to forest conversion. We hope this is the first step in a number of measures that can be taken by companies to minimise their impact on our endangered red cousins.

Cockroach success at the Celtic Film and Video Festival!

2006-03-31T13:02:00.000+01:00

Falmouth, March 2006

Cockroach felt a burst of pride when Nick took part in the live pitch competition at the Celtic Film and Video Festival in Falmouth, Cornwall, last week and won.

Our pitch – for Radio Gibbon, 99.5 FM a film about Radio Kalaweit and the gibbon sanctuary run by Frenchman Chanee in Central Kalimantan – was voted the winner against 5 other live pitches (and these 5 had already been selected from a much greater number of entries in the selection phase).

Radio Gibbon won a landslide victory in the audience vote. The audience to the competition was made up of industry professionals, producers, commissioning editors, and festival delegates, as well as being webcast live. The event was preceeded by a three-day long pitching course run by Christina Burnett from Wide Eye Pictures, during which Nick had the opportunity to really fine tune and perfect the pitch. We’re hoping the exposure and insight which the event gave us will help to get the film commissioned.

Here’s an extract from the pitch:

“Radio Gibbon is a journey through the cultural, musical and natural heritage of Borneo with an amazing and charismatic man who has made his life here on the frontiers of conservation.

In 1997 a young Frenchman, Aurelien Brule, applied to the Indonesian government in Jakarta to found a radio station in Central Kalimantan. Less than a decade later Radio Kalaweit is the most popular radio station in Borneo. Through the story of this radio outpost, its listeners, and Brule’s gibbon sanctuary island, we explore the most remote parts of Borneo – areas where radio is a vital link to the wider world.”

If you are interested in finding out more about our idea for the film contact us at:
info@cockroach.org.uk or telephone +44 (0)1823 451 790
Or if you would like to help our friends at Kalaweit go to:
www.kalaweit.org
and donate generously!!!

Cockroach Productions wins National Recognition

2006-03-24T12:11:00.000Z

Cockroach Productions' Orangutan Film Protection Project has won a Special Commendation from the British Environment and Media Awards for their media work on the Orangutan and Palm Oil Story. Through national and international news broadcasts the team at Cockroach, with the support of their friends in the Ape Alliance, have reached an audience of 86,000,000 people worldwide with the story. Further national broadcasts on mainstream terrestrial televison are scheduled for the coming months.

Alistair McGowan presented the awards at a dinner ceremony, where other attendees included the BBC, Channel 4, The Independent, The Sunday Times and Friends of the Earth. We were pleased to see our 'Orangutan Friendly Palm Oil' logo come up on screen - re-enforcing the message to a captive audience of fellow environmental reporters. We also took advantage of the evening to spread the word on the orangutan and palm oil crisis, and hope we can keep the story in the forefront of people's minds in the coming months.

On the trail of the Tiger

2006-02-19T17:13:00.000Z

Saturday 6th August 2005

The last two weeks in Sumatra have been exhausting but exhilarating. We left Jakarta early one morning, accompanied by Pak Wald and Pak Daniel of the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program, and began a four-day journey up impossibly bumpy roads to the forests of central Sumatra. En route we took in a ferry journey passing Krakatoa in the distance, stopped over at the elephant training centre in Way Kambas, and passed through the concrete skyscrapers that dominate the villages where bird’s nest soup is the primary industry. After three days circumnavigating the many potholes of the trans-Sumatran highway, we eventually arrived at the office of the STCP. That evening we were introduced to the rest of the team and were shown a small sample of the thousands of photos they have collected from their camera traps in the forests, including tapir, clouded leopards, porcupines, deer, elephants, and, of course, tigers. Pak Wald and Pak Yunus, the STCP field manager, then showed us some of the STCP’s recent confiscations – tiger and leopard skins, bones, and teeth.

The next day we traveled to some of the palm oil plantations that surround the borders of the forest where the STCP’s Tiger Protection Units run their patrols. Approaching one plantation we managed to get some shots of a huge illegal saw mill just off the road, and talked to a rubber-tapper and his family whose livelihood is threatened by the continuous expansion of palm oil monoculture. Arriving at another plantation still being established nearby, Pak Wald was shocked to find how quickly the forest had been cleared – the area had still been forest when he had last visited, just weeks earlier. On our way out of this plantation we encountered two workers carrying an Argus Pheasant that they had recently captured on the outskirts of the plantation. The Great Argus is a CITES Appendix-I listed endangered species. The unfortunate bird we met had its eyes stitched closed to “keep it calm”. The workers expected to make around £14.50 from selling it. We resisted the temptation to buy this bird from them in order to set it free – our doing so would only mean that word would get round that foreigners were paying for animals and would compound the problem.

Later, in yet another plantation, we came across a baby macaque being kept as a family pet and tethered by the neck on an extremely short rope. It is likely the macaque faces a bleak future – a macaque is almost certain to be killed by others in the group if released into a wild population. It felt like every way we turned there were animals that faced similarly uncertain futures as their forest disappears to make way for palm oil.

The next couple of days were spent more happily. We traveled to the STCP base within the forest borders and from there we were able to film siamang whooping through the treetops, and witness the spectacular site of hornbills swooshing and honking overhead. We spent a couple of days trekking the jungle trails with the team, filming the set up of the camera traps and looking for snares set by poachers. We were lucky enough to come across some tiger prints, including some left fairly recently by a tigress and her cubs.

Members of the tiger team are recruited only after rigorous jungle training, and although by now fairly acclimatized to the 33 plus degree heat, we found it hard to keep up with the speed with which they move through the forest. They decided we looked like Ninja Turtles due to the big camera cases we were heaving around on our backs, and I think that our obvious discomfort kept them entertained during the periods of time when we needed to stop and take a rest.

That evening we went to meet and interview a man who is known locally as Pak Harimau – Mr Tiger. This man, a small wiry 70-odd year old, claims to have killed 182 tigers over a long career of poaching. On five occasions, the tigers fought back. As his many grandchildren crowded round to listen, Pak Harimau told us the story of how the last tiger to do so dragged him 150 metres by his head. He showed us the horrific scars he bears from this encounter. Nevertheless, although he is now reformed, you get the impression that despite his age and his terrifying experiences he would resume his old career without a second thought if it became legal. He was quite a formidable character.

Life with the Talang Mamak

2006-02-19T17:04:00.000Z

Monday 15th August 2005

The next day brought with it another early start as we set off for a Talang Mamak village deep within the forest. Accompanied by Pak Yunus, Andi from the Department of Forestry, and four of the STCP – Pak Muji, Mario, Toto and Hendra, we set off by 4x4 on a deeply gullied track. Luckily Mario, Toto and Hendra had their motorbikes, because we were not long into the journey when the car gave up. It was then a case of ferrying the eight of us, plus food, camera equipment, a generator and gasoline deeper into the forest before all signs of a track disappeared. The team took everything in their stride and with great humour. Everyone had a good laugh at Nick’s expense when he was pitched off the back of the bike as it reared up a particularly nasty rut. With a huge rucksack on his back he got wedged in a gully in the road, legs waving in the air. After hiding the bikes in the forest we continued by foot.

We arrived at the village just as the light was beginning to fade, after a long and hot five hour walk. The villagers are familiar with the tiger team now – the patrols pass through regularly – although Pak Yunus tells us that the first time he came here a woman ran away screaming when she saw him, thinking, due to the military-style clothing warn by the Unit, that he was part of an invading army. The village is still very isolated and the villagers almost completely self sufficient. They survive on what the forest has to offer them, and they manage to do so sustainably. Yunus tells us that the first time he visited the village there was not really any concept of money. Everything cost 5,000 Rp – one fruit cost the same as ten of the same fruit. With a growing involvement in life outside the forest, money has become more important and villagers can now raise some hard currency by selling the sap that they collect from a rare and particularly valuable sort of rattan that grows locally. A villager is taxed if they kill the plant when they harvest, and fined one goat.

We spent a few days staying at a house in the village that, confusingly, had no walls but did have doors and windows with padlocks and shutters. When we asked why there were doors and windows but no walls, the team laughed and admitted they had not noticed this before. During our stay we got to know several of the villagers including the chief, his son, and the teacher. We swam in the beautiful and pristine river that passes by their doorsteps, and ate what tasted like delicious feasts cooked up by Mario, although they mostly consisted of supernoodles, kecap, and edible bracken picked from the forest. Pak Muji was asked to fix the village’s new TV, the first and only one, powered by the village’s one generator. We understand that someone had inadvertently killed the colour with on of the dials. When the colour was successfully returned, Pak Muji was hailed as a healer. The village now has a school, which Pak Yunus was instrumental in setting up a few years ago, but as yet literacy is still very low. Yunus told us that everyone in the village smokes, except one person, and we even saw very small children smoking. Life expectancy here is well below the national average.

