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Newly published research led by the University of Michigan reveals that despite the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system being influential, its effectiveness in reducing deforestation has so far for decades, been an illusion. The study used remote sensing to analyse deforestation caused by oil palm plantations in Guatemala, a major palm oil supplier to global markets.
The results of the paper show that these plantations were responsible for 28% of the region’s deforestation, and RSPO-certified plantations did not significantly reduce deforestation. The study links this deforestation to the supply chains of major brands: Pepsico, Mondelēz International, and Grupo Bimbo, who rely on RSPO-certified palm oil supplies.
As a consumer you can make a difference every time you shop, use your wallet as a weapon and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
@UMich #research finds “sustainable” #RSPO #palmoil sourced in #Guatemala 🇬🇹 NOT sustainable, yet it’s sold this way to consumers, despite links to #humanrights abuses 🧺🩸 #deforestation. Fight back! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴⛔️ #Boycottpalmoil @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/26/palm-oil-deforestation-in-guatemala-certifying-products-as-sustainable-is-no-panacea-university-of-michigan/
So-called “sustainable” #palmoil certified by #RSPO originating in #Guatemala 🇬🇹 is strongly connected to #deforestation and #ecocide finds @UMich study. Help #rainforests and fight #extinction #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔🔥☠️🚫 @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/26/palm-oil-deforestation-in-guatemala-certifying-products-as-sustainable-is-no-panacea-university-of-michigan/
This media release entitled “Palm oil plantations and deforestation in Guatemala: Certifying products as ‘sustainable’ is no panacea” was issued by The University of Michigan on July 20, 2023. The study on which it is based is available to read here
Cheap, versatile and easy to grow, palm oil is the world’s most consumed vegetable oil and is found in roughly half of all packaged supermarket products, from bread and margarine to shampoo and toothpaste.
But producing palm oil has caused deforestation and biodiversity loss across Southeast Asia and elsewhere, including Central America. Efforts to curtail the damage have largely focused on voluntary environmental certification programs that label qualifying palm-oil sources as “sustainable.”
However, those certification programs have been criticised by environmental groups as greenwashing tools that enable multinational corporations to claim fully “sustainable” palm oil, while continuing to sell products that fall far short of the deforestation-free goal.
Findings from a new University of Michigan-led study, published online in the Journal of Environmental Management, support some of the critics’ claims—and go much further.
“Environmental certification does not effectively mitigate deforestation risk, and firms cannot rely on—or be allowed to rely on—certification to achieve deforestation-free supply chains,”
Study senior author Joshua Newell, a geographer and a professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability.
The U-M case study focuses on Guatemala, which is projected to become the world’s third-largest palm-oil producer by 2030 after Indonesia and Malaysia, and an influential environmental certification system called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO.
“Our results indicate the supply chains of transnational conglomerates drove deforestation and ecological encroachment in Guatemala to support U.S. palm oil consumption,” said study lead author Calli VanderWilde, a doctoral student at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability who did the work for her dissertation.
“In addition, we found no evidence to suggest that RSPO certification effectively protects against deforestation or ecological encroachment. Given that oil palm expansion is predicted to increase significantly in the coming years, this pattern is likely to continue without changes to governance, both institutionally and to supply chains.”
The U-M-led research team tracked palm oil sourced from former forestland, and other ecologically critical areas in Guatemala, by several large transnational conglomerates that sell food products made from the oil in the United States. The corporations are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and have RSPO commitments and sourcing policies in place to ensure the sustainability of their palm oil supplies.
The study used satellite imagery and machine learning to quantify deforestation attributable to palm oil plantation expansion in Guatemala over a decade, 2009-2019. In addition, the researchers used shipment records and other data sources to reconstruct corporate supply chains and to link transnational conglomerates to palm oil-driven deforestation.
The study found that:
Guatemala is divided into 22 administrative districts called departamentos. The study focused on a 20,850-square-mile region in the three departamentos (Alta Verapaz, Izabal and the lower half of Petén) responsible for 75% of Guatemala’s palm oil production.
The researchers used high-resolution satellite imagery to assess land-use change between 2009 and 2019, and a machine learning algorithm enabled them to distinguish between forests and monoculture plantations.
They found that oil palm expansion is encroaching on, and causing deforestation in, seven Key Biodiversity Areas and 23 protected areas.
Among the areas impacted, the Key Biodiversity Areas with the largest palm extent include the Río La Pasión, Caribe de Guatemala and Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. The Río La Pasión is an especially rich area for endemic fish species, making it an important area for conservation.
Oil palm encroachment on the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve threatens animals such as the quetzal, Guatemala’s national bird. Known as the jewel of Guatemala, the reserve is an irreplaceable gene bank for tropical reforestation and agroforestry and supports the livelihoods of more than 400,000 people.
The researchers identified 119 RSPO-certified plantations and 82 non-RSPO plantations. During the study period, 9% of the RSPO-certified plantation expansion resulted in, or contributed to, forest loss, compared to 25% of the noncertified plantation expansion.
“Environmental certification does not effectively mitigate deforestation risk, and firms cannot rely on—or be allowed to rely on—certification to achieve deforestation-free supply chains,”
Study senior author Joshua Newell, a geographer and a professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability.
By reconstructing the supply chains of the three conglomerates, the researchers revealed connections to palm oil-driven deforestation. Of the 60,810 acres of palm oil-driven deforestation across the study period, more than 99% was traced to plantations supplying palm and palm-kernel oil to mills used by two multinational conglomerates. Seventy-two percent of the palm and palm-kernel oil was linked to the subset of plantations supplying a third corporation’s mills.
“Palm oil has attracted attention for its ties to widespread forest and biodiversity loss across Southeast Asia. However, the literature has paid minimal attention to newer spaces of production and issues of corporate supply-chain traceability,” VanderWilde said.
“As it stands, environmental certification makes unjustified claims of ‘sustainability’ and fails to serve as a reliable tool for fulfilling emerging zero-deforestation requirements.”
The authors recommend reforms to RSPO policies and practices, robust corporate tracking of supply chains, and the strengthening of forest governance in Guatemala.
In addition to VanderWilde and Newell, authors of the study are Dimitrios Gounaridis of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability and Benjamin Goldstein of McGill University. Funding for the study was provided by U-M’s Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship Program.
Calli P. VanderWilde, Joshua P. Newell, Dimitrios Gounaridis, Benjamin P. Goldstein,
Deforestation, certification, and transnational palm oil supply chains: Linking Guatemala to global consumer markets, Journal of Environmental Management,
Volume 344, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118505
Although causal links between tropical deforestation and palm oil are well established, linking this land use change to where the palm oil is actually consumed remains a distinct challenge and research gap. Supply chains are notoriously difficult to track back to their origin (i.e., the ‘first-mile’). This poses a conundrum for corporations and governments alike as they commit to deforestation-free sourcing and turn to instruments like certification to increase supply chain transparency and sustainability. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) offers the most influential certification system in the sector, but whether it actually reduces deforestation is still unclear. This study used remote sensing and spatial analysis to assess the deforestation (2009–2019) caused by oil palm plantation expansion in Guatemala, a major palm oil source for international consumer markets. Our results reveal that plantations are responsible for 28% of deforestation in the region and that more than 60% of these plantations encroach on Key Biodiversity Areas. RSPO-certified plantations, comprising 63% of the total cultivated area assessed, did not produce a statistically significant reduction in deforestation. Using trade statistics, the study linked this deforestation to the palm oil supply chains of three transnational conglomerates – Pepsico, Mondelēz International, and Grupo Bimbo – all of whom rely on RSPO-certified supplies. Addressing this deforestation and supply chain sustainability challenge hinges on three measures: 1) reform of RSPO policies and practices; 2) robust corporate tracking of supply chains; and 3) strengthening forest governance in Guatemala. This study offers a replicable methodology for a wide-range of investigations that seek to understand the transnational linkages between environmental change (e.g. deforestation) and consumption.
This media release entitled “Palm oil plantations and deforestation in Guatemala: Certifying products as ‘sustainable’ is no panacea” was issued by The University of Michigan on July 20, 2023. The study on which it is based is available to read here
ENDS
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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
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Status: Vulnerable
Extant (resident): Argentina (Misiones); Brazil (Minas Gerais, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo)
You will hear a Brown Howler #Monkey before you sere one. Heard from several kilometres away these monkeys have a haunting howl that penetrates and rustles the forest canopy. They live in groups between two and eleven individuals and take respite during the heat of the day in the Atlantic forests of #Brazil and #Argentina. Despite their prehensile tails and graceful gait they face enormous threats, mainly from palm oil, soy and meat deforestation, yellow fever virus and human persecution. Help them every time you shop when you #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Brown Howler #Monkeys 🤎🐵🐒 are essential seed dispersers 🌱🥜✨ helping the #Amazon rainforest to grow. Only 12% of their forest remains. They are #vulnerable from #palmoil and #mining. #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔☠️🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/23/brown-howler-monkey-alouatta-guariba/
Brown Howlers have a loud howl 🐒🐵🔊 that can be heard 2km away. They are #vulnerable from #palmoil and other #deforestation in #Brazil 🇧🇷 Use your wallet as a weapon and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🤮⛔️#Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/23/brown-howler-monkey-alouatta-guariba/
These monkeys are incredibly gregarious and typically live in groups of between two to 11 individuals. They are most active throughout the day, however will rest during the heat of midday.
The larynx and chests of Howler Monkeys are enlarged. Through this resonating chamber they are able to produce loud signature howls, heard from up to 2 kilometres away.
Despite their namesake, Brown Howlers come in a variety of colours from buff to reddish orange and brown-black. They are well known for their expressive and loud howling which can be heard from up to 2 kilometres away. Excellent seed dispersers, they are essential for maintaining a healthy rainforest. Only 12% of their forest habitat remains. Protect them every time you shop and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Their famous howls or roars have a blood-curdling cadence to them which performs the group function of mate defence. Howling typically happens when both males and females are present in groups. Other reasons for howling are as gestures of dominance when food sources are scarce or to alert others in the group of imminent danger.
Male Brown Howlers are larger than females and more dominant, they will commence the howling and females seldomly howl compared to males.
When Brown Howlers are threatened by a bird of prey (the Black Hawk Eagle is their main aerial predator), they will howl once and then remain silent as a group. The Black Hawk Eagle has a penchant for young Brown Howlers, so the priority of the adult monkeys is to protect their young. The howlers will silently descend to the understory of the trees and then disperse in an organised way.
If the group are threatened by a land-based predator, they will stay in the tree canopy and remain silent together for five to fifteen minutes.
Rubbing is used as a gesture of group communication that indicates dominance and territorial signalling. Males rub females for sexual intention and males are considered to be more dominant as they rub more often than females. Dominant females tend to rub more often than less dominant females.
Brown Howlers live in the Atlantic forests of South America, mainly in Brazil and Argentina. They are able to live in the lowland, montane and mixed broadleaf forests and spend the majority of their lives hanging out in the tree canopies.
Widespread forest loss and fragmentation throughout their range are the main threats to Alouatta guariba. Their distributional range largely correlates with the most densely populated regions of Brazil. Only 12% of the original forest coverage is remaining in these areas, fragmented into almost 250 forest fragments, 83.4% of which are smaller than 50 ha (Ribeiro et al. 2009).
IUCN Red List
Brown Howler Monkeys face a range of human-related threats, including:
Brown Howlers are avid consumers of wild figs, petioles, buds, seeds, moss, flowers, twigs and plant stems – they are folivores and frugivores. These monkeys are essential to eco-systems and perform an important function in dispersing seeds throughout the rainforest.
Howler Monkeys are difficult to breed in captivity, therefore not enough is known about their mating and reproduction. They are capable of breeding all year round and a pregnancy lasts for approximately 6 months, after this one infant is born. Between pregnancies there is a break period of around 19 months. If a baby dies then the mother will typically become pregnant earlier than the 19 month break period. Young monkeys are weaned at one year old. Females come into oestrus at about 3.6 years old and males reach sexual maturity at 5 years old.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Jerusalinsky, L., Bicca-Marques, J.C., Neves, L.G., Alves, S.L., Ingberman, B., Buss, G., Fries, B.G., Alonso, A.C., da Cunha, R.G.T., Miranda, J.M.D., Talebi, M., de Melo, F.R., Mittermeier, R.A. & Cortes-Ortíz, L. 2021. Alouatta guariba (amended version of 2020 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T39916A190417874. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T39916A190417874.en. Accessed on 07 September 2022.
Brown Howler Monkey on Animalia.bio
Brown Howler Monkey on Wikipedia
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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
TL;DL version:
The recently released Global Slavery Index reveals that Australia risks importing goods amounting to US $17.4 billion, which are suspected to be produced via forced labour.
A ban of these goods from Australia was proposed by the Australian Greens, who along with several community organisations, are urging the Labor Party to prioritise this change following a report from the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Despite previous support while in opposition, the Australian Labor Party has now shown signs of weakening on supporting a ban on commodities like palm oil, clothing and electrical goods made using slavery and forced labour.
Advocates of the ban, including the Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peace & Nuclear Disarmament, Senator Jordon Steele-John, are pushing for Australia to align with the EU and the United States that have already enforced similar bans.
The Global #Slavery Index shows #Australia risks importing billions of commodities incl. #palmoil linked to #humanrights abuses. Story via @Greens. Don’t stand for it, instead #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
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#Australia – like the EU and America MUST ban goods coming from #ecocide and #humanrights abuses incl. #palmoil or risk turning into a global dumping ground for goods made from #slavery: The Australian @Greens #Boycottpalmoil
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Media release from the Australian Greens, published 1 June, 2023. Read original.
Despite Labor voting in support of banning products produced by forced labour when they were in opposition, today in Senate Estimates they could not confirm that they would do so again.
A wide range of community organisations are joining the Greens to call on Labor to prioritise this change.The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet produced a report in 2022 that called on the Australian Government to block the import of goods made from forced labour from all countries.
Across our region, forced labour is occurring en masse, and many in the Australian community would be surprised to know that forced labour produces many goods that are used in Australia.
The latest Global Slavery Index found 50 million people worldwide now live in modern slavery. It also showed Australia’s at risk of importing at-risk products which amount to US $17.4 billion. In Indonesia, forced labour is seen in industries including the production of palm oil and onboard fishing vessels.
In Malaysia, migrant workers have been forced to produce garments. In Turkmenistan, state-sanctioned forced labour is used in the cotton industry. Since 2017, the Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million Uyghurs and subjected those not detained to forced production of garments, electronics, home decorations and more.
As stated by Senator Jordon Steele-John, Australian Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Peace & Nuclear Disarmament:
“The Australian Government must do all it can to ensure that human rights are upheld globally.
Amending the Customs Act would enforce a global ban. It would send a clear message to all countries that Australia sees modern slavery as unacceptable and that our community will not accept goods that have been produced by forced labour.
“We are calling on the Australian Labor Party to support this change, as they did in opposition. We have the opportunity to pass the Greens amendments when the Customs Act is next before the parliament. We could see this parliament take immediate action to stop forced labour imports and no longer have Australia implicated in these horrific human rights abuses.
“It’s time for Australia to no longer fall behind, and join countries like Canada and the United States who have implemented a ban.
As stated by Carolyn Kitto, Be Slavery Free:
‘No-one wants to buy products which have been produced through another person being in slavery like conditions. The social licence to be exposed to such goods is rapidly disappearing. The Australian Government needs to catch up with the desire of the Australian people and the practices of others globally in banning the import of products made with forced and child labour.
If we truly want a level playing field for Australian business we need to make it easier for companies seeking to do the right thing for people to work freely in their supply chains.
We risk becoming a dumping ground for products made with forced labour which are banned from entering the USA, Mexico, Canada, the European Union and the UK.
We have seen the effectiveness of ‘forced labour ban legislations’ in driving change in labour rights for marginalised workers.
ENDS
Media release from the Australian Greens, published 1 June, 2023. Read original.
