Borneo Orangutan Survival International

Nov 22 2007 by Sally Williams, Western Mail : NEW food logos aimed at helping consumers make ethical decisions could lead to “choice overload” for bewildered shoppers, it was warned yesterday.

Sainsbury’s has announced it will introduce labelling on products containing sustainable palm oil from next year. (more…)

Sainsbury’s has announced a ban on an ingredient used in tens of thousands of its products that is blamed for the destruction of tropical rainforests.

The supermarket chain said it would phase out the use of palm oil from unsustainable sources in its own-brand food, after pressure from campaigners and customers . It is estimated that the oil is used in one in 10 of all products sold in Britain.

Booming demand for palm oil has fuelled concerns over the felling of huge sections of rainforest in countries such as Indonesia to make way for plantations.

Sainsbury’s says it intends to accept palm oil only from certified sustainable sources, starting with plantations in Colombia. It has pledged to convert its first products to the new sustainable oil by next May, and will announce a deadline for the total phase-out of unsustainable sources by February. It also intends to label the use of palm oil in all of its food by July.

Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury’s brand, said: “From soap to biscuits, palm oil is in thousands of everyday food and beauty items wherever you shop. Rather than banning the use of palm oil, we want to find a sustainable solution that will stop deforestation while continuing to support the communities that rely on its production.”

Only a small amount of palm oil on the world market is from sustainable sources, and Sainsbury’s said it would encourage suppliers in Borneo to clean up their act. Cutting down primary forest releases greenhouse gases and is driving animals such as the orangutan towards extinction.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation called the supermarket’s move a “huge step”. Adam Harrison, senior food and agriculture policy officer for WWF, said: “We welcome Sainsbury’s move to address the serious impacts of palm oil demand and hope their actions will inspire others to follow suit.”

The announcement follows a move this summer by the Body Shop and Asda to cut their use of palm oil from unsustainable sources. Asda plans to phase it out from 500 products and has banned supplies from the worst-affected regions in Borneo and Sumatra. Body Shop has pledged to use only sustainable palm oil in its soap.

The Swiss supermarket Migros banned the use of palm oil linked to forest destruction in its own-brand products in 2002.

Hannah Griffiths, of Friends of the Earth, said: “The supermarkets are in a difficult position because they are under pressure to act, but growing sustainable palm oil on the massive scale required is very difficult. And the certification is no guarantee that the oil is truly sustainable.”

An investigation by Friends of the Earth in the Netherlands linked several Indonesian suppliers which were certified as sustainable to illegal burning, habitat destruction and unapproved plantation development.

Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: November 21, 2007

Almost one-third of the world’s species will face extinction if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, a United Nations report will say this week.

Addressing the UN’s climate panel, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the message to world leaders was clear. (more…)

Lone Droscher-Nielsen has spent enough time living with wild orangutans to know monkey business when she sees it - and the straight-speaking Dane is suspicious of John Howard’s election promise to save her great apes.

Lone Droscher-Nielsen with orangutans at her sanctuary in Kalimantan, Indonesia. She is suspicious of a Coalition plan to save the apes. (more…)

GENEVA - The world’s smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home, a conservation group said Monday.
The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union. (more…)

“Primates Helping Primates” isn’t just about cooperation between primates such as humans and orangutans; it’s also about humans helping each other. As part of the 2007 celebrations for the 62nd Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Indonesia, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS Foundation) held a blood donor campaign at the Indonesian Red Cross’ Balikpapan Branch Blood Transfusion Unit. (more…)

On the 24th of September, 2007, at approximately 10.15 in the morning, a call was received from the natural resource conservation centre (BKSDA) Palangkaraya by Ulfa, a member of the administrative staff at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project. BKSDA informed her of a Kasongan resident named Kanedi who intended to hand over an orangutan. (more…)

NHNZ’s first docudrama Orangutan Island has scored a prime time slot on Animal Planet where it premiered in the United States on Friday (November 2).

Produced for Animal Planet, Orangutan Island offers 13 half hour episodes of unique docudrama from the rainforest of Borneo and airs during the channel’s prime time 8.30pm Friday slot - a position formerly held by the highly rated third season of Meerkat Manor.
The series has been an exciting challenge for NHNZ series producer Judith Curran who last hit the headlines after coming off second best following a close encounter with a leopard while filming in Africa.

Orangutan Island follows the progress of a group of orphaned Orangutans rescued by the Borneo Orangutan Survival International and placed at the Nyaru Menteng Rescue and Rehabilitation Center where they were taught how to survive at Forest School 103 under the watchful eye of project manager Lone Droscher-Nielsen.

The concept evolved following NHNZ’s production of the series Growing Up Orangutan where previously orphaned Orangutans are rehabilitated and then repatriated to an island sanctuary.

“I began wondering what happened after the Orangutans were relocated. I knew they were the equivalent of ten-year-old human kids and, that Orangutans don’t usually live in structured communities like their chimpanzee cousins so I was curious to discover what would be happening on an island of orphaned children. The story grew from there,” Judith says.

The result is a combination of Lord of the Flies and Lost presented in increasingly popular docudrama style that includes flashbacks from main characters’ rescues allowing viewers to follow the trials and tribulations of the pre-pubescent primates as they forge their own community, deal with snakes and intruders and forge lasting friendships.

“With their natural habitat increasingly under threat due to illegal logging, the last chance the Forest School graduates have at living a comparatively free existence in the wild is to form a community and learn to live together,” Judith explains.

Production of Orangutan Island began in December 2006. Orangutan Island will air on Animal Planet internationally in the third quarter of 2008.

For further information visit

http://press.discovery.com/ekits/greatapes
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/orangutan-island/orangutan-island

Media Release
NHNZ
Tuesday November 6th, 2007

By Wani Abdul Gapar; Balikpapan, Indonesia - The deforestation in East Kalimantan is gradually taking its toll on the local flora and fauna in the region.

During a trip to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) in Samboja recently, The Brunei Times witnessed firsthand the extent of forest destruction and how it has affected the local plant and animal species. (more…)