We made the journey out of the forest by dugout canoe, traveling downstream for two days with Pak Yunus, Andi, and the Chief and his son (Mario, Toto, and Hendra traveled out of the forest on foot). The chief displayed his amazing knowledge of the local area and ecology – he was able to name every subspecies of Meranti, and knew every ladang (small forest clearing) by name. Meanwhile Andi entertained us with enthusiastic renditions of virtually every Phil Collins song ever written (during- and post-Genesis) as well as sharing his anecdotes of his time working at Tanjung Patung National Park in Kalimantan, where he was stationed during the making of the now fairly infamous Julia Roberts Orangutan film.

Pak Ari, an STCP driver, picked us up in the jeep further downstream where the river meets a track. The journey back to the main road was not plane sailing once we were back in the jeep however – unfortunately, although perhaps quite suitably – a palm oil truck was stuck in the mud and had blocked the road. It seemed a fitting conclusion to our final day of shooting.

Waitrose Ltd. Join the RSPO

2006-02-06T14:38:00.000Z

After months of campaigning British supermarkets are beginning to agree with conservation groups that the future of the orangutan and sustainable palm oil is the responsibility of the entire supply chain. Waitrose have now followed ASDA in signing up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. For those of you who have been kind enough to support our work through writing letters to the supermarkets you can now stop writing to these two companies, or perhaps you may want to write to them to thank them for taking this positive step.

We are still waiting for Morrisons to write replies to all the letters that have been sent to them. Not one of the many people who have written to all the major supermarkets have let us know of a reply from Morrisons. We are also still waiting for Tesco to join the RSPO. Tesco are the biggest supermarket in the UK and with expansion across the globe, an announcement of this kind would send a big signal to producers in Malaysia and Indonesia. The RSPO is working hard to make sustainable palm oil a reality, we need to do our part to help the industry realise this. We are not talking about sustainable palm oil as a niche product. We want non-destructive palm oil to be the only type available on the market. The RSPO is the best mechanism to allow this to happen.

A film that could save lives

2006-01-11T10:22:00.000Z

A TRAINING VIDEO TO PROTECT ORANGUTANS

CALL FOR BRITISH COMPANIES TO GET INVOLVED

"The great apes are our kin... Sadly, however, we have not treated them with the respect they deserve, and their numbers are now declining, the victims of logging, disease, loss of habitat, capture, and hunting... Great apes cannot be conserved for free... We need ordinary people in their millions to love an protect them. We need governments and companies to 'adopt' them and the places where they live. We need to turn the tide of extinction that threatens our nearest living relatives."

Kofi A. Annan
Secretary-General of the United Nations
World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation, 2005

If you’ve been following our site, you will already know that orangutans are under serious threat when they are found in oil palm plantations. The Sumatran orangutan is vying for the unenviable position of being the first great ape likely to go extinct within our lifetimes. We need companies to do their bit for great ape conservation - one way they can make a huge difference is to back the project we are proposing below, an idea the orangutan conservation organisations who would be involved are desparate for us to make.

We are developing a training video that will inform plantation workers what to do when they encounter an orangutan in their plantation. Working in collaboration with the Sumatran Orangutan Society and the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation we plan to make a health and safety style training video which we will be shown to workers in the oil palm plantations. The video will be an easy and effective way for plantation workers to learn what to do when encountering an orangutan.

The majority of plantation staff are migrant workers from Java or Sumatra, so unlike the native Dyaks, they are not familiar with the orangutan (Orangutans in Sumatra are restricted to such small ranges now that few Sumatrans have encountered them). Many workers have a false impression of the orangutan as a ferocious animal that poses a direct threat to their safety – a hangover, according to Dr. Birute Galdikas, stemming from the popularity of the original King Kong movie in Indonesia which will no doubt be exacerbated by the recent remake of the film.

The safety video will work to introduce workers to the orangutan in its true colours. It will include simple step-by-step instructions of what to do when an orangutan is spotted on a plantation, emphasizing the point that the workers should NOT try to capture or tie down the orangutan in any way. The reason that many orangutans are already seriously (often fatally) wounded before the rescue teams can reach them is that, despite having taken steps to alert the rescue team to the presence of the orangutans, the plantation workers have nonetheless undertaken to capture the animal themselves prior to the arrival of the team. A mature orangutan is immensely strong – it is almost impossible to tie up or capture an orangutan without first beating it unconscious. In order to stop this happening, the safety video will focus on giving clear instructions of which rescue centre to contact – these will be location specific – and will then recreate what will happen when the rescue team arrives. It will also provide information and images regarding the potential transmission of diseases between humans and orangutans should they come into contact with each other.

We intend that the video be made as a reconstruction of an orangutan rescue, filmed using members of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation rescue team as well as plantation workers. Karaoke is very popular across Kalimantan, and so DVD and VCD players are very common – distributing DVD and VCD copies of this simple film across the plantations offers a straightforward, effective, and relatively inexpensive means of preventing the many pointless and tragic deaths of orangutan on the palm oil plantations.

We are currently looking for UK-based businesses to help fund and support the production of this film.

SOME BACKGROUND

Orangutans in oil palm plantations

Sometimes orangutans are in the oil palm because there is literally none of their forest habitat left, in which case they will require rescue and relocation. Sometimes orangutans are only passing through as they move between their well known feeding grounds. These orangutans may have been moving between these feeding areas for decades. A new oil palm plantation cutting into their established routes proves a dangerous place to travel. Whilst these orangutans could pass through the plantation to their feeding areas they are often seen as a threat. Some plantation managers have put bounties on orangutans because they see them as crop raiders, but orangutans generally pose little threat to the oil palms. Whilst out on a rescue we found the path made by one cheekpad male. There were a few young palms that had been pulled up, but these were in a straight line between two forest patches – it was clear the orangutan was just passing through and was not a crop raider. Oil palm plantations need to develop wildlife corridors that will allow these orangutans safe passage through their plantations. This will save the few palms that might otherwise get damaged and it will make the orangutans safer allowing them to move through the trees (their natural preference) rather than across the ground.

If you are interested in finding out more please contact us.

Nick & Evie @ Cockroach Productions
cockroachproductions@gmail.com
Tel: 01823 451 790 / 07816 755 128
http://www.cockroach.org.uk/

ASDA joins RSPO

2006-01-06T14:47:00.000Z

A NEW HOPE FOR ORANGUTANS WITH THE NEW YEAR

HOW THE BRITISH RETAIL INDUSTRY IS STARTING TO RECOGNISE THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL

Conservationists have received good news after a hard year of campaigning on behalf of our South East Asian cousin - the orangutan. The supermarket giant ASDA, second only to Tesco, have taken a positive step forward in corporate social and environmental responsibility by signing up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

The 3rd meeting of the RSPO held in Singapore at the end of November 2005 saw the members adopt the Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production. In effect this means that there are finally a set of guidelines "…ensuring that production is economically viable, environmentally appropriate and socially beneficial" - see www.sustainable-palmoil.org

Palm oil is present in 1 in 10 supermarket products and demand is rapidly growing in the wake of the transfatty acid scare in the food industry and the growing desire for biofuels.

The Ape Alliance and Friends of the Earth recognized palm oil as the single greatest threat to the future of orangutans in the wild in their September 2005 report The Oil for Ape Scandal.

With all signs indicating that the Sumatran Orangutan could be the first Great Ape to become extinct, it has been British supermarkets that have been the target of environmental campaigns.

The team from Cockroach Productions filmed in Indonesia documenting the palm oil story, where they witnessed first hand the rapid rate of destruction caused by conversion of rainforest for oil palm plantations. On their return filmmakers Evie Wright and Nick Lyon joined the campaign by making an open letter to supermarkets available through their website (www.cockroach.org.uk).

In a pleasing reply to our letter campaign Andy Bond, president of ASDA, wrote "… as a direct result of your letter, we have engaged in discussions with two major organizations - namely Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Fund. We hope to assist them over the coming months in identifying the source of this issue and encouraging the development and use of sustainable palm oil."

ASDA are now joining the RSPO following in the footsteps of the Co-op and Boots Ltd. who have already signed up. With three major players on the high street leading the way there is good reason to be hopeful that the British retail sector is listening to the demands of its customers, who do not want to be contributing to tropical deforestation and the demise of the orangutan. With continued consumer pressure we can reasonably hope that the other major retailers will follow suit.

Cockroach Productions has broadcast quality motion footage and high impact still photographs illustrating the palm oil story and the plight of the orangutans. We are also available for interview, having recently returned from several months on the ground in Indonesia following the story.

Contact: Nick Lyon or Evie Wright @ Cockroach Productions

Tel: 01823 451 790

Mobile: 07816 755 128

Email: cockroachproductions@gmail.com

Web: http://www.cockroach.org.uk/

PALM OIL SETS CO2 TIME-BOMB TICKING

2005-12-02T20:12:00.000Z

HOW PEAT FIRES ARE SET TO ACCELERATE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND SEAL THE ORANGUTAN'S FATE
___________________________
We have seen in the past weeks how the polar bears are unable to reach their hunting grounds with the freeze being unseasonably late. It appears that the fate of the orangutan and polar bear – despite their vastly different existences – might run in parallel. Loss of orangutan habitat is driving the loss of polar ice. In a year of terrible floods we can recognize the human risk implied by global warming.