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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Extant (resident): Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; Indonesia; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Myanmar; Singapore; Thailand; Viet Nam
Presence Uncertain: China
Sunda #pangolins, also known as the Malayan or Javan pangolins, possess quirky traits that make them truly intriguing. They are capable swimmers and have a remarkable defense mechanism of curling into a protective ball, walk in an upside-down manner, and communicate through scale vibrations. As consummate insectivores, they rely on their long, sticky tongues to extract ants and termites from mounds. These pangolins have a slow metabolism, lack teeth but have a gizzard-like structure, and feature a specialised digestive system. To protect these unique creatures and their habitat, it’s crucial to take action. Join the movement and raise awareness about their primary threat #poaching and also by boycotting palm oil, which is also contributing towards their demise and putting them at risk of extinction. Help them every time you shop and be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket
Sunda #Pangolins have no teeth and their scales vibrate to help them communicate. They’re critically #endangered due to #palmoil #deforestation 🌴🔥🙊🚫 and #poaching in #Indonesia and #Malaysia. Help them when you shop! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/16/tbc-sunda-pangolin-manis-javanica/
Fascinating #Sunda #Pangolins curl up like #pokemons 🏀🤯 to evade predators. They’re facing #extinction due to rampant #palmoil #deforestation and #poaching in South East Asia. Fight for them! #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🪔🩸💀⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/16/tbc-sunda-pangolin-manis-javanica/
Sunda pangolins use a fascinating behaviour called “scale vibrations” to communicate with each other. By contracting and relaxing their muscles, they create subtle vibrations that can be sensed by other pangolins through their scales. These vibrations likely play a role in social interactions and mate selection.
Here are some quirky facts about Sunda Pangolins which demonstrate their reign as one of the most fascinating creatures in the entire animal kingdom:
Sunda Pangolins are heavily threatened and are now critically endangered. Their main threat is from hunting and poaching for local and international use. Their secondary threat is habitat destruction across their range for palm oil, timber and other crops.
Take action to protect the Sunda Pangolin and their habitat and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket.
Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) are found across Southeast Asia. Their range includes countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
In terms of habitat, Sunda pangolins prefer forested environments, including primary, secondary, and scrub forests. They can also be found in plantations such as rubber and palm oil plantations. These pangolins have adapted to spend a significant portion of their lives in trees, making use of their prehensile tails for climbing.
Sunda pangolins primarily feed on ants and termites, making them insectivores. Their diet consists mainly of these small invertebrates. They use their long, sticky tongues to probe into termite mounds and ant hills, collecting the insects as their main source of sustenance. The lack of teeth in pangolins is compensated by their specialised tongues and digestive system, which are well-adapted to consuming large amounts of ants and termites. This diet of ants and termites provides the necessary nutrients and energy for Sunda pangolins to thrive in their natural habitats.
Pangolins are fascinating creatures that give birth to one or two offspring annually. Their breeding season takes place in autumn, and females carefully select winter burrows where they give birth. They prefer mature forest tree hollows for added fortification and stability during the birthing and nurturing process.
Parental care lasts for about three months, during which the mother’s range significantly decreases as she travels and forages alongside her young. Only in the weeks before the offspring becomes independent, brief bursts of diurnal activity may be observed. Pangolins are typically solitary and nocturnal, using their ability to roll into protective balls to safeguard their vulnerable underparts when feeling threatened.
They are skilled diggers, creating burrows lined with vegetation near termite mounds and ant nests for insulation. Sunda pangolins are believed to engage in polygynous breeding, with males mating with multiple females.
The gestation period lasts around 130 days, and newborn pangolins have soft scales that harden shortly after birth. Weighing between 100 to 500 grams, the young are nursed by the females for three months, who display strong protective behaviour. During their travels and foraging, the baby pangolins often ride on their mother’s tail, and when danger looms, the mother instinctively curls up into a tight ball, providing a secure haven for her young.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Challender, D., Willcox, D.H.A., Panjang, E., Lim, N., Nash, H., Heinrich, S. & Chong, J. 2019. Manis javanica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T12763A123584856. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T12763A123584856.en. Accessed on 02 June 2023.
Sunda Pangolin on Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_pangolin
Sunda Pangolin on Animalia.bio – https://animalia.bio/sunda-pangolin
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Extant
West Papua (Waigeo Island)
Cryptic and solitary marsupials, Waigeo Cuscuses cling to tree canopies on a Waigeo Island, West Papua. They are classified as vulnerable on IUCN Red List due to palm oil deforestation and mining on the tiny island where they live. Help them each time you shop and be #vegan, #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife
Cryptic and solitary #marsupials, Waigeo #cuscus 🐒 cling to tree canopies on Waigeo Island #WestPapua, they are vulnerable from #palmoil 🌴🪔🩸💀⛔️ #deforestation. Help them and go #vegan and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/09/waigeo-cuscus-spilocuscus-papuensis/
Pocket sized cuties 🧸😻🩷 Waigeo #Cuscus are #vulnerable due to #palmoil #deforestation on a tiny island in #WestPapua. Fight for their survival, go #vegan 🥦🍅 and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🔥🧐🏂🙈🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife each time you shop https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/09/waigeo-cuscus-spilocuscus-papuensis/ via @palmoildetect
Waigeo Cuscus, also known as the Waigeou Spotted Cuscus are cryptic and solitary marsupials of the family Phalangeridae. Not much is known about their ecology and behaviour and more research is needed in this area.
Waigeo Cuscus like other cuscus species have a strong prehensile tail that allows them to swing and hang in tree canopies.
Different cuscus species have eyes of varying colours. Waigeo Cuscuses have amber or orange eyes with have vertical pupils, similar to a cats or reptiles. This allows cuscuses to have superior night time vision. Like other cuscus, Waigeo Cuscuses have long nails to help with grip on tree branches and for grooming.
They are restricted to a small islet off the coast of the West Papua province called Waigeo Island. They prefer to live in primary or secondary tropical forests.
Their isolated and small geographic location makes their existence fragile and threatened by increased palm oil deforestation and mining in Waigeo Island, which is now taking place. An increase in hunting, mining and palm oil deforestation on the island would have a disastrous impact on this species.
Waigeo Cuscuses are classified as Vulnerable on IUCN Red List as they face many human-related threats including:
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Helgen, K., Aplin, K. & Dickman, C. 2016. Spilocuscus papuensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T20638A21949972. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T20638A21949972.en. Accessed on 16 November 2022.
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
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Peru
Known for their expressive big eyes, Peruvian Night Monkeys are one of the rarest and most beautiful monkeys in the world. They are critically endangered by gold mining, palm oil and meat deforestation. Help them every time you shop and be vegan, #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife!
Known for their big emotive eyes, Peruvian Night Monkeys are one of the most beautiful #monkeys in the world 🐵🫶💝 They are critically #endangered by #palmoil and #meat #deforestation. Help them and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/02/andean-night-monkey-aotus-miconax/
Fight for Andean Night Monkeys – they are critically endangered from #mining, #palmoil #meat deforestation in their rainforest home 🥺😨 Help them by being #vegan and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴⛔️🧐 #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop! @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/07/02/andean-night-monkey-aotus-miconax/
Andean Night Monkeys (also known as Peruvian Night Monkeys) are one of the rarest and least studied of all New World monkeys. They live in the cloud forests of northern Peru and are critically endangered.
Andean Night Monkeys weigh around 1 kilo and range in colour between grey and light brown with distinctive black and white markings to the face.
Their chest and upper body are an orange hue and they are thought to live in the cloud forest at altitudes of 900-2,800 metres above sea level in the Amazonas, Huanuco and San Martin regions. They are known for their large expressive eyes which enable them to see well in the deeply shaded darkness of the cloud forest.
Andean Night Monkeys (Aotus miconax) are endemic to Peru, where they are threatened by deforestation, habitat disturbance and hunting. Shanee et al. (2015), conducting field surveys from 2009 to 2013 and using combined GIS and ecological niche modelling, estimated the species’ original extent of suitable habitat at close to 33,000 km², the third lowest of the 11 Aotus species. Of this, approximately 17,700 km² of suitable habitat remained at the completion of those surveys, representing a loss of close to 50% (up to 2013).
IUCN red list
Forest loss and fragmentation continue, especially within the peripheral areas of this species’ range, with an expansion of mining and large-scale monocultures reaching higher into the Andean foothills. Hunting for food follows immigration into new areas, with young night monkeys also routinely taken as pets in the process. Given that this species appears to adapt to shrinking habitats, their rate of decline may not be as precipitous, but this is still sufficiently significant to qualify them as threatened.
They are found in primary and secondary forest and small forest patches in the humid montane cloud forests, and white sand forests.
Similar to other Night Monkeys of the Aotus Genus they are mostly nocturnal and spend the majority of the night time on the move. One study found that they spend 54% travelling, 13% resting and 33% of the time feeding during the night, with activity peaking at the beginning of each night.
Little is known of the diet of this species, however it is thought that their diet is mostly frugivorous with occasional buds and insects also consumed.
Peruvian Night Monkeys are highly gregarious and social, they form monogamous partnerships and live in small family groups of 2-6 individuals made up of young infants, sub-adults and solitary individuals of both sexes. Males are responsible for carrying and caring for infants.
There are no known conservation activities for this animal. Share out this post to social media and join the #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife on social media to raise awareness
Shanee, S., Cornejo, F.M. & Mittermeier, R.A. 2020. Aotus miconax (amended version of 2019 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T1802A164046186. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T1802A164046186.en. Accessed on 06 February 2023.
Peruvian night monkey Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruvian_night_monkey
Peruvian night monkey on Animalia.bio: https://animalia.bio/peruvian-night-monkey
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
The conversion of forests to agricultural land is happening at a mind-boggling speed. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at around 10 million hectares every year. From a climate and carbon point of view, we know that cutting down trees at this scale is devastating. But the impacts run deeper: 75% of the world’s accessible fresh water arises from forested watersheds. Want an easy way to fight #climatechange and #deforestation? Stop #eating meat and #dairy and eat #mushrooms 🍄🥦🍅🍌 fruit and veg instead! #Boycottmeat and be #vegan #Boycott4Wildlife
Want an easy way to fight #climatechange and #deforestation? Stop #eating meat and #dairy and eat #mushrooms 🍄🥦🍅🍌 fruit and veg instead! #Boycottmeat and be #vegan #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/28/how-the-humble-mushroom-could-save-forests-and-fight-climate-change/
And with 80% of the world’s population facing a threat to their water security, trees play a very significant role in stemming desertification and preventing soil erosion. They also protect against flooding in coastal areas as well as being home to a huge number of species, many of which are important crop pollinators.
We know that different foods have different footprints. Reducing the quantity of animal-based products will have a huge impact. In fact, eating less meat is one of the most potent changes that people in the west can make to help save the planet.
But what if we could go further? What if, instead of having farming and forestry in direct conflict, we could develop a system that allows food production and forest on the same parcel of land?
Written by Paul W Thomas, Honorary Professor Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This is exactly what our latest research focuses on, looking at fungi that grow in partnership with trees, in a mutually beneficial arrangement. This is a common association and some species can produce large mushroom fruiting bodies, such as the highly prized truffle. Aside from this delicacy, cultivation of these species is a new and emerging field. But progress is especially being made in one group known as milk caps, that include a beautiful and unusually bright blue species known as Lactarius indigo, or the blue milk cap.
High in dietary fibre and essential fatty acids, this edible mushroom’s blue pigmentation means they are easy to identify safely. With extracts demonstrating antibacterial properties and an ability to kill cancer cells, the blue milk cap could also be a source of pharmacological potential.
Iin our paper, we describe how to cultivate this species, from isolation in the lab to creating young tree saplings with roots inoculated with this symbiotic fungus. These trees can then be planted at scale in suitable climate zones ranging from Costa Rica to the US. As the tree and fungus’s partnership matures, they start to produce these incredible mushrooms packed with protein.
The agriculture on cleared forested land is dominated by pastoral beef production where around 4.76-6.99kg of protein per hectare per year is produced. But, if this system was replaced with planting trees hosting the milk cap fungus, the same parcel of land could produce 7.31kg of protein every year. The mushrooms can be consumed fresh, processed or the protein content can be extracted to produce other food items.
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
This would lead to more food production, with all the benefits forests bring and without the environmental burdens of intensive farming such as fertiliser, water use or the growing of additional feed. Beef farming contributes to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases, but as these fungus-inoculated trees grow, they draw down carbon from the atmosphere, helping in our fight against the climate crisis. So, as well as producing more food, the process can also enhance biodiversity, aid conservation, act as a carbon sink for greenhouses gases and help stimulate economic development in rural areas.
In Mexico, harvesting is often a family activity where fungi are traded informally or exchanged for goods and in neighbouring Guatemala, the blue milk cap is listed as one of the most popular edible mushrooms. So there is economic potential and community empowerment at a smaller local scale as well as trading opportunities for national and international corporations.
We believe this approach is cheaper – or more cost effective – than beef farming. But this is a new technology and like all new innovations, support is needed. This means further research and proper financial investment to develop the technology to a point where agribusinesses feel confident to invest at scale.
But even with support, there must also be demand for the end product. Doubtless with health and environmental concerns in mind, the proportion of meat eaters who have reduced or limited the amount of meat they consume has risen from 28% in 2017 to 39% in 2019, according to market research. And sales of meat-free foods are expected to reach £1.1 billion by 2024. Clearly there’s a market, as ordinary people endeavour to do their bit for the planet. With so much at stake we must urgently pursue the promising options that fungi provide.
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Red List Status: Vulnerable
Extant (resident): India; Nepal
Extinct: Bangladesh; Pakistan
Presence Uncertain: Bhutan
Barasinghas Cervus duvauceli also known as Swamp Deers, are instantly recognisable for their enormous handsome antlers. They can have as many as 12 antlers and their namesake Barasinghas means ’12 antlered deer’ in Hindi. They are now one of the most endangered deer species in the world due to habitat fragmentation for palm oil and beef, along with human persecution and hunting. The only remaining population live in protected sanctuaries in India and Nepal. The herd will be led by a single female and then followed by other females in a procession and then the males follow along at the rear of the group. Despite this, females are not dominant over the herd. These resilient, tough and majestic deer species are classified vulnerable on IUCN Red List. If you want to help them, adopt a #Vegan lifestyle and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket!
Handsome #Barasinghas of #India 🇮🇳 #Nepal 🇳🇵 have huge antlers 🦌😻 They are one of the most endangered #deer species in the 🌎 due to #hunting and #palmoil #deforestation. Help save them! 🌴🪔🩸🚜🔥🧐🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/25/barasingha-cervus-duvauceli/
#Barasingha mean “12 Antlered #Deer” in #Hindi 🦌🤎 Major threats include #meat and #palmoil #ecocide in #India 🇮🇳 and #Nepal 🇳🇵 along with #poaching 🏹 Take action for them and be #vegan 🥦🍅 #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸🙊⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/25/barasingha-cervus-duvauceli/
Barasinghas are a highly social and strongly matriarchal deer species. They typically gather in herds of 10-2o individual deers.
Herds are mostly made up of deer of similar age. Although herds may sometimes be mixed in age and gender. The herd will be led by a single female and then followed by other females in a procession and then the males follow along at the rear of the group. Despite this, females are not dominant over other members of the herd. Males are known to move between herds, whereas females are more loyal to their own herd. Like many other deer species, males are generally referred to as ‘bucks’ and dominant males a ‘stags’.
They are naturally diurnal and active throughout the day. They will typically rest during the heat of midday and spend the dawn and dusk grazing.
Juvenile males will sport smaller antlers that are an extension to their bones and have blood vessels inside of them. This coating of blood vessels or ‘felt’ is lost over time, as the young deers will rub the antlers against trees to toughen the antlers up.
There are three sub-species of Barasinghas and in total IUCN Red List estimates that there are only 3,500 to 5,100 left alive. They are classified as Vulnerable. Only a small number of Barasinghas live in protected zones, including:
Barasinghas face multiple human-related threats:
The Barasingha is faces multiple anthropogenic threats which has heavily fragmented their range in north and central India and south west Nepal. They prefer riparian and riverine habitats close to floodplains, wetlands, mangroves and swamps as well as riversides. They are also fund in woodlands and deciduous forests.
Barasinghas are herbivorous mammals and they provide a vital ecosystem service by ensuring that plants are kept under control with their grazing habits. They generally stick with a diet of foliage, leaves and grass. Some Barasinghas living in wetlands will supplement this diet with algae and aquatic vegetation.
Dominant males in herds will mate with a group of females known as a harem. Males in herds will engage in bloody and violent conflicts with each other for mating rights during the rutting season. Male ‘bucks’ call for female ‘does’ using a series of bugling and barking sounds to indicate their readiness to mate. Mating season is between October and February.
Females give birth typically to only one fawn after around eight months of pregnancy. Occasionally twins occur. The fawn is weaned by six to eight months, and after two years, young females reach sexual maturity.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Duckworth, J.W., Kumar, N.S., Pokharel, C.P., Sagar Baral, H. & Timmins, R. 2015. Rucervus duvaucelii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T4257A22167675. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T4257A22167675.en. Accessed on 12 November 2022.
