Nature Blog Network Future Earth: Death by palm oil

Friday 27 March 2009

Death by palm oil

Elephants from the "Conservation Response Units" are called upon by farmers in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, when their crops are being raided by wild elephants from nearby forest. The captive ones patrol the forest edge and warn the raiders away. Sounds apocryphal but I've seen it working - and the balance between conserved forests and local agriculture is maintained.

Enter the commercial oil palm companies - even one that should know better, a subsidiary of the UK-registered company Anglo Eastern Plantations that is a member of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. Not only is the company clearing protected lowland rainforest illegally in an area that has not been zoned for conversion to agriculture, but it has built a road through an elephant sanctuary. This opens up general access and last Tuesday two of the elephants were shot.

Something to ponder as you eat your ice-cream, spreads and other goodies loaded with palm oil - also recently shown to be suspect in terms of saturated fats. There are some sustainable plantations and some efforts by the food industry to comply. Good, balanced, recent info is supplied by Mongabay and the Rainforest Action Network. But basically the uncontrolled expansion of plantations across the globe is destroying biodiverse forests and peatlands, ecosystem services, orang utans, elephants and more. Leaves a rather bad taste in your mouth, don't you think?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello !.
You re, I guess , perhaps curious to know how one can reach 2000 per day of income .
There is no need to invest much at first. You may commense earning with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you thought of all the time
AimTrust incorporates an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with affiliates everywhere: In USA, Canada, Cyprus.
Do you want to become an affluent person?
That`s your choice That`s what you desire!

I feel good, I began to take up real money with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. If it gets down to choose a correct partner who uses your money in a right way - that`s it!.
I take now up to 2G every day, and my first investment was 500 dollars only!
It`s easy to join , just click this link http://ocyhavumyq.the-best-free-web-hosting.com/cabybe.html
and lucky you`re! Let`s take this option together to get rid of nastiness of the life

Anonymous said...

Good day !.
You re, I guess , perhaps curious to know how one can make real money .
There is no need to invest much at first. You may begin to get income with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you haven`t ever dreamt of such a chance to become rich
The firm represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with affiliates around the world.
Do you want to become really rich in short time?
That`s your choice That`s what you desire!

I feel good, I began to get income with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to select a correct partner who uses your savings in a right way - that`s it!.
I earn US$2,000 per day, and what I started with was a funny sum of 500 bucks!
It`s easy to get involved , just click this link http://ilelokusib.freecities.com/ucydane.html
and lucky you`re! Let`s take our chance together to feel the smell of real money