Over the next two weeks Montreal hosts the United Nations climate conference. One key issue that will be discussed is whether the Kyoto protocol should be revised to afford incentives for the protection of existing forest. Currently Kyoto only makes provisions for reforestation and aforestation. Whilst fossil fuels are seen as the driving force in Global Climate Change and the principle source of Greenhouse Gas emissions, there is another vast carbon source on the verge of being released into the atmosphere, with none of the benefits of fossil fuel combustion. 30% of terrestrial carbon reserves are locked up in peatlands. Indonesia holds 50% of the earth's peatswamp forest.

This means Indonesia's peat swamps are of global importance.These forests not only hold thick peat up to 20 metres in depth, but are one of the last refuges for the endangered Bornean orangutan, with only 50,000 individuals remaining, and critically endangered Sumatran orangutan with only 7,300 individuals left. Sumatran tigers, rhinos, and elephants are also at risk.

Destruction of lowland forest for conversion to oil palm plantations has been so rapid that developers are now turning their attention to peat swamp forests.These are an important component of the ecosystem dueto their function in absorbing excess water during thewet season, and releasing this stored water during the dry season, reducing the likelihood of floods and forest fires respectively. It is notoriously difficult to cultivate oil palms on peatland greater than 1 metre thick, and the costs of establishing a plantation on this soil type tend to be 40 per cent higher than on dry land. Although this land is not suitable for oil palm cultivation, it still holds valuable hardwood timber. The companies seek legal permits for plantation development in order to benefit from quick profit through unsustainable forest clearance. Past evidence shows that palm oil may not be developed after clearances – because of fire risk and unsuitable land. The peat is too soft to use heavy machinery to extract logs – one of the reasons that the land is unsuitablefor palm oil development – so logging canals are duginto the peat to extract the logs. The logging canals drain the peat domes and what is left is a tinder-box time-bomb of carbon-rich bio-matter.

The vast quantities of CO2 released in the 1997-98 forest fires in Indonesia will be dwarfed if palm oil moves into these vast expanses of peat. But that is what is set to happen. Proposals are being approvedright now. Indonesia is struggling to improve its economy and investment in palm oil is attractive, but the industry is not sustainable under current patternsof expansion. Millions of hectares of degraded and cleared land stand unused as more forest is cleared for quick timber profit.

NGOs are putting pressure on the palm oil industry to recognize the short-term perspective being employed. Last week in Singapore the palm oil industry's self-regulation initiative – the Roundtable forSustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - approved a set of principles and criteria for the sustainable production of palm oil. This is a positive first step, but NGOs are concerned that the 2 year process of development before implementation of these guidelines might not be quick enough to save the peat swamps and their diverse inhabitants. The clock is ticking on the CO2 time-bomb…

___________________________

Cockroach Productions has broadcast quality motion footage and high impact still photographs illustrating the palm oil story, the little known world of peat swamp forests and the plight of the orangutans. We arealso available for interview, having recently returned from several months on the ground in Indonesia following the story. ___________________________

Contact: Nick Lyon or Evie Wright @ CockroachProductions
Tel: 01823 451 790Mobile: 07816 755 128
Email: cockroachproductions@gmail.com
Web: www.cockroach.org.uk
For more images relating to the story see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cockroach/sets/1077630/

PRESS RELEASE – COCKROACH PRODUCTIONS Friday 2nd December 2005

Another Crude Oil - Taster Poster

2005-11-28T16:45:00.000Z

All images copyright Cockroach Productions 2005
For further info please contact Nick or Evie @

tel: 01823 451 790
email: cockroachproductions@gmail.com

Montreal addresses Global Climate Change

2005-11-28T08:39:00.000Z

Today marks the first day of the United Nations climate conference in Montreal. Whilst the agenda will address how the goals of Kyoto will be met within the first period (expiring in 2012) we are more interested in what they will be discussing for the longer term. At present Kyoto makes no economic provisions for preservation of existing forest, rather it rewards reforesting (replanting of natural forest) and aforestry (growing plantations on land that is no longer forested). Whilst this was set up to develop a proactive solution to CO2 emissions, time is telling us that huge tracts of valuable forest are being lost because of their exclusion from Kyoto.

Valuable timber is the real reason much of the peat swamps are being cleared. The land is not suitable for oil palm development

Is reforestation more important that forest protection?

Our hopes for Montreal are that issues of forest preservation will be addressed and factored into the second period. One might hope that emergency protocol could be called into effect, because by 2012 we may well have lost much of the natural forest cover we are striving to protect – but this seems unlikely. It is important to note that preservation of forest goes above and beyond the importance of protection of traditional lifestyles and preservation of species. We at Cockroach are working hard to champion the causes of forest peoples who appear not to be in control of their futures as palm oil moves into their traditional lands. We have recognized the desperate plight of such charismatic and endangered species such as the orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, the jungle elephants, the
gibbons and siamang… the list goes on. But perhaps there is a reason closer to home that might end up being what saves Indonesia’s natural forests…

Bulldozers 'should' be used to clear vegetation for plantations on dry land, clearance by fire is illegal. On peat the ground is too soft and tha machines would sink. This means that fire is often used, and this is a CO2 disaster as the fire penetrates peat that runs 20 metres thick in some places. Burning for plantation clearance is illegal, but happens time after time, even in dry forest, because it is cheaper than using machines.

Peat Swamp, and what it should mean to us.

Whilst forest people and exotic species might captivate the interest of the public, there is a geographical remoteness that might let them fall from consciousness when overrun with the priorities of our busy lives. There is another factor closer to home that we should be recognizing. Animals and people might be losing their homes on the other side of the world, but we are suffering directly as a result. The case for global climate change grows stronger with each passing year. General scientific consensus supports the claims that the planet is warming, and the risks associated with this are well known. Indonesia is a special case. Not only does it harbour magnificent rainforests that we rely on for oxygen production, but it holds huge reserves of carbon, locked up in biological matter called peat. 30% of terrestrial carbon is locked up in peat, and Indonesia holds 50% of the worlds peat swamp. These areas are now under threat. Palm oil is THE major threat. Concessions of forest for conversion to oil palm plantation are logged out. The peat dries without its protective forest cover, compounded by logging canals draining the peat. With these peat swamps facing conversion we need to raise the question – shouldn’t Kyoto have made provisions to protect this carbon dioxide timebomb? We can only hope that Montreal will address this issue.

We witnessed thousands of trees being floated down the rivers of Borneo. These beautiful waterways are now like a funeral procession. It is heartbreaking to see. Very little primary forest borders any of these rivers anymore. Access is key.

A future for sustainable palm oil? A future for orangutans?

2005-11-24T15:07:00.000Z

Good news from the 3rd meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil that has convened over the last few days in Singapore. There was overwhelming support for the Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil and as such the criteria have been agreed upon and industry has taken a vital step forward in stemming destruction of orangutan habitat.

The Roundtable was founded through a partnership between WWF and Unilever in the first instance. Numerous members have now signed up from different sectors of the industry. We are still pushing for British retailers to sign up to the RSPO, but the signs are that the tide is changing and UK corporations are beginning to see the value in pursuing a more responsible route for palm oil procurement.

Here at Cockroach Productions we continue to work to raise awareness of the palm oil situation in SE Asia, and have broadcast quality footage that is available for news broadcasts, current affairs programs and industry awareness programs. Read below to find out more.

For Dutch Supporters

2005-11-16T22:18:00.000Z

For those of you who haven't seen the Dutch news item - it is available for online viewing at the Twee Vandaag website

For those of you who saw the news piece on Twee Vandaag in Holland please follow this link to find out how you can help to save the orangutans who are currently losing their habitat to oil palm plantations. BOS Netherlands

"Leefgebied orang oetan verdwijnt snel

"Het eten van chips en koekjes draagt bij aan het uitsterven van de orang utan: de palmolie die hierin wordt verwerkt komt veelal van het Indonesische Borneo. En om de productie van die olie op peil te houden, worden miljoenen hectares tropisch regenwoud gekapt."

To learn more about what we filmed, read below.

Make yourself heard. Speak up for the orangutans.

2005-10-23T12:44:00.000+01:00

Call to Action!

Please write to any and all of these addresses, requesting that the management immediately addresses the palm oil crisis and the destruction of prime habitat for orangutans. 25,000,000 hectares of already deforested land stands empty whilst areas of forest that we filmed for the documentary are being destroyed right now for palm oil plantations.

This land was rainforest last year. Borneo 2005

Palm oil needs to be labelled on all products that contain it, and palm oil must be sourced responsibly. We as consumers should not be in a position of contributing to needless destruction each time we shop. It is the clear responsibility of the supermarkets to pressure the industry and find palm oil from non-destructive sources.

In the letter below please
- type your name and return address
- copy and paste the supermarket addresses provided
- print the document out
- sign it
- post it off today

Simple!

Letter writing campaigns have proven to be very effective in the past and we believe this will make a bigger impact than yet another circular email ever would. For the cost of an envelope and a stamp, and a few minutes of your time, you are playing a vital role in preventing the eradication of yet another species.