Barasingha Cervus duvauceli on Wikipedia
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Ecolabels like RSPO and FSC are involved in networks of extensive greenwashing. They exist to conceal corporations’ environmental damage rather than fighting it. With three decades dubious promises from environmental certifications, World Rainforest Movement calls for a swift end to this disgraceful palm oil, soy and timber industry greenwashing. You can help resist palm oil colonialism and ecocide #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop!
#Ecolabels like #RSPO and #FSC are accused of greenwashing, hiding corporations’ environmental #ecocide from consumers 💩🛒 rather than fighting #corruption. Fight back with your wallet and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🩸🧐🙊⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/18/certification-ecolabels-dubious-sustainability-30-years-of-deceit-and-violence/
World Rainforest Movement and Palm Oil Detectives call for an end to #palmoil #greenwashing from #RSPO “sustainable” palm oil 🙊🧐⛔️ Resist the greenwash and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket! 🌴💀🩸🚫 @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/18/certification-ecolabels-dubious-sustainability-30-years-of-deceit-and-violence/
This article was originally published by World Rainforest Movement as “Certification schemes on “sustainability”: 30 years of deceit and violence” on 25 March, 2023 and was republished with permission here alongside other reports from World Health Organisation, Global Witness and others. Read original.
The shelves in supermarkets and stores are full of certified products. The packaging displays different labels indicating products were made with “sustainable” paper or wood, food or cosmetic products made with “sustainable” palm oil, “responsible” soybeans and so on and so forth.
Even when it comes to buying an airplane ticket, consumers can pay a little more
to ensure that their carbon emissions are (supposedly) “neutralised”, so as to guarantee that much touted “sustainability”.
Read more: WHO Bulletin Report: Palm Oil and Human Health Impacts
After 30 years of certification schemes with environmental and social bias, what is clear is that the only “sustainability” that they guarantee is that of corporations’ lucrative business.
The first environmental certification mechanism for a specific product (wood) and its production chain emerged in the early 1990s, with the creation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Although its origin is connected with civil society pressure on corporations, FSC has been fully incorporated into the production logic of logging companies operating in forests, of giant paper and pulp corporations using tree monoculture plantations, as well as of producers and distributors of consumer goods.
Over time, having shown that it did not constitute any threat – on the contrary: an opportunity – to the accumulation strategy of the corporations involved, other sectors started creating similar mechanisms. Hence, starting in the 2000s, initiatives and so-called roundtables for “sustainable” or “responsible” production of palm oil, soybeans, cocoa, sugarcane, among others, proliferated.
Read more: Greenwashing Ecocide: Agropalma and Orangutan Land Trust
They are schemes that present themselves as non-profit associations including many apparently diverse actors and interests (companies, NGOs, governments etc.) However, in practice, the business sector participants andtheir allies, like the big conservationist NGOs, dominate these initiatives and impose their interests in a highly unequal power relation between the members.
They are mechanisms that establish operational guidelines and directives for companies to adhere to on a voluntary bases, leaving no possibility of legal consequences when rules are broken – rules formulated and judged by the companies themselves, it should be noted.
They are initiatives submitted to the logic of the market and its expansion, that is to say, certification labels have become important both to obtain funding for companies’ expansion projects and to win over consumers, mainly urban consumers and those from the global North. Read more about the limits of the Endless growth model.
They are mechanisms headquartered in countries of the North, and with management boards mainly composed of men and white people, leaving the rural communities of the South that have to face the certified plantations, to play the role of mere receivers of determinations imposed from outside about the use of the space where they live. And if they want to question the actions of any of the certified companies, they must submit to the protocol created by the certification system itself on how to proceed.
Certification schemes are used by companies as defence mechanisms whenever they are faced with criticism over the impacts of their activities:
“Our products are certified…”, “The project has certification…”, as if this has guaranteed that there is no cause for concern.
One way or another, such certification mechanisms have not stopped the destructive expansion of industrial tree plantations, oil palms, soy, etc. Read more about using Design and Words as a greenwashing tool.
Certification labels have not been able to resolve the conflicts generated with traditional communities and Indigenous Peoples. Nor do they have the potential to do so, since they are designed to allow the continuity and expansion of corporate accumulation patterns that are intrinsically dependent on a predatory dynamic.
In fact, the main common denominator of such certification schemes is that they guarantee a green label to the companies involved, thus contributing to their primary objective, i.e., the maximisation of profit.
Certifiers have hence become a key element through which companies seek to legitimize their territorial and economic expansion in the global South, deceiving consumers with the “sustainability” discourse.
In other words, these destructive corporations need certification labels to obtain some legitimacy in the eyes of consumers and investors, bearing in mind the vast number of reports, news and studies showing their harmful effects, such as:
among many other impacts related to extensive monoculture plantations.
This permits one to affirm without reservation that certification itself has become an underlying cause of deforestation.
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet…
Read moreGreenwashing Tactic 5. Palm oil companies make environmental claims without providing proof or evidence of these claims or using spurious evidence.
Read moreClaiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements Jump to section Greenwashing: Vagueness in Language Greenwashing: Vagueness in certification standards Reality: Auditing of RSPO a failure Quote: EIA: Who Watches…
Read moreClaiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa. Greenwashing: Fake Labels and fake certifications Ecolabels are designed to reassure consumers that…
Read moreLearn how lobbyists use irrelevant information and deflection to shift the conversation away from their environmental harms, e.g. “sustainable” palm oil.
Read moreClaiming that a brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category, in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses. Jump to section Greenwashing: Lesser of Two Evils: Palm Oil Uses Less Land…
Read moreGreenwashing lies are falsifying support from authorities to back up claims or using spurious research data to back up the greenwashing, boycott palm oil!
Read moreGreenwashing Tactic 8. Companies use design principles and subliminal language to signal ‘greenness’ and trigger unconscious emotional responses in consumers
Read moreGreenwashing Tactic 9. Corporations use NGOs, Zoo partnerships, sponsorships, and research funding to give an industry or brand a ‘green image.
Read moreGaslighting, harassing or stalking vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to silence these critics – this is greenwashing!
Read moreLearn ten marketing and PR tactics used for “sustainble” palm oil greenwashing to justify endless growth by the palm oil industry. Boycott palm oil now!
Read moreFurthermore, it is important to mention that the idea of certification has been taking on new shapes. With the creation of offset mechanisms for carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, new commodities have emerged already linked to certification mechanisms. In this new market, carbon credits and biodiversity credits – issued by certification schemes – represent a supposed guarantee that greenhouse gas emissions or the destruction of biodiversity are being duly offset elsewhere.
Differently from wood, paper, palm oil or soybeans, where the certification is “added” to the product by means of a label, in the carbon or biodiversity markets it is the
certification itself that makes it feasible for the product to be consumed.
In other words, the commodity in itself is supposedly a guarantee – though a virtual guarantee, obtained through dubious methodologies and permeated by openly suspect interests.
This compilation of articles from the WRM Bulletin aims to underscore the damaging role played by companies and organisations involved in certification schemes. WRM considers it important to highlight that after three decades with ever more environmental certification labels on the market, it is urgent to put an end to this greenwashing.
Ultimately, instead of combating environmental devastation and the social ills linked
to corporations’ and other players’ operations, these labels cover up and
sustain their destructive logic.
The industrial plantation model is intrinsically linked with patriarchal oppression, serving as a cornerstone for corporate profitability. Companies often exploit women, recognizing their integral role within community dynamics, as a means to augment their bottom line. The intersection of gender and economic exploitation exemplifies the profound social implications of this oppressive system.
The RSPO certification, cleverly turning the palm oil industry’s legitimacy crisis to its favor, uses it as a stepping stone to further strengthen the industry’s position. It provides certificates claiming to meet sustainability standards—a clear advantage to the industry. However, it’s important to note that these standards are largely controlled by and designed to benefit companies operating within the palm oil sector itself.
Implementing gender policies in oil palm companies and the RSPO certification scheme is a start. But do they truly tackle the violence, patriarchy, and racism in the plantation model, or merely mask them? It’s crucial to examine how these policies are enacted and if they genuinely drive substantial change, or just scratch the surface of these systemic issues.
The harsh realities of violence, mass killings, and forced relocations amid the armed conflict in Colombia have disturbingly paved the way for the expansion of industrial oil palm cultivation. The palm oil company and RSPO member Poligrow, has been significantly implicated in these issues, with credible allegations of land seizure and intimidation tactics within the region of Mapiripán.
Language never operates in a vacuum. Historically, specific terms have been leveraged as tools for exercising control over populations and territories. This article throws light on certain terms which, while seemingly positive, often shield economic interests detrimental to forests, forest animals and forest peoples.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a widely used certification system promising environmental, safety, and human rights standards in the palm oil industry. However, Friends of the Earth Africa groups contest its effectiveness, citing ongoing environmental degradation, human rights breaches, biodiversity loss, and increased poverty in Africa linked to the activities of palm oil companies.
The palm industry in Ecuador, encompassing 270,000 hectares of plantations, has been using the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification to project an image of sustainability, setting itself apart from Asian palm oil. However, critics argue that this certification merely muffles community objections. Resistance from communities such as La Chiquita, Guadualito, and Barranquilla de San Javier in the Esmeraldas region continues to fuel discontent and foster international solidarity.
Nearly 1,500 members of MALOA in Sierra Leone are challenging RSPO’s certification of a SOCFIN subsidiary. They cite a string of conflicts and grievances tied to land use. This move follows controversial certifications of SOCFIN group’s operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. Critics question if RSPO, perceived as industry-biased, can truly guarantee sustainability and human rights in the palm oil sector.
The Palmas del Ixcán company in Guatemala is accused of implementing systematic dispossession of land from indigenous communities for oil palm cultivation, using tactics such as deceptive RSPO certification and independent producers. The company’s strategic approach replaced the traditional collective land management by indigenous people in the Municipality of Ixcán, which had been disrupted by development plans since the 1960s. Despite filing a complaint to the RSPO and participating in consultations, the communities found their concerns disregarded, leading them to criticize the RSPO and label it a sham, asserting that its true intention is to facilitate palm planting at any cost.
This article was originally published by World Rainforest Movement as “Certification schemes on “sustainability”: 30 years of deceit and violence” on 25 March, 2023 and was republished with permission alongside other reports from World Health Organisation, Global Witness and others. Read original.
ENDS
Corporate monopolies drive land grabbing for palm oil, worsening the climate crisis. Indigenous peoples in Asia resist. Join the fight. #BoycottPalmOil
Read moreToday is ‘International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Plantations’. World Rainforest Movement have produced a powerful video to highlight the Ugandan people’s struggle against BIDCO an international company partly owned by global palm…
Read moreThe race is on to find a real solution to stop palm oil ecocide. For several years now, several new #biotech companies have been busy generating alternatives to palm oil that are healthier…
Read moreWhat does the $60 billion USD palm oil industry have in common with Big Tobacco? A lot according to this report by the World Health Organisation. Palm oil industry lobbying tactics are used…
Read more#Deforestation occurs against a background of #crime and #corruption as exposed in the #PanamaPapers @ICIJorg. Brands #Colgate #Danone #Nestle and others buy tainted #palmoil while lying to that it is “sustainable” 🌴⛔@palmoildetect #BoycottPalmOil…
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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Formerly known as Cercopithecus dryas.
Red List Status: Endangered
Extant (resident): The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dryas #Monkeys are secretive and vividly colourful monkeys who hang on to survival in the forests of the #Congo. Tragically, there is estimated to only be 100-250 individual monkeys still alive. They are fruit-eaters and play a critical role in ensuring the dispersion of seeds and therefore the future health of the DRC’s #rainforests. They are preyed upon by leopards in the Congo basin. However, the main threat they face is the illegal poaching and hunting by humans for #bushmeat, along with #deforestation for #palmoil, #mining and other commodities. Fight for their survival every time you shop, be #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Vividly coloured and social Dryas #Monkeys 🌈😎🐵🐒🧐 hang to survival in #Congo 🇨🇩 #DRC #Africa. There are only 100-250 of them left 😿 Help save them each time you shop @palmoildetect #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔💩☠️🚜🔥⛔️https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/11/dryas-monkey-chlorocebus-dryas/
Dryas #Monkeys are secretive colourful monkeys in #Congo #Africa 🇨🇩🇨🇬🐒🐵🙉 They are endangered by #palmoil 🌴🔥 and #mining 🪔🔥 #deforestation. Fight for them and use your wallet as a weapon #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/11/dryas-monkey-chlorocebus-dryas/
Stunning and striking colourations are the signature of the Dryas Monkey. They have black mask-like faces that are ringed with white and surrounded by a vivid orange or yellow necks and chests. Their backs are dark brown and their limbs are black. Their bellies and the inside of their arms and legs are a pale cream colour. Males have a vividly blue scrotum and anogenital region. Not all males have this and it’s thought to be related to age, health and status of the monkey in the troop. Females also have a blue rear end that is not as bright as males.
Gregarious and highly social, Dryas Monkeys live in groups of between 5 to 30 individuals of their own species and mixed multi-species groups as well, with red-tailed monkeys (C. ascanius). They communicate visually and through vocalisations with their own kind and with other species. They make chirps, murmurs, and chuckles to each other, they are considered to be quieter than other primates and their booming calls and screams.
Troops typically contain many young monkeys and females but only one male. Although occasionally groups with multiple males are found.
Staring is a form of intensive threat display that is used by Dryas Monkeys to intimidate others in a troop. During a staring contest – their eyes will stay fixed and focused while their eyebrows and forehead is retracted backwards.
They will often stare with an open-mouthed expression and bob their heads – this is also considered to be a threat and intimidation display, although more aggressive.
When females come into oestrus during the mating season, they will exhibit presenting behaviour to indicate to males that they are ready to mate.
Dryas Monkeys face several human-related threats:
Dryas Monkeys were listed as critically endangered, however their status was changed to endangered after they were found in eight locations in Lomami National Park indicating that their population is larger than once thought. Although their survival is still fragile and is threatened by increased deforestation throughout their range.
There is much that still needs to be uncovered about the behaviour, habits and culture of the Dryas Monkey. They are also known as the Salonga monkey, ekele, inoko, Dryad monkey, Dryas guenon and Salonga guenon. They live in the heart of the Congo Basin – the second largest remaining rainforest in the world after the Amazon. They live in two regions: the Kokolopori-Wamba area and the Lomami-Lualaba area.
Dryas monkeys prefer secondary lowland forest and swampland that has been disturbed by elephants, wind or floods.
Although they prefer to remain hidden and are cautious about human contact, they nevertheless live close to the edge of villages, homes and people’s gardens.
These monkeys prefer a diet of fruit, young leaves and flowers. However, food scarcity in different seasons of the year mean that they will eat invertebrates like insects as a supplement.
Dryas monkeys are likely polygynous, with each male mating with multiple females. Pregnancy lasts for approximately five months and mothers will only birth one baby and care for them after birth. Females reach sexual maturity at age five and males take a bit longer and will reach maturity at about six years old. Their expected lifespan in the wild is 10-15 years old. It is not known how long they would live in captivity, as to date no Dryas Monkeys are kept in captivity.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Ellis, S. & Talukdar, B. 2019. Rhinoceros unicornis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T19496A18494149. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T19496A18494149.en. Accessed on 11 November 2022.
Dryas Monkey: New England Primate Conservancy
Dryas Monkey Chlorocebus dryas: Animalia.bio
Dryas Monkey Chlorocebus dryas: Wikipedia.
‘Secretive and colorful dryas monkey isn’t as rare as once thought’, Mongabay, 2019.
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
#Palmoil cultivation in #India’s northeast such as #Nagaland and #Assam is devastating natural ecology with increased human-animal conflicts and #ecocide leaving #animals, #forests and people at risk. Resist and fight back every time you shop and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
#Palmoil cultivation in #India’s 🇮🇳🪷 north east is devastating natural #ecology with increased human-animal conflicts and #ecocide leaving people, forests and animals at risk #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔🩸🧐🙊⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/07/indias-palm-oil-push-leaves-northeast-indian-farmers-forests-and-animals-at-risk/
This article was originally published on 4 April, 2023 by Asia Pacific Foundation Canada, read the original article here.
Since the 1990s, India has prioritised palm oil production to reduce its import dependency and meet increasing consumer demand. Despite various initiatives to promote palm oil cultivation across the country, northeast Indian palm oil farmers face challenges forcing them to reconsider their crop choices. The dilemma also raises questions about striking a balance between India’s goals for self-sufficiency in edible oils and its climate goals for carbon neutrality, considering the ecological damage inherent to palm oil cultivation.
Since 2016, palm oil cultivation in the state of Nagaland has increased by more than 3,000 per cent, due in large part to the Indian government’s introduction of the National Mission on Oilseed and Oil Palm in 2015-16 and a renewed push with the 2021 National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) that emphasises oil palm cultivation in northeast Indian states. Despite rapid growth in cultivation since these mission statements were activated, Nagaland farmers continually face water shortages, inadequate irrigation infrastructure, a lack of state support, and, more recently, a lack of buyers and processing capacity. As a result, they have disposed of palm kernels – or used them as animal feed – as they look for other crop options.
Over the past two decades, palm oil consumption in India has increased by approximately 230 per cent, and today India is the largest importer of palm oil globally. As palm oil is a part of almost 50 per cent of all packaged consumer products – edible and non-edible – it is not surprising to see the increasing global demand. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine have caused significant supply-chain issues, spikes in global prices, and restrictions on edible oil exports from source countries as they seek to protect their domestic markets.
Roughly 56 per cent of India’s edible oil imports are palm oil, and over 90 per cent of the imported palm oil comes from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Given palm oil’s versatility and economic viability, the Indian government launched its oilseed initiatives to reduce India’s reliability on imports, contribute to the nation’s food security, and help address the growing unemployment rates in the country. Incorporating aspects of previous schemes, the NMEO-OP increased available funding and support systems for palm oil farmers in 13 Indian states. Under the 2021 scheme, the total area for palm oil cultivation is projected to increase threefold — to a whopping one million hectares — and crude palm oil production to 1.125 million tonnes by 2026. Most of the cultivation will occur in seven ecologically sensitive northeastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Palm oil cultivation is already proving disastrous for the northeast’s natural ecology as tropical forests must be cleared to establish plantations. There have also been reports of increased human-animal conflicts in these impacted areas. Alleged misleading reporting of plantations as forest cover by state forest departments in national forest surveys has reportedly further concealed the environmental damage. Additionally, palm oil cultivation is water intensive.
As weather patterns change, uneven rainfall, flooding, and erosion in the northeast is causing damage to palm oil saplings, a situation compounded by a lack of sustainable irrigation systems suitable for the region’s hilly terrain. India also risks following in the footsteps of Indonesia and Malaysia, where 3.5 million hectares of forest were converted to palm oil plantations, resulting in a staggering biodiversity loss.
Understanding palm oil-associated health risks and exploring alternatives: Studies show that palm oil contains 50 per cent triglycerides, and its regular consumption can clog arteries, increase heart disease risks, and heighten bad cholesterol levels. In terms of higher nutrient content, oil from rice bran, groundnut, sunflower, and oilseeds such as sesame, mustard, and linseed are healthier, but not as cost-effective. The less water-intensive sesame and mustard have long been cultivated by Indian farmers, and even rice can be utilised to increase oil extracts. With proper guidance and support in producing these alternative edible oils, India can decrease its reliance on palm oil altogether.
Produced by CAST’s South Asia team: Dr. Sreyoshi Dey (Program Manager); Prerana Das (Analyst); and Suyesha Dutta (Analyst).
This article was originally published on 4 April, 2023 by Asia Pacific Foundation Canada, read the original article here.
ENDS
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
Read more
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
“It turns out prevention of #pandemics really is the best medicine. We estimate we could greatly reduce the likelihood of another pandemic occuring by investing as little as 1/20th of the losses incurred so far from COVID into [#wildlife and #rainforest] conservation measures designed to help stop the spread of these viruses from wildlife to humans in the first place.” Professor Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, who was co-lead author of the study. Fight against extinction every time you shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Tens of billions spent on conservation and surveillance would stop #pandemics spreading – a tiny amount compared to trillions spent on stopping pandemics – Prof. Stuart Pimm @DukeEnvironment #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/04/preventing-pandemics-costs-far-less-than-controlling-them/
Stopping tropical #deforestation and illegal #wildlife trade is a minor cost compared to stopping #zoonotic #diseases – Prof. Stuart Pimm @DukeEnvironment #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/04/preventing-pandemics-costs-far-less-than-controlling-them/
This is a media release from Duke University published on February 4, 2022. Original study: “The Costs and Benefits of Primary Prevention of Zoonotic Pandemics,” A.S. Bernstein et. al. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl4183 View original.
DURHAM, N.C. – We can pay now or pay far more later. That’s the takeaway of a new peer-reviewed study, published Feb. 4 in the journal Science Advances, that compares the costs of preventing a pandemic to those incurred trying to control one.
“The bottom line is, if we don’t stop destroying the environment and selling wild species as pets, meat or medicine, these diseases are just going to keep coming. And as this current pandemic shows, controlling them is inordinately costly and difficult”.
~ Professor Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University.
“It turns out prevention really is the best medicine,” said Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, who was co-lead author of the study. “We estimate we could greatly reduce the likelihood of another pandemic by investing as little as 1/20th of the losses incurred so far from COVID into conservation measures designed to help stop the spread of these viruses from wildlife to humans in the first place.”
A smart place to start, the study shows, would be investing in programs to end tropical deforestation and international wildlife trafficking, stop the wild meat trade in China, and improve disease surveillance and control in wild and domestic animals worldwide.
COVID, SARS, HIV, Ebola and many other viruses that have emerged in the last century originated in wild places and wild animals before spreading to humans, the study’s authors note. Tropical forest edges where humans have cleared more than 25% of the trees for farming or other purposes are hotbeds for these animal-to-human virus transmissions, as are markets where wild animals, dead or alive, are sold.
“Prevention is much cheaper than cures. Compared to the costs and social and economic disruptions associated with trying to control pathogens after they have already spread to humans, preventing epidemics before they break out is the ultimate economic bargain.”
~ Dr Aaron Bernstein of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Art: Pandemics and Zoonotic Disease by Jo Frederiks
“It’s been two years since COVID emerged and the cure still isn’t working. Not enough people are vaccinated in the U.S, where shots are available and we can afford them, and not enough vaccines are going to other countries that can’t afford them.”
The new study, by epidemiologists, economists, ecologists, and conservation biologists at 21 institutions, calculates that by investing an amount equal to just 5% of the estimated annual economic losses associated with human deaths from COVID into environmental protection and early-stage disease surveillance, the risks of future zoonotic pandemics could be reduced by as much as half. That could help save around 1.6 million lives a year and reduce mortality costs by around $10 trillion annually.
“We’re talking about an investment of tens of billions of dollars a year. Government have that kind of money.”
~ Professor Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University.
Art: Eating animals causes pandemics by Jo Frederiks
One key recommendation of the new study is to use some of this money to train more veterinarians and wildlife disease biologists.
Another key recommendation is to create a global database of virus genomics that could be used to pinpoint the source of newly emerging pathogens early enough to slow or stop their spread, and, ultimately, speed the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests.
Aaron Bernstein of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Andrew Dobson of Princeton University were co-lead authors of the study with Pimm.
The need to put preventive measures in place as soon as possible is increasingly urgent, said Dobson. “Epidemics are occurring more frequently, they are getting larger, and spreading to more continents.”
Science Advances
This is a media release from Duke University published on February 4, 2022. Original study: “The Costs and Benefits of Primary Prevention of Zoonotic Pandemics,” A.S. Bernstein et. al. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl4183 View original.
ENDS
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
Read more
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Red List Ranking: Endangered
Extant (resident): Indonesia (Maluku).
The Quince Monitor Varanus melinus get their name from the spectacular bright yellow of their skin. This is a rare and elusive species of #monitor #lizard that lives in only one location in #Indonesia – the #Maluku Islands. Their muscular, wide stance and ancient dragon-like looks make them fascinating to behold. They are endangered primarily from #palmoil #deforestation throughout their range along with collection for the illegal #pettrade. They have no known protections in place. Help them every time you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket and don’t buy these lizards as exotic pets as this is sending them extinct!
Quince Monitor #Lizards are named for their bright yellow skin and muscular bodies💛🍋🦎. They are #endangered 😿😭 by #palmoil #deforestation in #Indonesia 🇮🇩 Help them when you #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🩸☠️🚜🔥🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/28/quince-monitor-banggai-island-monitor-varanus-melinus/
Help fight for the #endangered Quince #Monitor #Lizard of #Indonesia 🇮🇩, a majestic yellow #reptile. 💛🍋✨🌟🦎Major threats are #palmoil #deforestation and the pet trade. Help them and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🩸🤮☠️🚫 @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/28/quince-monitor-banggai-island-monitor-varanus-melinus/
Quince monitors gain their names from their bright colouring reminiscent of the quince fruit.
These large and impressive lizards have a yellow head, back and tail along with striking contrasting bands of yellow and black across their limbs, face and neck. Juvenile quince monitors are darker and they get brighter yellow with age. They average around 80-120cm in total body length.
This species of lizard appears to be threatened through over-collection for the international pet trade, and also degradation and clearance of forested areas within their range (for both timber and agricultural expansion for palm oil). An additional potential threat is the introduction of the non-native toad, Duttaphrynus melanostictus, which may be toxic to this predatory monitor lizard (Koch et al. 2013, Weijola and Sweet 2010).
IUCN RED LIST
The Quince Monitor faces a range of anthropogenic threats:
Far more research is needed to understand the ecological needs of the Quince Monitor. They seem to have a preference for swamps, wetlands and forests. These large reptiles are also found close to human settlements.
They are endemic to the Sula Islands of Indonesia, however their range has been destroyed by palm oil and reduced significantly. This along with overzealous collection for the pet trade has led them to now be classified as endangered on IUCN Red List.
In captivity, Quince monitors are known to eat crickets, mealworms, waxworms, roaches, frogs and eggs.
The generation length for this species requires further research. The reproductive age of this lizard, as revealed from captive breeding, may exceed seven years. A clutch consists of 2–12 eggs, with up to three clutches being laid per year and a minimum of 77 days between two clutches. The lizards reach reach 37–39.5 cm in length by 5.5 months and reach sexual maturity at 120 cm (male) or 90 cm (female).
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Shea, G., Stubbs, A. & Arida, E. 2021. Varanus melinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T83778224A83778231. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T83778224A83778231.en. Accessed on 14 November 2022.
Quince Monitor (Banggai Island Monitor) Varanus melinus on Wikipedia
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
These species have no known conservation actions in place and are silently disappearing before we can save them. Do something about it by boycotting supermarket brands linked to tropical deforestation. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife
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Red List Status: Endangered
Locations: Bhutan; India (West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam); Nepal. Presence Uncertain: Bangladesh; India (Madhya Pradesh, Bihar)
Shy, solitary and wary Hispid hares are most active during dawn and dusk. They often take shelter from predation in tall grasses and the burrows of other animals. They are endangered by multiple human-related threats including palm oil deforestation in the #Assam region of #India and they also hold to survival in #Bhutan and #Nepal. Help them to survive and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
#Assam Rabbits 🐰🐇 AKA Hispid Hares are regal and rare, they’re endangered by many threats incl. #palmoil #deforestation in #Assam, #India 🇮🇳🪷 Help them and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚜🔥🧐🙊⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/21/assam-rabbit-hispid-hare-caprolagus-hispidus/
Hispid #Hares 🐇🐰🩶 hang on to survival, facing multiple human-related threats including #palmoil expansion in #Assam #India 🇮🇳 Fight for their survival and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🤮☠️❌ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/21/assam-rabbit-hispid-hare-caprolagus-hispidus/
A medium-sized hare, they are typically 47 cm in height, with males being slightly smaller than females. Females weigh an average of 2.5kg, with pregnant females weighing an average of 3.2kg. They possess a bristly haired coat with a dark brown and black back and a creamy white abdomen. This enables them ample camouflage in a grassland environment.
The primary threat to Hispid Hare populations is habitat loss, caused by encroaching agriculture, logging, summer flooding, and human development (Bell et al. 1990).
IUCN RED LIST
The Indian Hare faces multiple anthropogenic threats including:
Hispid hares are found infrequently in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and possibly Bhutan. They live in tall grasslands and during the dry season. These areas are vulnerable to extreme weather events like fires and floods which are exacerbated by climate change. When these areas are under threat, the Hispid hare retreats to marshes and areas close to riverbanks.
Hispid hares are herbivores feeding mainly on roots of grasses, shoots, bark, and occasionally crops.
More research is needed to understand the mating and reproductive behaviour of these hares. From limited research, it is understood that they have a small litter size and that they are crepuscular, preferring both dawn and twlight for hunting.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Aryal, A. & Yadav, B. 2019. Caprolagus hispidus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T3833A45176688. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T3833A45176688.en. Accessed on 11 November 2022.
Hispid Hare or Indian Hare on Animalia.bio
Hispid Hare/ Indian Hare/ Assam Rabbit on Wikipedia
भूटान; भारत (पश्चिम बंगाल, उत्तर प्रदेश, असम); नेपाल
बांग्लादेश; भारत (मध्य प्रदेश, बिहार)
एक मध्यम आकार का खरगोश, जो सामान्यतः 47 सेमी ऊँचा होता है, जिसमें नर मादा से थोड़े छोटे होते हैं। मादाओं का वजन औसतन 2.5 किग्रा होता है, जबकि गर्भवती मादाओं का वजन औसतन 3.2 किग्रा होता है। इनके पास एक कड़े बालों वाला कोट होता है जिसमें पीठ गहरे भूरे और काले रंग की होती है और पेट क्रीमी सफेद रंग का होता है। यह उन्हें घास के मैदान के वातावरण में पर्याप्त छद्मावरण प्रदान करता है।
हिस्पिड हेयर की आबादी के लिए प्राथमिक खतरा आवास की हानि है, जो कृषि के फैलाव, लकड़ी काटने, ग्रीष्मकालीन बाढ़ और मानव विकास (Bell et al. 1990) के कारण होती है।
भारतीय खरगोश कई मानवजनित खतरों का सामना कर रहे हैं, जिनमें शामिल हैं:
हिस्पिड हेयर बांग्लादेश, भारत, नेपाल और संभवतः भूटान में कम ही पाए जाते हैं। ये लंबे घास के मैदानों में रहते हैं और शुष्क मौसम के दौरान। ये क्षेत्र आग और बाढ़ जैसी चरम मौसम की घटनाओं के लिए असुरक्षित हैं, जो जलवायु परिवर्तन से बढ़ रही हैं। जब ये क्षेत्र खतरे में होते हैं, तो हिस्पिड हेयर दलदल और नदी किनारे के क्षेत्रों में शरण लेते हैं।
हिस्पिड हेयर शाकाहारी होते हैं और मुख्यतः घास की जड़ों, अंकुर, छाल और कभी-कभी फसलों पर निर्भर रहते हैं।
इन खरगोशों के प्रजनन और प्रजनन व्यवहार को समझने के लिए और अधिक शोध की आवश्यकता है। सीमित शोध से यह समझा गया है कि उनके पास छोटे कूड़े का आकार होता है और वे क्रेपसकुलर होते हैं, जो शिकार के लिए सुबह और शाम को प्राथमिकता देते हैं।
शाकाहारी बनकर और सुपरमार्केट में पाम तेल का बहिष्कार करके असम खरगोश का समर्थन करें, यह है #Boycott4Wildlife। आप इस खूबसूरत जानवर का समर्थन कर सकते हैं। इस प्रजाति के संरक्षण का समर्थन करें। इस जानवर की कोई सुरक्षा व्यवस्था नहीं है। अन्य भूले हुए प्रजातियों के बारे में यहाँ पढ़ें। इस भूले हुए जानवर का समर्थन करने के लिए कला बनाएं या इस पोस्ट को साझा करके और सोशल मीडिया पर #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife हैशटैग का उपयोग करके उनके बारे में जागरूकता बढ़ाएं। आप सुपरमार्केट में पाम तेल का बहिष्कार भी कर सकते हैं।
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
These species have no known conservation actions in place and are silently disappearing before we can save them. Do something about it by boycotting supermarket brands linked to tropical deforestation. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife
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According to a May 2023 report by Transparency International, the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia are beset by deep problems: a lack of transparency in company ownership and who are the ultimate beneficiaries of profits, conflicts of interest, revolving-door politics, and politically exposed persons within companies.
All of the above makes the palm oil industry in Indonesia seriously susceptible to corporate capture and corruption. Don’t trust palm oil. Instead #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
A report by @anticorruption shows the top 50 #palmoil companies in #Indonesia 🇮🇩 are susceptible to corporate capture and #corruption 🤑💰🧐🩸 Don’t accept it. Fight back with your wallet #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔🔥⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/14/transparency-international-report-corruption-and-corporate-capture-in-indonesias-top-50-palm-oil-companies/
Report 📰 by Transparency International @anticorruption finds #Indonesian #palmoil industry is weakened by #corruption 💰🔥 and murky #financial links. Don’t trust palm oil! Instead #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸☠️🤮⛔️🙊 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/14/transparency-international-report-corruption-and-corporate-capture-in-indonesias-top-50-palm-oil-companies/
A report into corporate capture and corruption in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies originally published in Baha Indonesia by Transparency International Indonesia. This report is summarised and analysed by Mongabay journalist Hans Nicholas Jong and republished by Eco-Business on May 5, 2023. Republished below. The Transparency International report’s conclusion is also translated and published below.