You can send a letter to one supermarket or to both of them - it's up to you - but the more companies you write to the greater the impact and the more chance we have to save the Orangutans! We would like to point out that since starting this campaign ASDA, Waitrose and Sainsburys have all signed up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil which is brilliant. We just need Tesco and Morrisons to follow this good example.

One final request (optional but very helpful). Please can you send an email addressed to Nick or Evie at cockroachproductions@gmail.com letting us know which supermarkets you have sent letters to. This will allow us to track how many letters each of the supermarkets receive and help us bring pressure to bear on them.

Addresses

Tesco
Sir Terry Leahy
Chief executive
Tesco House
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Hertfordshire EN8 9SL

Morrisons
Sir Kenneth D Morrison CBE
Executive Chairman
Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Plc.Thornton Road
Bradford BD8 9AX

The Letter

____________________________________________________

Your Address

22nd October 2005

The Supermarket Address

Dear Sir or Madam,

It has recently come to my attention that, as a direct consequence of my actions as a consumer, the Orangutan is in imminent danger of becoming extinct. As a regular customer of yours I would like you to help me make informed purchase decisions and help prevent this wonderful species going into terminal decline.

Palm oil is used in 1 in 10 of all consumables sold in British supermarkets (though it is often labelled as vegetable oil). Two of the main areas where it is produced are Borneo and Sumatra – the only two islands where orangutans still exist in the wild. Rainforests are being converted to oil palm plantations at an alarming rate, despite the existence of over 25 million hectares of previously-cleared land In Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) alone. The rainforest targeted for new plantations is the last remaining habitat of species such as the Orangutan which, at the current rate of population decline, are likely to be extinct by the end of this decade. Not only is the Orangutan threatened by loss of habitat, but palm oil plantation workers are also deliberately killing animals when they enter plantations, as they are perceived to be a threat to their crops.

Many hardwood products carry labels that show that they have not been sourced from fragile rainforest. In a similar way, I would like your company to clearly label products containing palm oil sourced from plantations that have not involved forest conversion, and withdraw palm oil based products that you cannot guarantee have come from sustainable sources. I have written to all the major British supermarkets and think that it would be very good PR for you to be the first to take a strong moral stance on this issue.

I do not believe that your company is aware of the role that it is playing in forcing the Orangutan to the brink of extinction (this issue has only recently come to light) but for further background information please see:

http://www.cockroach.org.uk/
http://www.sustainable-palmoil.org/
http://www.palmoil.org.uk/
www.helenbuckland.co.uk/palm/
http://www.safepalmoil.org/

Also please see below some shocking facts that I hope will encourage you to take immediate action.

I look forward to receiving information on your company’s policy regarding palm oil. If a policy does not already exist, please tell me what steps you will be taking to ensure that I can shop in your store safe in the knowledge that I am not contributing to wiping out yet another species.

With thanks in advance,

Your Name

Killer facts:

According to the Indonesian Forestry Department the Orangutan population in 1990 was 200,000. In the year 2000 there were only 50,000 Orangutans left. Their demise is directly attributable to the encroachment of the palm oil plantations on their habitat.

The Bornean Orangutan Survival Foundation estimates that if palm oil concessions continue to replace forest at the current rate then within 3 years a viable future for the orangutan in the wild will be impossible. This means that by 2008, if action is not urgently taken, then Orangutans will have reached the point of no return.

Little Bigfoot on the run!

2005-10-21T13:19:00.000+01:00

Here is a real example of a fish out of water - a siamang forced to come down to the ground to cross a forest clearance to reach better forest patches with fresh leaves and fruiting trees. The siamang is a stunning gibbon found in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Sadly it is endangered and becomming more so as palm oil reduces its natural habitat. Traditional beliefs in central Sumatra prevent people from hunting the siamang. Without their haunting dawn chorus the Rimba people don't believe the sun will rise. Well we will be facing dark days indeed if palm oil expansion and forest conversion continues at its current rate.

This picture is a composite of 13 frames from our film: "Another Crude Oil", documenting the rise and rise of the palm oil industry, and the fall of the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Whilst filmming we heard numerous stories of how palm oil developers were purposefully encircling small patches of forest, cutting them off from the larger stretches and then working their way inwards until animals would make a dash for it. Hunters would be waiting. Not local subsistence hunters, but sport hunters, police and army officials. This is organised hunting of protected species.

Make Way Jungle - We Want Oil !!!

2005-09-27T17:46:00.000+01:00

On Location: Central Kalimantan, Borneo, July 2005

The New Forest of Indonesia - Oil Palm, Kalimantan 2005

This is the nursery for a new oil palm plantation. In the distance you can see the forest still standing. This nursery is smack in the middle of 30,000 hectares of primary forest that has been given as a concession to a PT Oil Palm group for conversion into an Oil Palm plantation.

This means that by the end of the year this land will have been logged of all its valuable hard wood trees. The land will then be totally clear cut, and the topsoil turned over. Not a tree will be left standing. The whole landscape will be empty. Then the palm oil will be planted.

This photo is tragic, not sweet. These orangutans should be with their mothers, but their mothers are dead. They are now cared for and in the process of rehabilitation through the dedicated work of BOSF. We are concerned however that there will be nowhere to release them if things don't change now.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation rescue orangutans from the plantations in this area. They estimate that around 600 orangutans inhabit this area, earmarked for imminent conversion. The fragments of natural forest left are saturated - i.e. they have reached their carrying capacity for orangutans. Orangutans need large home ranges for their survival. Many of the animals living in this area will undoubtably die. Many more are likely to enter a life of misery in the illegal pet trade.

Driving through the rough jungle track on the back of a tractor we are surrounded by the doomed forest. I smell the sickly sweet smell of fermenting fruit. I look over to Melky from the rescue team: he nods - it is the smell of orangutan. It is right there in the trees nearby, or had been very recently. A rusa deer crosses our path and maroon leaf monkeys move in the trees. All this is about to be lost.

Eko, BOSF paramedic, logs a future rescue location

The situation is incredibly sad. Eko, a BOSF paramedic logs the position of the camp in his GPS system. He knows he will be returning in the months to come to rescue orangutans. But where will they go? Habitat is dissappearing too fast now. We are told at the rescue centre that they are reaching maximum capacity - too many orangutans are coming in. Their forest home needs to be protected right now.

The situation is simply crazy. It is not that land is at a premium for development. There are vast areas of land standing empty in Kalimantan. Huge expanses of grasslands that were once forest. No crops have been planted here, but still, the little primary forest left standing is at risk of conversion to oil palm. The simple reason for this is the value of the hardwoods these forests contain. It is a one time windfall, it is not sustainable, and it is a tragedy. Orangutans are not the only animals to suffer. We have chosen just one species as an example, a flagship, one of our closest cousins, and one with an uncertain future.

Things are not hopeless, but we need to make things change. Help us get this message heard.

The Oil for Ape Scandal - New Ape Alliance/FoE publication

2005-09-23T17:06:00.000+01:00

"Palm-oil production is linked to species extinction, human rights abuse and worker exploitation. But there is not a single British supermarket that can guarantee that its products aren't fuelling the destruction. Most haven't even worked out where the palm oil in their products comes from."

Friends of the Earth's Executive Director (UK), Tony Juniper

"Governments in countries providing finance or a market for palm oil must legislate to make their corporations responsible and accountable for their impacts. If not, it is we who will have to explain to our children in a few years' time that the orang-utan became extinct, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of corporate greed and a lack of political will."

Ian Redmond, Ape Alliance's Chairman and Chief Consultant to GRASP (UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Project)

"The orang-utan is endangered because of habitat loss. Today the greatest threat to orang-utan habitat is the continued expansion of oil-palm plantations. Palm oil is the greatest enemy of [the] orang-utan and their continued survival in the wild."

Professor Birute Galdikas, Orangutan Foundation International

Quotes taken from Helen Buckland's (BOS-UK) new report for Friends of the Earth:
The Oil for Ape Scandal, how palm oil is threatening the orang-utan

Working in Sumatra - huge thanks to the STCP

2005-09-20T16:22:00.000+01:00

We spent a fortnight working together with the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program. Having travelled up from Jakarta through West Java and via ferry to southern Sumatra, we then embarked on an uncomfortable but enjoyable journey - crammed like sardines amongst all our kit - that took us half way up the bumpy roads of Sumatra, interviewing people and filming wildlife and palm oil along the way. Finally we arrived in the beautiful natural forests that the Tiger Protection Units patrol. With the help of STCP we filmed elephants, gibbons, hornbills and a beautiful variety of Sumatran wildlife. This incredible biodiversity demonstrates all that is in jeopardy through the growth of palm oil - the mono-crop main character of the film - that is replacing these natural forests at a rapid rate throughout Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Evie filming confiscated skins, bones and teeth at STCP Field Station

We also spent valuable time on the oil-palm plantations whilst working in Sumatra. They're everywhere you look and hard to avoid. Even many private gardens house a mini nursery of palm oil saplings to sell. Wildlife conflict was in evidence wherever we went. Simpai (leaf monkeys) in stranded tree stands deep within oil palm plantations, elephant damage in the plantations where they had been driven out of their forests by the illegal loggers (able to penetrate the valuable timber forests), unusual pets found in the plantation tethered up round every corner.