“Revolving door practices and cooling-off periods are still not widely recognised in Indonesia. In fact, the trend of businesspeople sponsoring political parties and then being appointed to public office – revolving door practices – is still a well-established practice.
“Even RSPO/ISPO certification cannot guarantee that a certified company is free from illegal and unsustainable practices”
Published by anticorruption NGO Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the report evaluates the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil. It focuses in particular on their disclosure practices with respect to their anticorruption programs, lobbying activities, company holdings, and key financial information.
This means there’s a general lack of transparency in palm oil companies’ political activities and how they can interfere with government policies, according to TII program officer Bellicia Angelica. In short, any government lobbying they carry out is done without much scrutiny and monitoring, leading to policies and regulations that are favourable to them, she said.
“This should serve as a warning for the government, the private sector and civil society to regulate the management of the palm oil industry more seriously,” Bellicia said.
The companies on six criteria on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being extremely not transparent and 10 being very transparent. The report found that, on average, the 50 companies only scored 3.5 out of 10.
The report also looked at how many of the palm oil companies were certified, either under Indonesia’s mandatory palm oil certification scheme, the ISPO, or under the voluntary Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
It found that only seven of the 50 companies have RSPO and/or ISPO certification that covers not only the parent companies, but also all their subsidiaries.Yet even RSPO/ISPO certification cannot guarantee that a certified company is free from illegal and unsustainable practices, the report said.
An assessment by Greenpeace of 100 RSPO members found that each had more than 100 hectares (250 acres) of illegal plantations inside forest areas in Indonesia, with eight of them having more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres).
Greenpeace also identified 252,000 hectares (623,000 acres) of ISPO-certified oil palm plantations inside forest areas, which aren’t permitted under Indonesian zoning laws.
The highest-scoring company in the report, at 7.2, is PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART), one of the palm oil arms of Indonesia’s billionaire Widjaja family, presiding over dozens of plantations and oil-processing mills across Indonesia.
Yet even SMART’s score doesn’t necessarily reflect strong anti-corruption measures, Bellicia said: Of the 50 companies, SMART has the highest number of politically exposed persons working for it, she noted.
Akhmad Kamaluddin, a plantation researcher at environmental NGO Auriga, noted that a former vice president of SMART was caught bribing a pair of provincial legislators from Central Kalimantan in 2018. The bribes were meant to head off an investigation into the alleged pollution of a lake by palm oil processing waste and pesticides.
“So it’s very ironic,” Akhmad said. “From this one case, we can see the face of the palm oil industry in Indonesia.”
Agus Purnomo, a director at SMART, said the problem of corporate corruption plagues all industries across in Indonesia, with local officials often seeing companies operating in their jurisdictions as prime targets for extortion.
“If we become an honest actor” — that is, refuse to pay bribes — “we will become an enemy of all stakeholders, from public officials to local communities,” he told Mongabay. “If there’s a rich person, it’s obligatory to pay for various things like sports and religious events, and that’s deemed normal.”
Agus said it’s this culture of permissiveness that needs to be changed, because it nurtures corruption. He added that the government, community leaders and organisation leaders should lead the change.
Before that change comes, however, companies will continue to feel like they have no option other than to comply with demands for money from stakeholders.
“People always assume that companies are evil [because] they bribe [officials] to get permits. While such cases may exist, most [companies] are afraid to say no [to extortion] because the risks are high,” Agus said. “Will you dare to say no if it’s locals who demand [money]? No, because if you do, then the road [to your company] will be blocked. If that’s the case, will you dare to clear the blockade?”
We found that there are still many companies that are not transparent in informing the policies and processes of interaction between companies and public officials or politicians. This is quite worrying because political connections can lead to conflicts of interest and the impact can give excessive privileges to entrepreneurs who do business in palm oil in the form of policies, subsidies and incentives that can lead to policy capture
In compiling their report, researchers from TII first looked at the 50 companies’ anticorruption policies.
They found that 24 of the companies, nearly half, don’t have an anticorruption commitment that applies to all staff members, including high-level board members.
The second aspect they analysed was whether the companies offered anticorruption training to staff. On this measure, they fared even worse: 46 of the companies don’t provide anticorruption training to all of their employees, including executives and directors.
Twenty-six companies don’t have whistleblower systems in place for employees to flag illegal or fraudulent activities anonymously without fear of retaliation. And even when a whistleblower channel was present, it didn’t necessarily protect whistleblowers from retaliation.
The report cited the case of PT Inti Indosawit Subur, a subsidiary of the Asian Agri group, controlled by the billionaire Tanoto family. In 2006, Asian Agri’s then-comptroller, Vincentius Amin Sutanto, was reported by the company to the police for allegedly embezzling US$3.1 million. Vincentius then revealed to the media and the country’s anticorruption agency, the KPK, that Asian Agri, had committed tax evasion from 2002 to 2005.
Despite Inti Indosawit Subur having a whistleblower system in place that should have followed up on Vincentius’s allegation, Asian Agri pressed ahead with its criminal charges against him. Vincentius was eventually convicted in court and sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2008. And in 2013, Asian Agri threatened Vincentius with a defamation lawsuit.
Asian Agri itself was in 2012 convicted of tax evasion and ordered by a court to pay US$205 million in fines.
The TII report also assessed the extent of the 50 palm oil companies’ lobbying practices. It found 41 of them lacked responsible lobbying policies or procedures. In particular, these companies don’t forbid donating to political figures.
The report also found that 49 firms, nearly all of them, don’t publish the details of their political donations.
Irresponsible lobbying practices increase the risk of corruption as there’s no transparency in the relationship between companies and policymakers, according to TII. This could result in corrupt practices like bribing policymakers in exchange for favourable policies for the companies.
The report cited the case of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed agribusiness giant Wilmar International. Master Parulian Tumanggor a member of its board, claimed he often attended government meetings that determined the allocation of money from the state palm oil fund.
The state fund, which is collected from export tariffs levied on palm oil producers for every shipment of crude palm oil that they sell abroad, is meant to be reinvested in the industry for farmer training, research and development, replanting ageing trees with newer and more productive ones, building infrastructure, and promoting palm oil.
But most of the money collected has instead gone toward palm oil-derived biodiesel, both to subsidise producers and to artificially lower the price of biodiesel at the pump, to make it more competitive with conventional diesel. Between 2015 and 2021, the fund collected 139.17 trillion rupiah (US$9.64 billion) in revenue, and handed 80 per cent of it to biodiesel producers — and less than 5 per cent to small farmers for a replanting program.
Wilmar is the biggest recipient of Indonesian government subsidies to biodiesel producers. In 2017, it received 55 per cent of the total US$530 million distributed by the government to five palm oil companies, or triple the amount it had paid into the fund.
“What PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia did can be perceived as irresponsible lobbying practices,” TII said in its report.
TII’s Bellicia said there should be an investigation into the company’s role and influence in the fund’s meetings.
“This is what we have to investigate,” she said. “With Master attending those meetings, did it result in more beneficial policies to big companies, resulting in the government siding with corporations instead of people in need?”
However, Indonesia doesn’t have rules banning irresponsible lobbying practices or requiring companies to be transparent about their lobbying activities, Bellicia said.
“In our opinion, lobbying has to be regulated because it’s a doorway to corruption,” she said.
In January, Master was convicted and sentenced to one and a half years in prison for conspiring with a trade ministry official to ensure that four palm oil companies, including Wilmar, could skirt their obligations to allocate a quota for the domestic market.
“This is a concrete example of how corruption will be a never-ending problem [in Indonesia] if things like lobbying are not regulated,” Bellicia said.
Another aspect assessed in the TII report is the revolving-door phenomenon that sees officials in charge of regulating the industry going on to take jobs in it, and vice versa.
Government agencies typically hire industry professionals to take advantage of their private sector experience and influence within corporations. Their presence can also help governments gain political support such as donations and endorsements from private firms.
“These individuals [hired by the government] also tend to have biased view in formulating policies and they tend to be in favour of policies that benefit companies but harm people,” the TII report said.
In the other direction, companies also gain an advantage when they hire the very officials previously responsible for overseeing their industry. This allows them to seek favourable legislation and government contracts in exchange for high-paying employment offers, and also to gain inside information on policy discussions.
Unlike some other countries that have issued laws regulating the revolving-door issue, Indonesia has no such restrictions. And in the palm oil industry, the practice is very common: according to the TII report, only two out of the 50 companies assessed are aware of this practice, and none has regulations addressing it.
One example of a regulation used elsewhere to prevent conflicts of interest is the “cooling-off period,” in which former public officials are prohibited from accepting employment in the private sector for a given time period after leaving office.
The report also looked at the presence of politically exposed persons within the 50 companies.
Known as PEPs, these are individuals who hold a prominent public position or function, such as a political party official, industry regulator, law enforcer, or a family member of such a person. PEPs are widely seen as being more prone to bribery, corruption or other potential financial irregularities.
The TII report identified 80 PEPs in 33 companies, including six each at SMART and PT Multi Agro Gemilang. Agus from SMART is one of these. He served as a special assistant to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2010 to 2014, just before joining SMART in 2014. He was also a special adviser to the environment minister from 2004 to 2009.
The report characterises Agus as an example of both a politically exposed person and a revolving-door player.
“Am I a politically exposed person? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it,” Agus told Mongabay. “But if I didn’t go to the company I currently work in, there are many other companies that want my assistance.”
He added it’s not fair if a politically exposed person is automatically perceived as something of a liability.
“If [the report] gives a score, then it looks like the report is judging [politically exposed persons]. Don’t judge, just prove” that PEPs bring risk to a company, Agus said. “Because people can become a bad actor without them having served in the government before.”
The report noted that the presence of politically exposed persons within a company doesn’t necessarily translate into a bad thing.
“But there really needs to be extra monitoring because politically exposed persons are closely tied to conflicts of interests and trading in influence,” Bellicia said.
The final aspect assessed in the TII report was data disclosure — whether the companies revealed information on corporate structure, plantation ownership, tax and income, and beneficial owners.
Data transparency can be an effective tool in preventing illicit financial flows and tax evasion, according to the report. But palm oil companies in Indonesia are still largely opaque in this regard, the report said.
For instance, only 34 out of the 50 assessed companies reported who their beneficial owners were to the government, despite this being a mandatory disclosure under a 2018 presidential regulation.
Lack of clarity on corporate ownership makes it difficult for the government and people affected by corporate activities such as deforestation or tax evasion to demand accountability from the company.
The report also found only five companies that disclosed detailed data on their tax payments.
The absence of disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of the company as well as the publication of the company’s tax expenses and revenues in detail and separately by country (country country-by-country, indicates loopholes for illicit financial flows by companies.
Transparency International Report 2023 – conclusion.
“This opens up room for tax evasion,” Bellicia said.
The Tanah Merah project in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua is an example of how obscure corporate structures and beneficial ownership can increase the risk of corruption, according to the report.
Spanning 280,000 hectares (692,000 acres) in the heart of the largest tract of primary rainforest remaining in Asia, nearly twice the size of Greater London, the project is set to become the world’s largest oil palm plantation.
A 2018 investigation by Mongabay and The Gecko Project revealed that the investors behind the project have employed all the tools of corporate secrecy to hide their identities: shell companies with front addresses, fake and proxy shareholders, and offshore secrecy jurisdictions.
The investigation also revealed that key documents relating to the project were signed by a politician while he was in jail on the island of Java, and that key permits have been hidden from public scrutiny.
Responding to the TII report, Roro Wide Sulistyowati from the corruption prevention department at the country’s antigraft agency, the KPK, said her office has been pushing for palm oil companies to commit to anticorruption practices.
She added that the KPK has also issued a corruption prevention guideline for companies.
“This year, we want to push [the guideline] to palm oil companies so that they have an anticorruption commitment and antibribery system,” Roro said.
In 2016, the KPK carried out an analysis of the palm oil industry and found a raft of problems, such as tax evasion and the lack of an accountable system to prevent corruption in the issuance of permits.
In 2019 and 2022, the country’s financial audit agency, the BPK, carried out its own assessment of the industry. The 2019 audit found that 81% oil palm plantations in Indonesia are operating in violation of numerous regulations, including excess size, noncompliance with the ISPO standard, failure to allocate sufficient land for smallholder farmers, and lack of relevant operating permits.
The BPK has already finished the 2022 audit, but refused to disclose the findings. Following this latest BPK audit, the government recently announced that it had formed a task force to improve governance in the palm oil industry, including on permits and taxes.
It is not surprising that in recent years, corruption cases involving individuals representing palm oil companies have emerged.
Transparency International Report 2023 – conclusion.
Despite the series of findings from the KPK and the BPK, there’s been little to no improvement in the management of the palm oil industry, Bellicia said.
“If there have been changes [since the 2019 audit], there’s no way the score would be 3.5,” she said. “This score should be a wake-up call for the government.”
‘With little will to fight it, corruption is major risk for Indonesian palm oil’, originally published by Mongabay May 1, 2023. Republished here under the Creative Commons licence.
Below is the conclusion of Transparency International’s report into palm oil industry’s weaknesses and vulnerability to corruption, collusion and corporate capture. Published on May 5, 2023 translated from Baha Indonesia to English. Read original report.
| Indonesian | English |
|---|---|
| Berdasarkan penilaian yang dilakukan oleh TI Indonesia terhadap 50 perusahaan sawit dengan kinerja baik yang beroperasi di Indonesia, hasil yang dicapai oleh 50 perusahaan sawit tersebut tidak dapat dikatakan baik. Skor rata-rata Transparency in Corporate Reporting dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang dinilai hanya mendapatkan perolehan 3.5/10. Skor rata-rata dari 50 perusahaan sawit dengankinerja baik ini merefleksikan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan sawit tidak transparan dan minim informasi terkait kebijakan perusahaan terkait antikorupsi, inklusivitas, lobi yang bertanggung jawab, praktik keluar-masuk pintu, dan pengungkapan berbagai data yang seharusnya dapat diakses dan diketahui oleh publik. Hal ini juga mengindikasikan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan sawit, baik yang dikelola oleh negara maupun swasta juga cenderung tidak transparan terkait aktivitas perusahaan dan keterlibatannya dalam politik. Urgensi transparansi pelaporan dan aktivitas perusahaan dalam politik menjadi esensial mengingat interaksi antara sektor privat dan sektor publik rawan terhadap ruang gelap yang membuka lebar celah-celah korupsi dan penggelapan pajak yang merugikan negara dan berdampak buruk bagi masyarakat. Dalam penilaian dimensi pertama, yaitu program antikorupsi; hanya 26 perusahaan dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang memiliki komitmen antikorupsi dan 11 perusahaan yang melaporkan kegiatan politik atau mengatur hubungan antara pemerintah dengan perusahaannya. Sedikitnya angka ini menunjukkan bahwa masih ada perusahaan yang tidak mengutamakan kebijakan antikorupsi dan prinsip untuk mengatur hubungan perusahaan dengan pemerintah. Kekosongan kebijakan antikorupsi dan kode etik perilaku atau prinsip dalam pengaturan hubungan perusahaan dan pemerintah dapat menjadi celah korupsi melalui bagaimana perusahaan berinteraksi atau mencoba memberikan pengaruh pada pemerintah mengenai berbagai kebijakan sawit. Hasil penilaian dimensi kedua yang menilai aturan pencegahan korupsi dan inklusivitas perusahaan juga mengisyaratkan bahwa aturan atau pencegahan korupsi masih seakan berlaku hanya bagi pegawai perusahaan di level staf. Idealnya, seluruh lini jabatan perusahaan perlu diatur, diawasi, dan diberikan pemahaman secara ketat terkait pencegahan korupsi. Hanya 4 perusahaan yang secara eksplisit menyatakan aturan tersebut berlaku bagi seluruh level perusahaan, termasuk komisaris dan direksi. Selain itu, pelibatan perempuan di jajaran pengambil keputusan sangat diperlukan mengingat perspektif gender tidak dapat dipisahkan dari pengambilan keputusan bisnis – hanya 18 perusahaan yang menempatkan perempuan dalam jajaran direksinya. Dalam penilaian dimensi ketiga terkait kegiatan lobi yang bertanggung jawab, tidak ada satu pun perusahaan yang memiliki kebijakan terkait hal ini. Absennya aturan perusahaan dalam hal ini menandakan interaksi perusahaan dengan pejabat publik dapat dikatakan tidak transparan. Sama dengan penilaian dimensi ketiga, hasil dimensi keempat terkait praktik keluar masuk pintu juga tidak dapat dijawab dengan baik oleh semua perusahaan; hanya dua perusahaan yang memiliki kesadaran (awareness) terhadap praktik keluar masuk pintu–namun tidak ada regulasi yang mengatur praktik tersebut. Hal ini merefleksikan bahwa perusahaan memandang perpindahan individu dari sektor publik ke sektor privat dan sebaliknya tanpa masa jeda belum mempertimbangkan besarnya risiko konflik kepentingan. Dalam penilaian dimensi kelima terkait keberlanjutan dan standar sertifikasi, sebagian besar perusahaan telah dapat menjawab pertanyaan dengan baik mengingat kewajiban sertifikasi ISPO bagi perusahaan sawit di Indonesia. Sayangnya, masih banyak pula perusahaan yang belum memiliki ISPO bagi anak-anak perusahaannya–padahal sertifikasi ini sangat penting untuk seluruh grup perusahaan, setidaknya menjamin keberlanjutan sawit di Indonesia. Dalam dimensi pengungkapan data, banyak perusahaan sawit yang hanya mempublikasikan rincian data pembayaran pajak dan penerimaan perusahaan secara terkonsolidasi. Selain itu, hanya 7 perusahaan yang mengungkap pemilik manfaat akhir perusahaan yang dilakukan secara eksplisit; sisanya hanya berupa data pemegang saham perusahaan. Tidak adanya pengungkapan pemilik manfaat akhir perusahaan serta publikasi beban pajak dan penerimaan perusahaan secara rinci dan terpisah di negara tempat perusahaan beroperasi (country-by-country), mengindikasikan celah aliran keuangan gelap yang dilakukan oleh perusahaan. Tingkat kepatuhan perusahaan dalam pelaporan pemilik manfaat akhir dapat dikatakan cukup memenuhi prasyarat dengan persentase 68% perusahaan melapor. Namun, masih ada perusahaan yang melaporkan pemilik manfaat akhir berupa nama entitas legal/perusahaan. Selain itu, hadirnya politically exposed persons (PEPs) di 33 perusahaan juga perlu diawasi agar konflik kepentingan dan celah korupsi yang dapat mengintervensi kebijakan sawit yang adil dan berkelanjutan hanya menguntungkan kepentingan pebisnis. | Based on TI Indonesia’s assessment of 50 well-performing palm oil companies operating in Indonesia, the results achieved by these 50 palm oil companies operating in Indonesia are not good. The average score of Transparency in Corporate Reporting of the 50 palm oil companies assessed is only 3.5/10. The average score of the 50 well-performing palm oil companies reflects that the Transparency in Corporate Reporting of the 50 well-performing palm oil companies good performance reflects that there are still many palm oil companies that are not transparent and lack information regarding the company’s anti-corruption policies. information regarding the company’s policies on anti-corruption, inclusiveness, responsible lobbying, out-door practices, and responsible lobbying, door-to-door practices, and disclosure of data that should be publicly accessible and known by the public. This also indicates that there are still many palm oil companies palm oil companies, both state-owned and privately-owned, also tend not to be transparent about their activities and their involvement in politics. The urgency of transparency in reporting and company activities in politics is essential given that the interaction between the private sector and the public sector is prone to dark spaces that open up loopholes for corruption and tax evasion that harm the state and impact the economy. corruption and tax evasion that harm the state and have a negative impact on society. In the assessment of the first dimension, anti-corruption programmes; only 26 out of 50 companies of 50 palm oil companies with anti-corruption commitments and 11 companies that reported on political activities or organising relations between the government and their companies. At least this number shows that there are still companies that do not prioritise their anti-corruption policies and principles to regulate the company’s relationship with the government. The void anti-corruption policies and codes of conduct or principles in regulating company-government relations can be an opening for corruption through how companies and the government can be a loophole for corruption through how companies interact or try to influence the government on various palm oil policies. The results of the second dimension, which assesses the company’s corruption prevention and inclusiveness rules, also suggest that anti-corruption rules or prevention The results of the second dimension assessing the company’s corruption prevention rules and inclusiveness also suggest that the rules or prevention of corruption still seem to apply only to company employees at the staff level. company employees at the staff level. Ideally, all lines of company positions need to be regulated, supervised, and given a strict understanding of corruption prevention. given a strict understanding of corruption prevention. Only 4 companies explicitly state that the rules apply to explicitly state that the rules apply to all levels of the company, including commissioners and directors. In addition, the involvement of women in the decision-making ranks is necessary, given that gender perspectives are inseparable from decision-making. given that gender perspectives are inseparable from business decision-making – only 18 companies that have women on their board of directors. In assessing the third dimension of responsible lobbying, none of the companies had policies in place. company has a policy in this regard. The absence of company rules in this regard indicates that the company’s interactions with public officials can be considered non-transparent. Similar to the assessment of the third dimension, the results of the fourth dimension related to door-to-door practices were also not well answered by the companies. also could not be answered well by all companies; only two companies had a good awareness of door-to-door practices-but there are no regulations governing the practice. However, there is no regulation governing the practice. This reflects the fact that companies perceive the movement of of individuals from the public sector to the private sector and vice versa without a break in service has not yet the risk of conflicts of interest. In the assessment of the fifth dimension related to sustainability and certification standards, most of the companies have been able to answer the questions well given the ISPO certification obligation for palm oil companies in Indonesia. certification for palm oil companies in Indonesia. Unfortunately, there are still many companies that do not yet ISPO for their subsidiaries – even though this certification is very important for the whole group, at least to ensure the sustainability of the company. at least to ensure the sustainability of palm oil in Indonesia. In the dimension of data disclosure, many palm oil companies only publish details of tax payments and company revenues. data on tax payments and company revenues on a consolidated basis. In addition, only 7 companies explicitly disclose the ultimate beneficial owners of the company; the rest only provide data on the company’s shareholders. The absence of disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of the company as well as the publication of the company’s tax expenses and revenues in detail and separately by country (country country-by-country, indicates loopholes for illicit financial flows by companies. The level of company compliance in reporting the ultimate beneficial owner can be said to be sufficiently fulfil the prerequisites with 68% of companies reporting. However, there are still companies that report the ultimate beneficial owner in the form of a legal entity/company name. In addition, the presence of the presence of politically exposed persons (PEPs) in 33 companies also needs to be monitored so that conflicts of interest and corruption loopholes that can intervene in the reporting of beneficial owners can be avoided. and corruption loopholes that can intervene in fair and sustainable palm oil policies that only benefit business interests. in favour of business interests. |
| Mewajibkan Komitmen Antikorupsi Perusahaan Sawit merupakan komoditas ekspor andalan Indonesia. Namun pelaku usaha di sektor ini masih sedikit yang tidak mentoleransi adanya praktik korupsi–meskipun sudah mampu melakukan ekspansi bisnis di tingkat global. Bukan suatu hal yang mengejutkan apabila dalam beberapa tahun terakhir bermunculan kasus korupsi yang melibatkan individu-individu yang mewakili perusahaan sawit–seperti kasus korupsi pemberian persetujuan ekspor (PE) Crude palm oil (CPO).68 Sudah sepatutnya pemerintah memprioritaskan agenda pencegahan korupsi di korporasi terhadap perusahaan yang berbisnis di komoditas sawit dan menagih komitmen antikorupsi perusahaan sawit. | Requiring Corporate Anti-Corruption Commitments Palm oil is Indonesia’s main export commodity. But businesses in this sector are still a few that do not tolerate corrupt practices – even though they have been able to expand their business globally. to expand their business on a global level. It is not surprising that in recent years, corruption cases involving individuals representing palm oil companies have emerged, such as the corruption case of Crude palm oil (CPO) export approval (PE).68 palm oil (CPO) export approval (PE).68. It is only fitting that the government prioritises a corruption prevention agenda for companies doing business in corporations and a corruption prevention agenda for companies doing business in the palm oil commodity and demand an anti-corruption commitment from palm oil companies. |
| Mendorong Implementasi, monitoring, dan pengawasan kebijakan dalam kegiatan antikorupsi dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan Tidak hanya pada tataran kebijakan (policy), pemerintah juga harus memastikan bahwa perusahaan telah mengimplementasikan kebijakan antikorupsi (practice). Berdasarkan hasil penilaian kami, sangat sedikit perusahaan yang mengimplementasikan kebijakan antikorupsi dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan–tataran practice–seperti pelatihan, monitoring, dan pengawasan. Keberadaan peraturan antikorupsi namun tidak diikuti dengan implementasinya akan membuat kebijakan antikorupsi hanya sebagai paper tiger dan mendelegitimasi eksistensi kebijakan antikorupsi dan kebijakan keterlibatan politik perusahaan. | Encourage the implementation, monitoring and supervision of policies on anti-corruption activities and political engagement of palm oil companies. Not only at the policy level, the government must also ensure that companies have implemented anti-corruption policies. companies have implemented anti-corruption policies (practice). Based on the results of our our assessment, very few companies have implemented anti-corruption policies and corporate political engagement at the practice level-such as training, monitoring, and supervision. supervision. The existence of an anti-corruption regulation but not its implementation will make the anti-corruption policy only a practice. will make the anti-corruption policy a paper tiger and delegitimise the existence of anti-corruption and political engagement policies. |
| Perkuat transparansi besaran pendapatan (revenue) dan pembayaran pajak (tax payment)dari korporasi sawit ke Pemerintah Munculnya kasus korupsi minyak goreng pada tahun lalu membuat pemerintah bergerak untuk mengaudit seluruh perusahaan sawit di Indonesia serta memerintahkan agar perusahaan sawit berkantor pusat di Indonesia. Secara implisit, upaya pemerintah untuk ‘memaksa’ perusahaan berkantor pusat di Indonesia itu disebabkan karena adanya dugaan praktik Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS), yaitu praktik penggerusan pajak dan pemindahan keuntungan yang dihasilkan dari negara yang menjadi lokasi aktivitas bisnis–Indonesia–ke negara tujuan yang memiliki tarif pajak yang lebih rendah–Singapura.69 Menyadari adanya potensi kehilangan pajak akibat praktik diatas, Pemerintah menerbitkan Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 213/2016 tentang Jenis Dokumen dan/atau Informasi Tambahan yang Wajib Disimpan oleh Wajib Pajak yang Melakukan Transaksi dengan Para Pihak yang Memiliki Hubungan Istimewa dan Tata Cara Pengelolaannya, dan salah satu dokumen yang wajib dilaporkan adalah laporan per negara (Country-by-Country Report).70 Dalam laporan-per-negara, alokasi penghasilan, pajak yang dibayar, dan aktivitas bisnis di setiap yurisdiksi anak usaha wajib dilaporkan. 71 Laporan tersebut diyakini dapat dijadikan oleh Pemerintah sebagai senjata untuk memerangi praktik penggelapan pajak. Hasil penelusuran kami pun menunjukkan bahwa belum ada perusahaan yang mempublikasikan laporan per negara kepada publik. Selain itu, laporan per negara tidak membuka ruang bagi publik untuk melakukan verifikasi terhadap kebenaran informasi yang disampaikan oleh perusahaan dalam laporan per negara yang disampaikan oleh perusahaan ke Direktorat Jenderal Pajak (DJP). Sebaiknya dokumen ini dijadikan sebagai dokumen yang dapat diakses dan dipublikasikan kepada publik.72 | Strengthen transparency of revenue and tax payments from palm oil corporations to the government The emergence of the cooking oil corruption case last year made the government move to audit all palm oil companies in Indonesia and ordered palm oil companies to be headquartered in Indonesia. Implicitly, the government’s attempt to ‘force’ companies to be headquartered in Indonesia was due to the alleged practice of Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS), which is the practice of profit shifting. Shifting (BEPS), which is the practice of tax erosion and profit shifting generated from the country of business activity-Indonesia. from the country of business activity-Indonesia-to a destination country with a lower tax rate-Singapore. 69 Recognising the potential for tax loss due to the above practice, the Government issued the Minister of Finance Regulation (MoFTR) on the practice. The Government issued Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) No. 213/2016 on Types of Documents and/or Additional Information that Must be Kept by Taxpayers Conducting Transactions with Related Parties and the Procedures for Their Management, and one of the documents that must be reported is the Country-by-Country Report.70 In the Country-by-Country Report, the allocation of income, taxes paid, and business activities in each subsidiary jurisdiction must be reported. 71 The report is believed to be used by the Government as a weapon to combat tax evasion. Our search results also show that there are no companies that publish country-by-country reports to the public. In addition, the country-by-country report does not allow the public to verify the accuracy of the information submitted by the company in the country-by-country report submitted by the company to the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT). This document should be made accessible and publicised to the public.72 |
| Pengawasan terhadap Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) Maraknya keberadaan Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) di 50 perusahaan sawit di Indonesia menunjukkan bahwa koneksi politik sangat berharga bagi perusahaan sawit. Sko Corruption Perception Index (CPI) tahun 2022 pun menurun 4 poin–penurunan skor terburuk sejak tahun reformasi. Penurunan skor disebabkan oleh konflik kepentingan antara pebisnis dan pejabat publik dinilai semakin terang enderang.73 Apabila pemerintah berkomitmen kuat untuk memperbaiki skor CPI, sudah seharusnya pemerintah mengimplementasikan aturan konflik kepentingan–dimulai dari kabinet Presiden Jokowi–dan mendorong perusahaan sawit untuk tidak merekrut direksi dan komisaris yang tergolong sebagai Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). | Supervision of Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) The prevalence of Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) in 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia shows that political connections are valuable to palm oil companies. The 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score dropped by 4 points – the worst drop since reformasi. The decline in the score is due to the conflict of interest between business people and public officials, which is considered to be increasingly obvious.73 If the government is strongly committed to improving the CPI score, it should be the government’s responsibility to improve the CPI score. to improve the CPI score, the government should implement conflict of interest rules-starting with President Jokowi’s cabinet of interest rules – starting from President Jokowi’s cabinet – and encourage palm oil companies to not recruit directors and commissioners who are classified as Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). (PEPs). |
| Perusahaan Sawit di Indonesia Memastikan adanya kebijakan antikorupsi yang esensial Selain menagih komitmen antikorupsi perusahaan sawit, pemerintah juga harus memastikan bahwa perusahaan sawit turut menyusun kebijakan antikorupsi yang esensial, seperti aturan terkait suap, gratifikasi, donasi politik, dan konflik kepentingan. Dalam laporan ini ditemukan bahwa masih sedikit perusahaan sawit yang memiliki aturan-aturan esensial yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya. Penyusunan peraturan antikorupsi dinilai penting karena aturan tersebut berguna untuk memberikan pedoman bagi karyawan, direksi, dan komisaris perusahaan dalam berperilaku mewakili nama perusahaan dan agar korporasi tidak dimintai pertanggungjawaban pidana karena tidak melakukan langkah-langkah yang diperlukan untuk melakukan pencegahan korupsi. | Palm Oil Companies in Indonesia Ensure essential anti-corruption policies are in place In addition to demanding anti-corruption commitments from palm oil companies, the government must also ensure that palm oil companies develop essential anti-corruption policies, such as rules on anti-corruption. that palm oil companies also develop essential anti-corruption policies, such as rules on bribery, gratuities, political donations and conflicts of interest. This report found that there are still few palm oil companies that have the essential rules mentioned earlier. mentioned earlier. The development of anti-corruption regulations is important because they provide guidance to employees, employees’ supervisors, and employees. to provide guidelines for employees, directors and commissioners of the company in their in their behaviour on behalf of the company and so that the corporation is not held criminally criminal liability for not taking the necessary steps to prevent corruption.74 |