Nick with field coordinator Pak Yunus (left) and some members of the TPUs

We would like to thank Pak Waldemar, Pak Daniel, Pak Yunus and Pak Neil, along with all the dedicated members of the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program and their Tiger Protection Units for their immense help and good humour whilst we were shooting with them in Sumatra. Thanks to their shared enthusiasm for the project we managed to shoot a huge amount of great material that will be invaluable in telling the palm oil story. Please visit the site of the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program - the work they are doing is incredibly important, and they are tirelessly committed in their efforts to protect the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger. They deserve our support.

First Images from the Film: Another Crude Oil

2005-09-13T15:31:00.000+01:00

We're back in England now, and are reviewing our footage and working quickly to get the documentary together. Here are some of the first images we have reviewed since our return. Still frames from "Another Crude Oil":

Above: A female orangutan in shock. Here her head is cradled by a BOSF paramedic as the team work to stitch up her knife wound from an attack on the oil palm plantation.

Above: Eko, a BOSF paramedic, draws blood for routine tests for Hepatitis A, B, C; Herpes Simplex 1 & 2, HIV and Tuberculosis.

Above: Eko works to close a wound on the female orangutan's hand.

Post-production for the film is now underway. We are entering our second round of fundraising and sponsorship negotiations. Please contact us if you would like to become a part of this effort by supporting our film, and making these images of suffering a thing of the past.

cockroachproductions@gmail.com

Meet the characters: Chanee - Radio Kalaweit

2005-09-08T19:09:00.000+01:00

On Location: Radio Kalaweit, Central Kalimantan, Borneo
July 2005

"Thousands of orangutans, gibbons and other animals are now exterminated by bulldozers to create enormous palm oil concessions. Every day, our radio station (Kalaweit FM) broadcasts messages to sensitise people about the oil palm issue in Indonesia" Chanee, Radio Kalaweit.

Nurpradawati, Chanee and their son, Andrew outside Radio Kalaweit

One of the characters you will meet in the documentary is Chanee. Originally from France, Chanee now lives and works in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan,where he and his wife, Nurpradawati, founded the radio station 99.1 Kalaweit FM. Radio Kalaweit mixes popular and mainstream Indonesian music with an environmentally-friendly and educational focus - regularly broadcasting messages informing the listeners about the negative impacts of the illegal animal trade and the detrimental impacts of capturing wild animals to keep as pets, as well as providing advice on what to do if you do come across an illegally captured animal. The station has massive popular appeal - particularly with the young of Kalimantan - and the number of listeners continues to grow. Chanee is now planning the to extend the geographical range of the station's broadcast capabilities across Kalimantan. Chanee's idea to establish Radio Kalaweit stemmed from his long term involvement in, and committment to, saving the gibbon. Chanee started out working in zoos in France, until, becoming disillusioned with idea of keeping animals in captivity, he travelled to Thailand in order to help with gibbon conservation in the wild (it was here that he got his name - "Chanee" means "gibbon" in Thai). Following the huge forest fires that destroyed vast quantities of forest in Kalimantan and kept much of South East Asia under a blanket of thick smog for months in 1997, Chanee successfully gained permission from the Indonesian government to establish a gibbon sanctuary in central Kalimantan. His gibbon island, near to Palangkaraya, has provided a sanctuary for gibbons confiscated from those keeping them illegally as pets ever since.

A victim of the illegal trade in gibbons

With financial support from the Arcus Foundation, Chanee then established Radio Kalaweit (kalaweit meaning gibbon in Dayak) having perceived the importance of education amongst ordinary Indonesian people in the struggle to protect the gibbon from extinction. The station now has so many committed listeners that Chanee often receives animals from owners who have felt pressurised into giving them up by the sheer weight of disapproval from their friends, neighbours, and relatives. Through providing listeners with information, encouragement, and advice, Radio Kalaweit is taking very positive steps in developing a public awareness of, and aspiration towards, wildlife and forest conservation in Kalimantan.

Return from Kalimantan, Next Destination: Sumatra

2005-08-05T11:29:00.000+01:00

Earlier this week we finished shooting in Central Kalimantan, following a successful field trip to Danau Sembuluh and Tanjung Puting National Park. We spent two days filming interviews and talking to people in the villages surrounding Lake Sembuluh, where everyone has a story, either about hardship caused by the encroachment of palm oil plantations, or about encountering wild animals such as orangutan, sun bear, and mouse deer who no longer have enough forest left to avoid encounters with local human populations. On the eastern borders of Tanjung Puting National Park a plantation-built track (running 6.4km into the park) has been made for the express purpose of facilitating illegal logging. The more degraded the national park land becomes through illegal logging, the easier it is for the palm oil companies to win concessions for the forest - why protect forest which has already been destroyed? You can hear the chainsaws working.

Tomorrow we leave for Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Sumatra, where we plan to film the work of the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program. Sumatra has a longer history with palm oil, some of the estates being over 100 years old. Still the expansion of oil palm and also the pulp and paper industries is putting serious pressure on natural forest. The World Bank estimated that all un-potected lowland forest would dissappear from Sumatra by the end of 2005. Let's hope this is not going to be true. There are certainly some very dedicated people working in the STCP who are working on expanding park boundaries and with it protected lowland areas. These areas are home to the Sumatran Orangutan (with only 7000 left in the wild) and the Sumatran Tiger (with only 500 left in the wild!). There are numerous other endangered species in these forest and we hope to capture footage of some of these over the next few weeks.

Working with Orangutans

2005-07-28T22:43:00.000+01:00

Orangutans are not all sweet and nice. Most of the babies are... the problem is that when you're filming and there are forty babies around you - the nice ones will be contemplating deep thoughts by themselves, or playing with each other, or lazing in a swing, or snoring flat out on their backs. The one in ten that aren't so chilled out will wait till your back is turned and come and bite you on the bum, or the ankle, or the knee or your big toe. It bloody hurts. When one of them grabs hold of your clothes you can expect a 10 minute tug of war before you're free. Of course this kind of behaviour is reserved for visitors - the orangs are fully aware they can't get away with this with their babysitters.

Evie, the director, getting to know one of the characters.
photograph courtesy of Sean White

If you are lucky enough to be approached by one of the more friendly babies then you have a very different experience., and nothnig beats it. As time goes by you recogise the individuals that are out to get you and learn to run when you see them coming. I'm sure we looked ridiculous as we threw our cameras and tripod over the shoulder and ran for it when a small ball of orange hair trundled towards us, but they have sharp teeth, and they'll climb you like you're a tree. The DVD extras for the documentary may well come packed with wobbly shots as the camera is hoisted up quickly in the face of a charging minature ape, or wrestled from the grip of an overinterested baby.

Nick, the producer, getting to know one of the characters.
photograph courtesy of Sean White

Photographing orangutans is fun because they love looking into the lens. Its not like normal wildlife photography. You are working with a self-consious subject who shows a huge amount of interest in what you are doing. Sometimes there's a bit too much interest and the orangutans volunteer themselves as camera assistants. We had help with focus pulling, panning and in the grip department. Unsurprisingly the results weren't great, but at least nothing was broken.

Trying to cope with increasing involement in the filming process.
photograph courtesy of Sean White

Danau Sembuluh and Tanjung Puting

2005-07-21T06:34:00.000+01:00

We're now about half way through our time filming here in Kalimantan and things are progressing very well. Tomorrow we are filming interviews with the local people living in the villages surrounding Danau Sembuluh. We've been fortunate enough to find contacts in WWF and Wahli here in Palangkaraya who know the local dialect and will beable to act as both translators and interviewers. A lot of new concessions for plantations in the area are currently being processed, and the villagers will in all probability lose all their land rights and so too their current means of subsistence. Of course, the destructive effect of the spread of palm oil on the local population is no less devastating than its effect on the environment, and this will be a primary focus in the film.

We are then visiting the Tanjung Puting National Park. This was for many years the only area granted national park status in Central Kalimantan, and was made famous through the work of Birute Galdikas, one of the original three "big name" female primatologists who worked under the tutelage of Louis Leakey, together with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodhall. Sadly, the borders of Tanjung Puting, which houses not only orangutan but also large populations of proboscis monkeys, slow lorises, sun bears, leaf monkeys, tarsiers, hornbills and more are now being lost to the incursion of the palm oil plantations. Through a legal loophole, three different palm oil conglomerates have recently been granted concessions for plantations which intrude a mile into the Eastern border of the national park land itself. Tanjung Puting is world famous due to the diversity and rarity of the species which inhabit it. We plan to film some of the logging sites which are already destroying large areas of this precious habitat.