| Perkuat mekanisme peniup peluit Kebijakan antikorupsi dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan sudah sepatutnya dilengkapi sistem yang bertujuan untuk menerima laporan dan mendeteksi kecurangan, seperti sistem pelaporan pelanggaran (Whistle-Blowing System/WBS). Hanya setengah dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang kami nilai yang memiliki WBS. Untuk meningkatkan efektivitas, perusahaan harus menjamin bahwa WBS yang dimiliki telah menjamin perlindungan kepada pelapor, memperbolehkan pelaporan secara anonim, dan menjaga independensi pengelola WBS. | Strengthen the whistleblower mechanism Companies’ anti-corruption and political engagement policies should be complemented by systems aimed at receiving reports and detecting fraud, such as whistle-blowing systems (WBS). Only half of the 50 palm oil companies we assessed have a WBS. To improve effectiveness, companies should ensure that their WBS provides protection to whistleblowers, allows anonymous reporting, and maintains the independence of the WBS manager |
| Transparansi kegiatan lobbying Praktik lobbying–baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung–sangat lekat dengan komoditas sawit. Komoditas ini sering dilabeli sebagai komoditas yang memicu tingginya tingkat deforestasi dan merusak biodiversitas kawasan hutan. Komoditas ini juga menjadi salah satu sasaran utama penerapan prinsip NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation). Namun ada saja upaya lobi untuk membajak konsep deforestasi, misalkan saja upaya melabeli sawit sebagai tanaman hutan.75 Sudah seharusnya pemerintah memaksa perusahaan sawit–dan asosiasi bisnis sawit–untuk transparan dalam melakukan praktik lobbying agar tidak ada policy capture dalam kebijakan yang mengatur komoditas ekspor andalan Indonesia ini. | Transparency of lobbying activities The practice of lobbying-both directly and indirectly-is closely associated with palm oil commodities. This commodity is often labelled as the one that triggers high deforestation and destroying the biodiversity of forest areas. This commodity has also become one of the main targets for the implementation of NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation) principles. Exploitation). However, there are lobbying efforts to hijack the concept of deforestation, for example labelling palm oil as a forest crop.75 The government should have forced palm oil companies-and palm oil business associations-to be transparent in their lobbying practices so that there is no policy capture. lobbying practices so that there is no policy capture in the policies governing Indonesia’s flagship export commodity. Indonesia’s flagship export commodity. |
| Mewajibkan pihak ketiga dan penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan Untuk memudahkan praktik korupsi, korporasi seringkali memanfaatkan jasa perantara/intermediary untuk menyamarkan praktik tersebut.76 Selain itu, penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) yang ditunjuk oleh korporasi juga seringkali terpilih tanpa melalui proses uji tuntas integritas (integrity due diligence). Berdasarkan penilaian kami, sangat sedikit perusahaan sawit yang mewajibkan perantara dan penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan dan melalui proses cek latar belakang, pemilik manfaat (beneficial owner), dan Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). Sebaiknya korporasi mewajibkan kedua pihak di atas untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan agar kekosongan hukum ini tidak menjadi bumerang ketika perusahaan tersangkut kasus tindak pidana. | Require third parties and providers of goods and services (PBJ) to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy To facilitate corrupt practices, corporations often utilise the services of intermediaries to disguise the practice. In addition, providers of goods and services appointed by corporations are also often selected without going through an integrity due diligence process. Based on our assessment, very few palm oil companies require intermediaries and PEPs to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy and go through a background check process, beneficial owners, and Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). Corporations should require both of the above parties to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy so that this legal vacuum does not backfire when the company is involved in a criminal case. |
| Pengaturan praktik revolving door dan cooling-off period Praktik keluar-masuk pintu (revolving door) dan masa jeda (cooling-off period) masih tidak dikenal secara luas di Indonesia. Padahal, tren di mana pebisnis yang dahulu menjadi sponsor bagi partai politik kemudian ditunjuk menjadi pejabat publik–praktik revolving door masih menjadi praktik yang dilaksanakan secara terang benderang.77 Hasil penilaian kami menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada satu pun perusahaan sawit yang telah mengatur praktik revolving door dan cooling-off period. Sudah sepatutnya pemerintah Indonesia yang mengklaim lebih mengutamakan pencegahan korupsi daripada penindakan korupsi–Operasi Tangkap Tangan (OTT)–pasca penerbitan UU KPK tahun 2019 untuk mengatur praktik revolving door dari sektor publik ke sektor swasta maupun sebaliknya. | Regulating revolving door practices and cooling-off periods Revolving door practices and cooling-off periods are still not widely recognised in Indonesia. In fact, the trend of businesspeople sponsoring political parties and then being appointed to public office – revolving door practices – is still a well-established practice. 77 Our assessment shows that not a single palm oil company has regulated revolving door practices and cooling-off periods. It is appropriate for the Indonesian government, which claims to prioritise corruption prevention over corruption prosecution-Operasi Tangkap Tangan (OTT)-after the issuance of the 2019 KPK Law to regulate revolving door practices from the public sector to the private sector and vice versa. |
| Pentingnya mewajibkan korporasi untuk melaporkan pemilik manfaat (BO) dan verifikasi data BO Pemerintah telah mewajibkan korporasi untuk melaporkan pemilik manfaat korporasi–know your beneficial owner–melalui penerbitan Peraturan Presiden Nomor 13 tahun 2018 tentang Penerapan Prinsip mengenali Pemilik Manfaat dari Korporasi dalam rangka Pencegahan dan Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Pencucian Uang dan Tindak Pidana Pendanaan Terorisme. Namun analisis kami terhadap 50 perusahaan sawit yang beroperasi di Indonesia menunjukkan masih ada perusahaan yang belum melaporkan pemilik manfaat. Kemudian, masih ada korporasi yang melaporkan nama korporasi lainnya sebagai pemilik manfaat. Padahal, pemilik manfaat adalah orang perseorangan (nature person). Sejalan dengan isi dari Peraturan Menteri Hukum dan HAM (PermenkumHAM) Nomor 21 tahun 2019 tentang Tata Cara Pengawasan Penerapan Prinsip Mengenali Pemilik Manfaat dari Korporasi, sudah seharusnya Kementerian Hukum dan HAM (KemenkumHAM) melakukan verifikasi terhadap kebenaran laporan pemilik manfaat yang dilaporkan oleh korporasi dan menjatuhkan sanksi bagi korporasi yang menyampaikan pemilik manfaatnya secara tidak benar | The importance of requiring corporations to report beneficial owners (BO) and verification of BO data The government has made it mandatory for corporations to report corporate beneficial owners – know your beneficial owner – through the issuance of Presidential Regulation No. 13/2018 on the Implementation of the Principle of Recognising Beneficial Owners of Corporations in the context of Preventing and Eradicating the Criminal Acts of Money Laundering and the Criminal Acts of Financing Terrorism. However, our analysis of 50 palm oil companies operating in Indonesia shows that there are still companies that have not reported their beneficial owners. Then, there are still corporations that report the names of other corporations as beneficial owners. In fact, the beneficial owner is a natural person. In line with the contents of the Minister of Law and Human Rights Regulation (PermenkumHAM) Number 21 of 2019 concerning Procedures for Supervising the Implementation of the Principle of Recognising Beneficial Owners of Corporations, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (KemenkumHAM) should report the names of other corporations as beneficial owners. Law and Human Rights (KemenkumHAM) should verify the accuracy of the beneficial owner report reported by the corporation and impose sanctions on corporations that submit their beneficial owners incorrectly. |
| Menagih komitmen transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan Selain transparansi program antikorupsi perusahaan, salah satu isu lainnya yang perl diwajibkan bagi perusahaan sawit adalah transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan (corporate political engagement). Kami menemukan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan yang belum transparan dalam menginformasikan kebijakan dan proses interaksi antara perusahaan dengan pejabat publik atau politisi. Hal ini cukup mengkhawatirkan karena koneksi politik dapat mengarah kepada konflik kepentingan dan dampaknya dapat memberikan privilese yang berlebih kepada pengusaha yang berbisnis di sawit dalam bentuk kebijakan, pemberian subsidi dan insentif yang bisa saja mengarah pada policy capture. Oleh karenanya, di samping mendorong agenda pencegahan korupsi di korporasi, pemerintah juga perlu memprioritaskan transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan. | Demanding transparency in corporate political engagement In addition to the transparency of corporate anti-corruption programmes, one of the other issues that needs to be addressed is the transparency of corporate political engagement. We found that there are still many companies that are not transparent in informing the policies and processes of interaction between companies and public officials or politicians. This is quite worrying because political connections can lead to conflicts of interest and the impact can give excessive privileges to entrepreneurs who do business in palm oil in the form of policies, subsidies and incentives that can lead to policy capture. Therefore, in addition to pushing the corruption prevention agenda in corporations, the government also needs to prioritise transparency of corporate political involvement. |
ENDS
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Our world is facing a huge challenge: we need to create enough high-quality, diverse and nutritious food to feed a growing population – and do so within the boundaries of our planet. This means significantly reducing the environmental impact of the global food system. Below is information about how you can identify ultra processed foods containing palm oil and other harmful ingredients in order to avoid them – for your own health and the health of the planet. Help the planet, animals and indigenous peoples – #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
#Palmoil 🌴🪔 and #meat 🥩🍖💀 are ultra-processed unhealthy foods 🍔🍟 that are harmful to health and harmful to the planet 🌏🔥 Here’s how to avoid them. Be #vegan for the animals, and the planet! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/10/ultra-processed-foods-are-trashing-our-health-and-the-planet/
Ultra processed #foods #UPF: #palmoil #meat and #dairy are harmful to health and linked to chronic disease and mortality 🫁🫀💀 Here’s how to avoid them for environmental and #health reasons #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/10/ultra-processed-foods-are-trashing-our-health-and-the-planet/
There are more than 7,000 edible plant species which could be consumed for food. But today, 90% of global energy intake comes from 15 crop species, with more than half of the world’s population relying on just three cereal crops: rice, wheat and maize.
The rise of ultra-processed foods is likely playing a major role in this ongoing change, as our latest research notes. Thus, reducing our consumption and production of these foods offers a unique opportunity to improve both our health and the environmental sustainability of the food system.
Agriculture is a major driver of environmental change. It is responsible for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions and about 70% of freshwater use. It also uses 38% of global land and is the largest driver of biodiversity loss.
While research has highlighted how western diets containing excessive calories and livestock products tend to have large environmental impacts, there are also environmental concerns linked to ultra-processed foods.
The impacts of these foods on human health are well described, but the effects on the environment have been given less consideration. This is surprising, considering ultra-processed foods are a dominant component of the food supply in high-income countries (and sales are rapidly rising through low and middle-income countries too).
Our latest research, led by colleagues in Brazil, proposes that increasingly globalised diets high in ultra-processed foods come at the expense of the cultivation, manufacture and consumption of “traditional” foods.
Ultra-processed foods are a group of foods defined as “formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, that result from a series of industrial processes”.
They typically contain cosmetic additives and little or no whole foods. You can think of them as foods you would struggle to create in your own kitchen. Examples include confectionery, soft drinks, chips, pre-prepared meals and restaurant fast-food products.
In contrast with this are “traditional” foods – such as fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, preserved legumes, dairy and meat products – which are minimally processed, or made using traditional processing methods.
While traditional processing, methods such as fermentation, canning and bottling are key to ensuring food safety and global food security. Ultra-processed foods, however, are processed beyond what is necessary for food safety.
Australians have particularly high rates of ultra-processed food consumption. These foods account for 39% of total energy intake among Australian adults. This is more than Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Spain – but less than the United States, where they account for 57.9% of adults’ dietary energy.
According to an analysis of the 2011-12 Australian Health Survey (the most recent national data available on this), the ultra-processed foods that contributed the most dietary energy for Australians aged two and above included ready-made meals, fast food, pastries, buns and cakes, breakfast cereals, fruit drinks, iced tea and confectionery.
Ultra-processed foods also rely on a small number of crop species, which places burden on the environments in which these ingredients are grown.
Maize, wheat, soy and oil seed crops (such as palm oil) are good examples. These crops are chosen by food manufacturers because they are cheap to produce and high yielding, meaning they can be produced in large volumes.
Also, animal-derived ingredients in ultra-processed foods are sourced from animals which rely on these same crops as feed.
The rise of convenient and cheap ultra-processed foods has replaced a wide variety of minimally-processed wholefoods including fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, meat and dairy. This has reduced both the quality of our diet and food supply diversity.
In Australia, the most frequently used ingredients in the 2019 packaged food and drink supply were sugar (40.7%), wheat flour (15.6%), vegetable oil (12.8%) and milk (11.0%).
Some ingredients used in ultra-processed foods such as cocoa, sugar and some vegetable oils are also strongly associated with biodiversity loss.
The environmental impact of ultra-processed foods is avoidable. Not only are these foods harmful, they are also unnecessary for human nutrition. Diets high in ultra-processed foods are linked with poor health outcomes, including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer and depression, among others.
To counter this, food production resources across the world could be re-routed into producing healthier, less processed foods. For example, globally, significant quantities of cereals such as wheat, maize and rice are milled into refined flours to produce refined breads, cakes, donuts and other bakery products.
These could be rerouted into producing more nutritious foods such as wholemeal bread or pasta. This would contribute to improving global food security and also provide more buffer against natural disasters and conflicts in major breadbasket areas.
Other environmental resources could be saved by avoiding the use of certain ingredients altogether.
Demand for palm oil (a common ingredient in ultra-processed foods, and associated with deforestation in Southeast Asia) could be significantly reduced through consumers shifting their preferences towards healthier foods.
Reducing your consumption of ultra-processed foods is one way by which you can reduce your environmental footprint, while also improving your health.
Kim Anastasiou, Research Dietitian (CSIRO), PhD Candidate (Deakin University), Deakin University; Mark Lawrence, Professor of Public Health Nutrition, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University; Michalis Hadjikakou, Lecturer in Environmental Sustainability, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University, and Phillip Baker, Research Fellow, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University, Deakin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
ENDS
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Researchers travel into the remote wilderness of #Cambodia to study the world’s most endangered #crocodile, the placid, cryptic and little-known Siamese crocodile. Help their survival in the supermarket and be #vegan, boycott crocodile leather and #Boycott4Wildlife
Cryptic, secretive and incredibly rare, the Siamese #crocodile 🐊💚 is on the knife-edge of survival in #Cambodia 🇰🇭from #hunting and human persecution. Boycott leather and be #Vegan #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/07/in-the-remote-cambodian-jungles-we-made-sure-rare-siamese-crocodiles-would-have-enough-food/
Originally written by Paul McInerney, Research Fellow, La Trobe University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
For nine hours, my colleague Michael Shackleton and I held onto our scooters for dear life while being slapped in the face by spiked jungle plants in the mountains of Cambodia. We only disembarked either to help push a scooter up a slippery jungle path or to stop it from sliding down one.
With our gear loaded up on nine scooters – 200 metres of fishing nets, two inflatable kayaks, food for five days, hammocks, preservation gear for collection of DNA, and other assorted scientific instruments – we at last arrived at one of the few remaining sites known to harbour the critically endangered Siamese crocodiles.
The Siamese crocodile once lived in Southeast Asian freshwater rivers from Indonesia to Myanmar. But now, fewer than 1000 breeding individuals remain.
In fact, during the 1990s the species was thought to be completely extinct in the wild. Then, in 2000, scientists from Fauna and Flora International found a tiny population in the remote Cardamom Mountains region of Cambodia.
We travelled to this remote wilderness in 2017 to determine habitat suitability for the reintroduction of captive-bred juvenile Siamese crocodiles. We wanted to understand the food web there to see whether it contains enough fish to sustain the young crocs.
Our journey would not have been possible without the help of Community Crocodile Wardens – local community members who patrol the jungle sanctuaries for threats and record crocodile presence. Wardens also conduct crocodile surveys further afield to discover new populations or to identify new areas of potential suitable crocodile habitat for juvenile releases.
Our recent study found to ensure the species survives, reintroduction locations must be protected from fishing pressure – both from a food supply perspective, but also from risk of entanglement in nets.
When we arrived at our site, northwest of the village of Thmor Bang, our day was capped by what we came to know as the standard evening downpour, despite assurances that we had, in fact, timed our trip for the dry season.
Kayaks were inflated, nets set, and sampling was underway. This proved laborious – to ensure crocodiles didn’t drown, we couldn’t leave nets unattended in the water overnight, but instead checked them every hour until morning.
Siamese crocodiles are generally not aggressive to humans, but they come into conflict with people when caught in fishing nets.
This often leads to the crocodile drowning and the fishing net being ruined. It’s a disaster on both counts, because fish is the only source of protein for many local communities in Cambodia.
Like many other apex predators around the world, the Siamese crocodile is also in decline because of habitat destruction and poaching for their skins.
Their potential large size and generally placid nature means they are highly prized by crocodile farmers who use the skins for handbags and footwear. Crocodile farmers also often hybridise the Siamese crocodiles with other non-native crocodile species.
This means programs for Siamese crocodile reintroduction and breeding must carefully genetically screen all young crocodiles bred in captivity to make sure they’re not actually hybrids, so the “genetically pure” wild populations can remain.
Despite a pretty good understanding of captive Siamese crocodile behaviour and biology, very little is known about Siamese crocodiles in the wild, such as what they eat or how much food they need to raise an egg to adulthood.