Notes from the field

2005-07-08T11:08:00.000+01:00

Friday 8th July 2005
Orangutan Film Protection Project
On location: Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan

I wake at 06:00am. My sarong is wrapped around me, it got cool through the night. This won’t last long, the sun is rising and the humidity is high. Evie hasn’t slept so I leave her in bed whilst I walk back to the centre to check in with last night’s arrivals. They are still in their crates, but the larger male is due to be looked at first. I wander around near the gate shooting some footage of fruit being prepared for the orangutans. The sickly sweet smell of jackfruit hangs heavy in theair. There is a light drizzle and I struggle with the umbrella and camera.
Just as the team unload the crate from the pickup Evie arrives. She managed to get an hour’s sleep – it will have to do – she needs to film the setting of the leg. We both know I might pass out. Indra is trying to get an angle with the blowpipe. It’s harder than one might think – it’s dark in the crate and there are limbs in the way. Jhon tries to illuminate the scene with a torch. The shot’s in but not all the sedative injected. Eko lifts the crate door and an arm grabs for something, so they quickly and carefully lower the door to pin the arm down. The rest of the sedative is administered. Eko looks to me and says he’ll call this one Nick, is it ok? Sure, I’d love to have an orangutan named after me. There’s no more movement from the crate. Jhon shakes the crate gently to see if there is any reaction. There is not.
With the crate door up they pull it backwards to reveal the orangutan. On closer inspection Eko informs me that “Nick” is a female of 11-12 years...
There is a large medical kit on the floor: stethoscope, suture kit, syringes, antiseptic, bandages and viles of medicine. I film cut away shots and zoom to get a closeup of the needle as Eko clears the air bubbles. A drop glistens in the sun as it makes its way down the needle. Indri is holding the patient’s head. She is treated with gentle tenderness. There is a deep gash on one of her fingers. I can see the white of the bone amid the semi-congealed blood. I ask Eko whay happened.
Eko: She’s from the sawit (palm oil plantation). The workers attacked her with...I don’t know in English.
Nick: Dalam Bahasa Indonesia
Eko: Dengan parang
Nick: a knife...

Evie and I knew these sorts of encounters between the orangutans and plantation workers were common, but we didn’t expect to witness the results as soon as we arrived. I’m filming as Eko disinfects the wound, but when he brings out the needle and thread Evie instinctively take the camera from me. I try not to look too much, Evie say it is gross. We shoot close ups of the patient’s face throughout the check-up procedure. She is not unconscious, just immobilised. She watches Evie and I. We are standing a little way back to give the team room to work. She looks to be in absolute shock. 12 years in the jungle, learning her territory, fruiting times for different trees, medicinal properties of different plants. Everything has changed now. Palm oil has replaced her home and she has suffered an encounter with scared men with knives. Now she will be put in a cage...I’m not sure when or where she will be released. Suitable territory is disappearing at an alarming rate. Her lip is trembling. I don’t know if this is due to the sedative or the shock. It leaves me deeply disturbed.
Neither Evie nor I have seen footage like this before. Maybe television won’t buy it, but it needs to be seen. People need to know what is happening here.
Lone says that last week a plantation called up to say that they had caught an orangutan – BOS try to stop them from doing this – without a tranquiliser dart the only way this can be done is by beating the orangutan. The team arrived to find the orangutan tied down so tightly the hands were almost severed – it died shortly after. If they’d called the centre and not attempted to catch it this orangutan would still be alive.
We film the leg setting in the afternoon. Although it’s a more traumatic operation the young male doesn’t seem as affected by it as the ordeal of the older female. The broken leg was an accident. The cut was a result of an attack. For a young orangutan there are constantly new experiences and encounters – every day is a learning experience. He will, no doubt, be scared – but perhaps this is not so disturbing as the situation of an older more experienced orangutan finding itself in traumatic circumstances.
The power cuts out again tonight. We eat in the dark cavernous house. The candlelight illuminates numerous rats, and a couple of bats circle around the eaves. The reassuring sound of geckos tells us that at least something is eating the mosquitoes that are eating us. In my sleep I dream of six-foot tall rats.

Notes from the Field

2005-07-07T11:10:00.000+01:00

Thursday 7th July 2005
The Orangutan Film Protection Project
On Location: Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan

First day at Nyaru Menteng and a rescue team returns. The sun has already set and the flash of headlights announces the car at the gate. We’d been walking back towards Aula to have dinner and settle for the evening. With the rescue back we run into the office to grab the camera, rig the mic and pick up a spare tape and battery. There’s very little light. The stars are out, but we have a narrow window to see them through the surrounding trees. It’s good to be out of Jakarta with its orange sky at night. We film by torchlight. There are two crates in the back of the pickup. The yellow glow of torches reflects of the ventilated aluminium sides, preventing us from clearly seeing the occupants. The captives are quiet, perhaps in shock. They will have been tranquilised before they were moved into crates – wild orangutans are strong and independant-minded.

We’re told that the young male has suffered a broken leg. The team splinted his leg in the field, before moving him; but Lone feels his foot and it is cold. She is worried that the bandages might be too tight. Lone talks with Eko and they decide to resplint the leg before morning. The team lift the crate off the pickup and put it in fornt of the car’s headlights. The power cut out a few hours earlier so the car is the best availabel source of light.

I’m squatting on the ground between the headlights. There’s enough light to film here and I’m not getting in the way. The slight exertion starts me sweating, again. Eko administers more sedative to immobilise the young male. Lone comments that he’s more placid than most orangutans of this age when first caught, even so, he needs to be still for Eko to work on his leg. The break is in a tricky position – his right femur just above the knee joint. It would have been easier to immobilise the bone if the break was in the middle. Tonight’s splinting is only a temporary measure. Tomorrow Eko will set the bone straight and put it in a cast.

I’m getting tired – we only flew in this morning and were up late last night packing and sending vital emails from Jakarta. Evie takes the camera and continues to shoot. Evie and I are both exhausted, but the natural adrenaline release brought on by witnessing this event keeps us going. Once the leg has been resplinted Eko gives the orangutan another injection to rouse it from it’s sedation. The team moves quickly to get the orangutan back into its crate, the drug is fast acting and he begins to stir immediatley. Lone covers him with blankets and puts some hoter water bottles in the crate – he’s still cold. The team will work on his leg again tomorrow, when it’s light. The larger male’s wounds are not so serious – he will stay in his crate until morning. The cages at the centre are full, there are too many orangutans coming in. Lone will have to find room in the morning.

We finally head back to Aula. From the track there are a network of wooden walkways traversing the peat swamp. Our house sits on stilts above the swamp. We’re locked out. Luckily Lone is with us. She is small so we manage to help her through a small, high window. We’re grateful we don’t have to spend the night on the stoop. Inside the barn-like pondok there are high vaulted ceilings. The cooler evening air hasn’t yet cleared the day’s heat. The third room we try has a fan that works. I set to stringing our mosquito nets in a way that we can walk around the room without clothes-lining ourselves. Evie fills up our wooden shelves with dried and tinned food that we brought from town. We’ve misplaced our water bottle. Evie brushes her teeth with apple juice, I just go to bed. The fan struggles to send it’s breeze my way, my mosquito net absorbs what little reaches me. I fall asleep at once. Evie is kept awake by the rats in our room throughout the night.

Thanks to BOSF and the Pusat Primata Schmutzer

2005-07-06T11:06:00.000+01:00

Photograph BOSF Communications and the Team(L-R): Nick, Willy, Yudhi, Lili, Sally and Evie.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the BOS Foundation Communications team based at the Pusat Primata Schmutzer in Jakarta - for their support in the last few weeks. With the help of this team we have now acquired all the neccessary permits for filming in Kalimantan, and are due to leave this Thursday. We are also very grateful for the invaluable advice and enthusiasm of Pak Made, Colin & Hannah.

Pusat Primata Schmutzer, Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta

2005-07-04T12:32:00.000+01:00

The Ragunan Schmutzer Primate Centre was donated to Jakarta by the late Mrs. Puck Schmutzer and the Gibbon Foundation. It was opened in 2002, and now houses 22 species of primate, including orangutan, gorillas, chimpanzee, and several species of gibbon. School groups visit the centre and are taught about the importance of primate protection and habitat conservation by volunteers, most of whom are students and recent graduates. Today we spent the morning filming a group visit from the Al-Akhyar school in Jakarta, shown in the photo. The existence of this educational facility provides some hope for the orangutans of Kalimantan and Sumatra. Thanks to Kus and Siska from the primate centre for their help and enthusiasm today.

Going Undercover

2005-07-02T17:40:00.000+01:00

Today was a successful but emotionally draining day, spent documenting a show which featured orangutans. The show had the orangutans in clothes, riding bikes, playing doctors and nurses, dancing… exploitation of an endangered species.

As the oil palm plantations stretch further and further into the Kalimantan forests, the habitat of the orangutan diminishes, meaning that they are much more vulnerable to the illegal trade which may result in them spending a life such as that led by the orangutans we met today – kept in tiny cages, the only ‘relief’ being to perform a show several times a day to amuse the paying public audience.

How to make a Donation

2005-07-02T04:44:00.000+01:00

We've had a couple of enquiries about how to donate to the project, so we hope this will help. For people in the UK you can write a cheque payable to Cockroach Productions and send it to:

Cockroach Productions,
The Old Tannery,
Staplegrove,
Taunton,
Somerset,
TA2 6SP

For supporters outside the United Kingdom, we ask that you email us at:
cockroachproductions@gmail.com

and then we can advise you how to transfer funds. Please note that posting messages directly onto the blog does not give us your reply email address, so if you wish to contact us please email the address above.
The Team has just returned to the UK (September 2005), and we are now getting stuck in to the editing process. We still need help. We have stunning and powerful images that tell the story of palm oil and the social and environmental disaster that is surrounding it - we need your help to get this message out. Please help.

Thank you for your generous support, and best wishes from the OFPP team.

On Location - Pusat Primata Schmutzer, Java, Indonesia

2005-07-01T10:17:00.000+01:00

Today we started shooting the first Indonesian footage for the film: a good start to the new month. We are now staying at the Pusat Primata Schmutzer (Schmutzer Primate Centre) where we are building up footage of the education programmes that teach Indonesian children about the concepts of conservation and the variety of primate species in Indonesia, and the threat that many of these species are facing with logging and plantation concessions and illegal activities. Through this we are hoping to illustrate the efforts being made locally to protect the future of the forests and their inhabitants.

Help make a difference to this site!

2005-06-29T04:16:00.000+01:00

We are just about to start filming, and we will be writing up what we are doing and the stories along the way. This board will therefore be getting a bit more exciting and we'd like to be able to post up some photos from the field. We are therefore looking for someone to help us get a digital stills camera so we can make this page a bit more interesting to look at. The images we shoot can then be used by our sponsor for their own publicity purposes too.

If you're interested in helping us with this then please contact:
cockroachproductions@gmail.com

Help get some images up on the page and we'll get your name up on the page! This is a not-for-profit venture, and the project has been made possible through the support of many people and lot of time and effort. All the photos on this page have been taken when we've managed to borrow a digital camera, but this is not always possible and not always high quality. We need your help...

Thanks to SONY

2005-06-29T03:55:00.000+01:00

We would like to thank Sheila O'Brian from SONY. Its always hard to get the interest of big companies in particular projects, so when we find someone who makes the effort to help us we really appreciate it. A big company does well to have a such individuals.

Thanks to Australian Airlines

2005-06-29T03:50:00.000+01:00

I'd like to say a big thanks to Catherine Wake and Casey Avard at Australian Airlines for sorting out getting out film equipment into Indonesia at the last minute. Its help like this that has made the project possible and we would have been stuck without you.

Thanks to John Barry

2005-06-29T03:47:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Vince Clark at John Barry for helping us complete our kitlist. We now have a our boom and headphones and will start working on the sound library soon.

Progress Report

2005-06-15T09:01:00.000+01:00

Quick Update: The Indonesian Embassy has given us the all clear for the film project and we are getting our journalist visas. We will be leaving Sydney for Indonesia on Wednesday 22nd June, and commencing shooting soon after.

Thanks to MAXELL

2005-06-06T02:43:00.000+01:00

The OFPP would like to say a big thank you to Mohan and Alfian, our new friends at MAXELL Singapore for helping us by providing the miniDV tapes on which we will be shooting the project. This is a great help to us, and will give us a reliable medium for capturing our precious images.

Male Orangutan - The Thinker

2005-06-01T00:54:00.000+01:00

the thinker
Originally uploaded by Nick Lyon.

North Sumatra, Indonesia 2001

Progress Report

2005-05-27T03:20:00.000+01:00

We are currently in Sydney, whilst our journalist visa applications are processed in Jakarta. Evie and I are currently working on sponsorship deals here in Sydney and more globally as more and more people get behind us in support of the Orangutan Film Protection Project. We currently aim to return to Indonesia to commence principle photography in 3 weeks.

If you are interested in helping support the project please contact us.

Thanks to KATA

2005-05-27T03:02:00.000+01:00

KATA sponsorship presentation
Originally uploaded by Nick Lyon.

Cockroach Productions would like to thank Bellina and the team at KATA , in Israel, for getting behind our new production company and providing us with a backpack and raincover for our camera. The Orangutan Film Protection Project will take us into jungle where conditions are tough. We had a bag for our camera which we felt was not up to the job so we approached KATA based on the ergonomics of their design and the protection afforded by their equipment. The raincover will prove invaluable with the shooting conditions we will find ourselves in. Even when its not raining a monkey can move in the tree above you and send down a very expensive shower of water if it gets into the digital equipment. Our camera, therefore, will be protected from the elements better than we are. We will keep you updated.

The photo show Samantha Smith (from Miller - KATA's sales representatives in Australia) presenting the Director - Evania Wright and Producer - Nick Lyon with KATA's BP-502 backpack and RC-10 raincover.

Introducing Cockroach Productions

2005-05-26T04:28:00.000+01:00

"Nick Lyon and Evie Wright are two young documentary filmmakers from the UK who recently started up their own production company – Cockroach Productions... Their first project as an independent company is very exciting... they are about to head off into the jungles of Indonesian Borneo to film at an orangutan rescue centre, covering the relocation of orangutans that have been left without habitat following the encroachment on pristine rainforest by palm oil plantations. Little known and innocuous-looking, palm oil is amazingly found in 10% of supermarket produce – from lipstick to margarine, soap to ice-cream."

Follow link for the full article

Thanks to RODE Microphones

2005-05-18T04:35:00.000+01:00

On Friday we went to RODE head office to meet with Martin Sharp and collect our microphones for the project. We would like to thank Martin for organising RODE's support of the project and Bill Barsby for his technical run through of the equipment. We would also like to thank the rest of the of the team at RODE for their help. We hope will to provide a beautiful soundscape to the film using these microphones. We are especially excited to start collecting stereo soundscapes of the jungle with the NT4 and to record our musical score with the K2. We now have a great audio capacity to compliment our visual approach to the film. Updates to follow...

Miller Sponsorship Presentation

2005-05-16T05:00:00.000+01:00

Miller Sponsorship Presentation
Originally uploaded by Nick Lyon.

Diane Clementson (pictured right), a director of Miller Tripods, presents Evania Wright and Nick Lyon from Cockroach Productions with a Miller Solo carbon fibre tripod with a their DS20 fluid head.

Initial tests of the set-up prove to give us great stability with our Canon XL2 even when mounting large telephoto lenses via the EF adaptor. The head gives smooth and solid movement, and the low minimum height of the legs will give us great eye-to-eye shots of our wild subjects.

Mother and Child

2005-05-12T11:30:00.000+01:00

mother and child
Originally uploaded by Nick Lyon.

This is the reason we are making the film. Protecting the relationship of the orangutan mother and child entails preventing the destruction of their habitat. Incursions into orangutans forest home also fuels the illegal bushmeat and pet trade.

Thanks to Miller Tripods

2005-05-12T10:36:00.000+01:00

We picked up our new Miller DS20 fluid head and SOLO DV carbon fibre tripod system today. We would just like to say thank you to Heidi and the team at Miller for helping to support the Orangutan Film Protection Project. We are very happy to be heading off to the jungle with such a lightweight and sturdy system.

Another Crude Oil?

2005-05-12T05:59:00.000+01:00

Another Crude Oil?

A Cockroach Films Production in Association with BOS-USA & BOS-UK
Dir. Nick Lyon & Evania Wright

Sponsored by: the British Government, BOS-UK, Miller Tripods, KATA
bags, RODE Microphones & NickLyonMedia

A dense mist hangs over a verdant forested hillside. It is early and the dawn chorus of a gibbon pair can be heard in the distance. We see some movement in a high treetop – a flash of orange reveals the presence of a maroon leaf monkey. A blue haze mingles with the mist, our view widens and we see the source of this smoke. The level ground has been clear-cut and the only remaining forest is on the steep slopes. A river snakes through the smouldering desert carrying an endless line of tree trunks…

ORANGUTAN FILM PROTECTION PROJECT (OFPP)

In central Kalimantan, vast stretches of rainforest are being cleared to make way for palm oil plantations. Wild animals, including populations of orangutans, are finding themselves isolated in shrinking forest islands in the midst of inhospitable and dangerous terrain. It is the work of the dedicated BOS Nyaru Menteng team to relocate these animals before it is too late. But what is driving this encroachment on pristine forest?

Cockroach Productions have teamed up with the Balikpapan Orangutan Survival Foundation to document and raise awareness of the current environmental crisis in Indonesia. The exponential boom in palm oil trading is affecting tropical zone deforestation globally, and Indonesian logging and plantation expansion in particular. The film makers will explore the key issues of global market forces, and to follow these through to the effects on government policy. The film will explore the difficulties faced by local governments in fighting corruption as it pertains to plantation concessions and associated logging of high-value, slow-growth timber trees.

The OFPP will follow the rescue teams based in Nyaru Menteng in Central Kalimantan as they fight to relocate 400-600 orangutans from shrinking ‘forest islands’. Regulations on wildlife corridors have all too often been ignored. The cleared land presents a dangerous desert, particularly to predominantly arboreal species such as the orangutan. When the last trees are felled the animals fall at the mercy of chance. Hunters ignore bush-meat bans. The trade in endangered species is a high-risk, but high-profit, alternative to manual labour in situations where companies ignore minimum wage commitments.

“If we are to succeed to stop this slaughter, we need your help. We need to care for the victims... yes. But just as important, we need to launch a very intensive awareness campaign including radio, TV, newspapers…”
Lone Dröscher Nielsen, BOS Nyaru Menteng

The majority of wildlife documentaries often perpetuate an illusion of the pristine. The encroachment of roads, railways, aeroplanes, cities, and people is kept safely out of sight. We hope to highlight the increased contact between industrial society and natural environments as they rapidly fragment into isolated pockets. The overly comfortable position we can find ourselves in as we watch a beautifully crafted sequence of a gibbon brachiating through the tree tops might be shaken if we were allowed to hear the roar of chainsaws that had caused the gibbon to move.

This film will illustrate the overwhelming and hidden power of a product that some traders refer to as ‘liquid gold’. Vast quantities of palm oil are being extracted from oil palms farmed on unregulated and irresponsibly-run plantations. Eventually, oil palm produce and its derivatives arrive in our supermarkets, where, amazingly, it can be found in 10% of all products. The film will suggest strategies of developing a new consumer consciousness that rewards environmentally and socially responsible production of this wonder crop.

The Orangutan Film Protection Project will work in co-operation with environmental and humanitarian NGOs. It will raise consciousness of pressing issues. A boycott of products containing palm oil would be both impractical and socially irresponsible because there are many smallholders whose livelihood depends on the product. What we hope to do with the OFPP is develop a system whereby responsibly farmed palm-oil can be tracked through the market place and clearly labelled on products. Through the medium of film we hope to develop a consumer consciousness of these issues, and use purchase power to reward corporate responsibility. At Cockroach Productions we believe that the growing popularity of feature length documentaries in the box-office reflects a customer desire to consume information and develop a more acute and critical political awareness. With knowledge comes choice of action, and this is a powerful tool when sales dictate corporate strategies.

PALM OIL: LIQUID GOLD

What is this crop that is replacing vast tracts of pristine forest? Some facts about palm oil:

o Palm oil is the most productive of the edible oil plants per acrei
o Oil palm requires less pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser than other oilseed crops
o Oil Palm derivatives are present in 10% of supermarket products, from margarine, biscuits, confectionary, icecream and ready meals to soap, lipstick and paint
o 51% of global trade in edible oil relies on palm oilii
o From 1995 to 2002 palm oil usage in the European Union increased by 90%iii
So why is this seemingly environmentally friendly crop causing so much damage to Indonesia’s ecosystems?

PALM OIL: A SMOKESCREEN FOR LOGGING?

In 1998 the Chinese Government enforced a complete ban on logging of natural forests in the up-river regions of the Yangtze and Yellow River regionsiv. Between 1997 and 2000 China’s native timber production fell by 97%v. However, China is still producing vast quantities of wood products, twice the amount accounted for by official import records. China’s ban has solved local sourcing problems but has translocated the logging problem to illegal exports, mostly from Indonesia. Indonesia has encouraged foreign investment for palm oil production and has allocated vast concessions for its production. However, of the 8,000,000 ha. of land cleared for palm oil production in the last ten years, only 1,200,000 ha. have ever been plantedvi. It is clear that the legal concessions are being abused whereby valuable timber trees are logged and extracted via the black-market before the area is levelled. The land is then left bare in many areas. As well as having a devastating effect on the environment, this is a disaster for local people who don’t take a share in the profits of illegal activity. The local government loses vast potential tax revenues, both on the illegally exported logs and the undeveloped, clear-cut land. We hope to promote the future use of pre-cleared land and stop loggers acquiring new concessions to cut into pristine forest. There are vast tracts of land that could potentially be developed for their initial purpose – palm oil plantations. They lie as wastelands now, whilst virgin forest is destroyed.

THE NEXT STEP:
Another Crude Oil? is the pilot episode in a series of socioenvironmental documentaries. Cockroach Productions will work to inspire interest and action through the OFPP.

Ultimately we are hoping, with the help of BOS and the involvement of other major humanitarian and environmental charities, to produce a series of documentaries highlighting the immediate and serious threat that the palm oil trade is presenting to the rainforest in the Indonesian archipelago right now. Through the development of consumer awareness, we aim to encourage corporate responsibility in palm oil trading. As such we hope to protect the interests of local people and the forests that surround them.

Nick Lyon, OFPP, Cockroach Productions 17th January 2005
cockroachproductions@gmail.com

Photographic credits:
All primate photographs © Nick Lyon
All logging images courtesy of BOS-USA

i Jamie Grant (WWF) & Emma Duncan (WWF), People & the Planet: “Greening the palm oil industry could help save Indonesia’s forests”
ii Mielke, Oil World Annual 2003, cited in AIDEnvironment: “Palm Oil Production in Southeast Asia”
iii Friends of the Earth: “Greasy Palms – palm oil, the environment and big business”, page 10
iv D. Kaimowitz, International Forestry Review 5(3), 2003 page 205: “Forest law enforcement and rural livelihoods”
v Environmental Investigation Agency & Telapak Indonesia: “Timber Trafficking: Illegal Logging in Indonesia, Southeast Asia and International Consumption of Illegally Sourced Timber”
vi L. Williams, BOS-UK 2004: “Illegal Logging invites disaster, but meanwhile there is money to be made”

The Orangutan Film Protection Project

Latest News

Photo Album: Orangutans

Asda Palm Oil Ban to Save Rainforests

Deforestation Diesel - Choose the Right Biofuel

OrangAid

Biofuels and Orangutans

Orangutans Rank No.1 - Most Intelligent Non-human Primate

Chimps knocked off top of the IQ tree

Friends of the Earth and Ape Alliance 's Palm Oil Campaign wins Observer Food Monthly award

Palm Oil and the Illegal Animal Trade in Indonesia

Dawn with the Gibbons, Central Kalimantan

Gibbon Research In Sebangau

Protecting Indonesia's Forests - EIA

"The Last Stand of the Orangutan" - Cockroach Productions' OFPP donates images to UNEP

Globalization and Great Apes: Illegal logging destroying last strongholds of Orangutans in National Parks

Palm Oil threatens 1600 Orangutans

Introducing Kalaweit (Cockroach Productions 2007)

Shooting Diary - Notes from the Oil Palm

South-east Asia's Peat Fires and Global Warming

Burning Peatland is threatening the Orangutan

Indonesia: Smoke and Corruption

Indonesia: Smoke and Corruption

Source: Copyright 2006, Jakarta Post Date: November 7, 2006 Original URL

Borneo on Fire...

Cockroach and SKY News Special

Deforestation and Palm Oil

Films4Apes

Orangutans and the Biofuel Boom - Some Grim Facts

Cockroach inspire Miller Advert

Carbon Dioxide, Peat, Indonesia, Orangutans...

Conflict Mitigation Film - with English subtitles

Morrisons to Join RSPO

Congratulations Letter Writers and Postcard Senders!

Morrisons to join Roundtable on palm oil

2nd August 2006

Palm Oil Advert in British National Newspaper/s

Momentous Breakthrough in Campaign!

OFPP back in the field

BBC1 16:30 Really Wild Show, Weds 17th May

Orang-utan campaign heads to Westminster

Orangutans WILL go home!

Better Late than Never

Mega Plantation Border Project!

Demand for palm oil triggers massive expansion in Borneo

Source: Friends of the Earth: Apr 12 2006

Note

Marks & Spencer Join the RSPO

Cockroach success at the Celtic Film and Video Festival!

Cockroach Productions wins National Recognition

On the trail of the Tiger

Life with the Talang Mamak

Waitrose Ltd. Join the RSPO

A film that could save lives

ASDA joins RSPO

PALM OIL SETS CO2 TIME-BOMB TICKING

Another Crude Oil - Taster Poster

Montreal addresses Global Climate Change

A future for sustainable palm oil? A future for orangutans?

For Dutch Supporters

Make yourself heard. Speak up for the orangutans.

Little Bigfoot on the run!

Make Way Jungle - We Want Oil !!!

The Oil for Ape Scandal - New Ape Alliance/FoE publication

Working in Sumatra - huge thanks to the STCP

First Images from the Film: Another Crude Oil

Meet the characters: Chanee - Radio Kalaweit

Return from Kalimantan, Next Destination: Sumatra

Working with Orangutans

Danau Sembuluh and Tanjung Puting

Notes from the field

Notes from the Field

Thanks to BOSF and the Pusat Primata Schmutzer

Pusat Primata Schmutzer, Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta

Going Undercover

How to make a Donation

On Location - Pusat Primata Schmutzer, Java, Indonesia

Help make a difference to this site!

Thanks to SONY

Thanks to Australian Airlines

Source: Copyright 2006, Jakarta Post
Date: November 7, 2006
Original URL