Our only reliable indication of diet comes from scats (crocodile poo or “shit of croc” as we came to call it) collected along the river banks inhabited by remnant populations.
Carefully collected poo samples containing scales and bones tell us fish and snakes make up a significant proportion of the Siamese crocodile diet.
But the shrouded, mystical, extremely remote and virtually inaccessible jungle in the Cardamom Mountains has ensured we know next to nothing about fish communities within habitats set for the release of captive crocodile. And this information is particularly important for prioritising release locations for captive bred juveniles.
We spent four days sampling fish communities and then repeated the process at two other equally remote locations within the Cardamoms, requiring two days travel between each.
We saw groups of gibbons moving through the forest and macaques climbing down from trees to drink at the river. But at last we spotted a wild Siamese crocodile after dark, swimming in our morning bathing pool, on our second-last day.
Ultimately, we distinguished 13 species of fish from the Cardamom Mountains, confirming the presence of two previously unconfirmed species groups for the region.
What’s more, we found fish density was highest in areas with more Siamese crocodiles, and lowest in areas with more human fishing pressure.
Understanding the food web of crocodile reintroduction sites is important, because conservation managers need to understand the ecological carrying capacity of the system – the number of individual crocodiles that can be supported in a given habitat. Learning this is especially important when historical information does not exist.
Preservation of fish stocks within Siamese crocodile habitats is critical for survival of the species. But a key challenge for natural resource managers of the Cardamom Mountains is balancing crocodile density with local fishing necessity, and to do this, we need more information on Siamese crocodile biology.
Originally written by Paul McInerney, Research Fellow, La Trobe University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
ENDS
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
Read more
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Red List Status: Critically Endangered
Locations: Indonesia; Malaysia; Myanmar; Singapore; Thailand
A curious and intelligent small monkey species, Raffles’ Banded Langurs are also known by their other common names: Banded Leaf Monkey or Banded Surili. Endemic to the southern Malay Peninsula and Singapore, this critically endangered monkey is now found in only a few fragmented pockets of primary and secondary forest, swamps, mangroves, and rubber plantations. Once widespread across Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand, the banded surili’s population has plummeted—fewer than 60 individuals survive in Malaysia, with Singapore’s last wild group clinging to existence in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Palm oil deforestation and habitat destruction continue to erase their world. Help them survive and #BoycottPalmOil and #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop.
Only 60 Banded Surilis AKA Raffles Banded #Langurs 🐒🙈 hang on to survival in #Malaysia 🇲🇾 due to rampant #palmoil #deforestation. Help these #monkeys and use your wallet as a weapon! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🚜🔥💀❌ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/30/banded-surili-raffles-banded-langur-presbytis-femoralis/
Banded Leaf #Monkeys 🐒🙈🐵 AKA Raffles Banded Langurs are #critically endangered from #palmoil #deforestation in #Malaysia 🇲🇾 Fight for their survival each time you shop #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸☠️🔥🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/30/banded-surili-raffles-banded-langur-presbytis-femoralis/
Deforestation and conversion of habitat continue to be the major threats to this species. They particularly affected by oil palm plantations, which are expanding very rapidly within their range.
IUCN RED LIST
Banded Surili’s are around 40-60 cm long and with their tails this can extend to up to 83cm in length. They weigh between 5 – 8 kg and possess dark fur with a a white coloured band across their chest and inner thighs and a shock of white fur on their face giving them a startled and morose appearance. Males have white fur with a black stripe down their back from head to tail. Males will leave their natal group before they reach sexual maturity – at about 4 years old.
Male langurs make a ke-ke-ke alarm call sound which is like a harsh rattle. In the wild, these langurs have been observed being groomed by long tailed macaques.
Deforestation and conversion of habitat continue to be the major threats to this species. They are particularly affected by oil palm plantations, which are expanding very rapidly within its range.
IUCN RED LIST
The Raffles Banded Langur was once a common sight throughout Singapore however their number has dwindled to only 60 individuals in the wild – they are critically endangered in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. They have now increased to 70 individuals in 2022 however their ongoing existence is extremely fragile.
They are fussy fruit eaters and will travel great distances to obtain their chosen food sources: an estimated 27 plant species, including Hevea brasiliensis leaves, Adinandra dumosa flowers and Nephelium lappaceum fruits.
The Raffles’ Banded Langur faces numerous anthropogenic threats:
These langurs are mostly active during the day and spend the majority of their lives in the tree canopy. They prefer rainforest trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae and have historically been found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. Although almost the entirety of their rainforest has been destroyed – mostly for palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia. They are the most dependent on trees compared to other leaf monkeys. Raffles’ banded langurs can be found in primary and secondary forests, swamps, mangroves and rubber plantations.
Banded Surilis are mostly herbivorous with a diet mainly consisting of fruits, seeds and leaves. Their stomachs contain specialised bacteria to help break down plant matter.
They are highly social and gregarious and typically live in groups of 3 to 6 individuals. There’s normally 4 or more females for every one adult male in a troop. Banded Surilis appear to have two birth seasons: July/July and December/January.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Ang, A., Boonratana, R. & Nijman, V. 2022. Presbytis femoralis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T39801A215090780. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T39801A215090780.en. Accessed on 31 October 2022.
Banded Surili (Raffles Banded Langur) Presbytis femoralis on Wikipedia
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
So far, indigenous peoples have not benefited from the development of the palm oil industry. There was a promise by the palm oil industry to improve the lives of indigenous peoples through plasma plantations. However, in practice plasma plantations have not had a positive impact on their lives.
Dayak Ethnographer Dr Setia Budhi was interviewed by Palm Oil Detectives about the rampant expansion of palm oil in Borneo and its impact on Dayak peoples.
Last month UK Tory MP Kemi Badenoch announced that a new UK trade deal would cut tariffs on palm oil imports from 12% to zero.
This move will likely grease the way towards the UK importing palm oil deforestation and human rights abuses from Malaysia and Indonesia into the UK.
Environmental groups: CUT Campaign, Palm Oil Detectives, Bruno Manser Fond, Save Rivers, Extinction Rebellion and many others strongly object to this decision by the UK government. Read on below to watch the video, sign the petition and join the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement to take action against palm oil greed and ecocide.
On Friday 21st April the Clean Up the Tropical Timber Trade team and supporters gathered outside of the Department of Business and Trade in London.
Founder of the CUT Campaign, Dr Teo Hoon Seong read out a heartfelt letter to MP Kemi Badenoch, urging her to reconsider the removal of the palm oil tariff.
The UK have recently entered into the Comprehensive & Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). This has been strongly contested by many environmental groups including Palm Oil Detectives.
Malaysia has demanded that the UK drop its’ import tariff for palm oil from 12% to zero as a condition of entry.
As a group, we anticipate that the UK’s loosened approach to palm oil trade will be disastrous to rainforests, rainforest peoples, endangered animals and endangered plants in Malaysia and Indonesia.
CUT Campaign, Bruno Manser Fond, Save Rivers, Palm Oil Detectives and many other environmental groups are deeply concerned that this action will increase ecocide, deforestation, indigenous land-grabbing, extinction and carbon emissions by destroying the last remaining patches of primary rainforests in Borneo, particularly Sarawak (East Malaysia).
The anticipated benefit to the UK economy is a mere 0.08% of GDP – at a massive cost to the environment.
In this climate crisis we are in – the UK government is worried about appeasing their corporate benefactors and industry lobbyists over the wellbeing of future generations in the UK and in the Global South.
Of particular concern is the strong connection between the Malaysian Royal Family and palm oil deforestation. If the highest levels of society in Malaysia are deeply invested in palm oil deforestation in that country – looser regulation of palm oil in the UK will likely grease the way for increased deforestation, indigenous land-grabbing, human rights abuses and carbon emissions.
Why is this important?
We demand that the UK set the toughest environmental standards possible for palm oil imports, so we don’t get left behind while other countries continue to uphold tough standards.
Britain is finalising entry terms to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an 11-member regional trade agreement, after two years of negotiations. According to reports, Malaysia has successfully demanded Britain cut its palm oil tariffs immediately on entering the pact.
This would be a green light to deforestation and destruction of habitats for endangered animals like orangutans. It would be a disaster for the natural world, and set a terrible precedent for future trade deals. The EU already bans palm oil imports unless they can be proven to be deforestation-free. We – the public – do not want to be left behind, forced to use products without any environmental safeguards. Sign petition on the 38 Degrees website.
“Without the forest, the Penan people cannot survive. The forest is our bank, our supermarket our hospital. This is our life – the way we survive. We hope that governments open their ears to hear our demands: to stop the logging in Sarawak and to stop buying timber from Sarawak.”
Komeok Joe, a Penan elder told CUT Campaign.
“The removal of tariffs on palm oil products from Malaysia without any environmental safeguards makes it very hard for the UK to call itself a climate leader committed to tackling deforestation and protecting precious habitats of endangered species”.
Alex Wijeratna, Senior Director of Deforestation Campaigns for Mighty Earth told the Financial Times.
“For too long, communities in Sarawak and elsewhere have been ignored while decisions are made to clear their traditional lands and forests. As a significant importer of Malaysian timber, the UK has a responsibility to ensure that our demand for wood, and other commodities like palm oil, do not destroy precious forests and cause harm to people overseas.”
The UK Government needs to hold companies to account for environmental harm and human rights abuses in their supply chains, and to give affected communities the ability to seek redress for damage caused to their lands and lives.”
Clare Oxborrow, Friends of the Earth’s
Forests and Supply Chains Campaigner told CUT Campaign.
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
Read more
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
About 80% of the world population relies on compounds derived from plants for medicines to treat various ailments, such as malaria and cancer, and to suppress pain. Our future medicines are likely to come from plants, but how effectively are we protecting these plants from extinction? We aren’t doing enough and we must do more!
#Medicine 💊 humans need for our future survival will likely come from #rainforests 🍃🌳 Yet we aren’t stopping #deforestation! Help forests and forest animals! Be #vegan 🥦🍆🥑 and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔☠️🔥🧐⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/23/dwindling-tropical-rainforests-mean-lost-medicines-yet-to-be-discovered-in-their-plants/
80% of the world’s population relies on #medicines 💊from #rainforests. As greedy companies destroy #Borneo, the #Congo and the #Amazon, the world edges ever closer to losing medicines forever! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴💀🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/23/dwindling-tropical-rainforests-mean-lost-medicines-yet-to-be-discovered-in-their-plants/
Written by Walter Suza, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Agronomy, Iowa State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Walter Suza, Iowa State University
As fires continue to burn in the Amazon and land is cleared for agriculture, most of the concerns have focused on the drop in global oxygen production if swaths of the forests disappear. But I’m also worried about the loss of potential medicines that are plentiful in forests and have not yet been discovered. Plants and humans also share many genes, so it may be possible to test various medicines in plants, providing a new strategy for drug testing.
As a plant physiologist, I am interested in plant biodiversity because of the potential to develop more resilient and nutritious crops. I am also interested in plant biodiversity because of its contribution to human health. About 80% of the world population relies on compounds derived from plants for medicines to treat various ailments, such as malaria and cancer, and to suppress pain.
One of the greatest challenges in fighting diseases is the emergence of drug resistance that renders treatment ineffective. Physicians have observed drug resistance in the fight against malaria, cancer, tuberculosis and fungal infections. It is likely that drug resistance will emerge with other diseases, forcing researchers to find new medicines.
Plants are a rich source of new and diverse compounds that may prove to have medicinal properties or serve as building blocks for new drugs. And, as tropical rainforests are the largest reservoir of diverse species of plants, preserving biodiversity in tropical forests is important to ensure the supply of medicines of the future.
The goal of my own research is to understand how plants control the production of biochemical compounds called sterols. Humans produce one sterol, called cholesterol, which has functions including formation of testosterone and progesterone – hormones essential for normal body function. By contrast, plants produce a diverse array of sterols, including sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, and cholesterol. These sterols are used for plant growth and defense against stress but also serve as precursors to medicinal compounds such as those found in the Indian Ayurvedic medicinal plant, ashwagandha.
Humans produce cholesterol through a string of genes, and some of these genes produce proteins that are the target of medicines for treating high cholesterol. Plants also use this collection of genes to make their sterols. In fact, the sterol production systems in plants and humans are so similar that medicines used to treat high cholesterol in people also block sterol production in plant cells.
I am fascinated by the similarities between how humans and plants manufacture sterols, because identifying new medicines that block sterol production in plants might lead to medicines to treat high cholesterol in humans.
An example of a gene with medical implications that is present in both plants and humans is NPC1, which controls the transport of cholesterol. However, the protein made by the NPC1 gene is also the doorway through which the Ebola virus infects cells. Since plants contain NPC1 genes, they represent potential systems for developing and testing new medicines to block Ebola.
This will involve identifying new chemical compounds that interfere with plant NPC1. This can be done by extracting chemical compounds from plants and testing whether they can effectively prevent the Ebola virus from infecting cells.
There are many conditions that might benefit from plant research, including high cholesterol, cancer and even infectious diseases such as Ebola, all of which have significant global impact. To treat high cholesterol, medicines called statins are used. Statins may also help to fight cancer. However, not all patients tolerate statins, which means that alternative therapies must be developed.
The need for new medicines to combat heart disease and cancer is dire. A rich and diverse source of chemicals can be found in natural plant products. With knowledge of genes and enzymes that make medicinal compounds in native plant species, scientists can apply genetic engineering approaches to increase their production in a sustainable manner.
Tropical rainforests house vast biodiversity of plants, but this diversity faces significant threat from human activity.
To help students in my genetics and biotechnology class appreciate the value of plants in medical research, I refer to findings from my research on plant sterols. My goal is to help them recognize that many cellular processes are similar between plants and humans. My hope is that, by learning that plants and animals share similar genes and metabolic pathways with health implications, my students will value plants as a source of medicines and become advocates for preservation of plant biodiversity.
Walter Suza, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Agronomy, Iowa State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Written by Walter Suza, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Agronomy, Iowa State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
ENDS
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
The idea that nature — forests , rivers, mountains — could have rights, in the same way that human rights, or corporate rights exist has been building momentum. A historic global agreement has been reached to try to protect the plants and animals of this world from further demise.
#Indigenous peoples ✊🤲🌎🌿are 5% of the population but manage 80% of the world’s #biodiversity. Legal rights for #nature e.g. rivers, mountains has been building momentum #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/19/the-right-for-nature-to-simply-exist-is-clear-the-movement-to-enshrine-this-into-law-is-growing/
Originally published by 360Info.org on January 6, 2023 as ‘The Rights of Nature’, written by Senior Commissioning Editor, 360info Asia-Pacific and republished here under Creative Commons licence.
In the last 50 years, the variety of life on Earth has diminished faster than at any time before. Some sources claim that there has been a 69 percent decline in wildlife populations around the world between 1970 and 2018. The United Nations suggests that one million species face extinction.
At the United Nations conference on biodiversity held in Kunming, China and Montreal, Canada, nations agreed to protect 30 percent of land and sea from degradation by 2030, and further to restore 30 percent of degraded areas, amongst other plans.
The agreement was a significant step forward for environment protection, and enshrined into international law the idea that we should “live well in harmony with Mother Earth”.
“For far too long humanity has paved over, fragmented, over-extracted and destroyed the natural world on which we all depend. Now is our chance to shore up and strengthen the web of life, so it can carry the full weight of generations to come.”
~ Inger Andersen Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme
The agreement, with its emphasis on Indigenous knowledge and treatment of Earth as a living thing echoes the rights of nature movement, which has been gathering steam since it was conceived in the 1970s.
Through various legal avenues, this pushes the idea that nature — whether whole forests or single trees — could have rights, in the same way that human rights, or corporate rights exist.
“Rights of nature represent a minimalist alternative and seek to mitigate environmental damage from firmly within the coordinates of the current system.”
Peter Burdon, University of Adelaide
While it seems fanciful, numerous places around the world are actively investigating, or have already implemented at least portions of the concept. The latest is Ireland, where a citizens’ assembly is tackling the question of how the country can maintain its wildlife.
“In a city the boundary between what’s artificial and what’s nature becomes blurry, posing the question of which ‘nature’ in the ‘rights of nature’ should be protected.” ~ Alex Putzer, Sant’Anna School of Advanced studies
~
The details of ‘rights of nature’ are of course nuanced and cloaked in legal complexity, and at its core are big philosophical questions about humans’ relationship with our planet. But with humanity’s woeful track record of living sustainably with other species, it’s a movement that ultimately hopes to reset our path to one of “harmony with Mother Earth”.
“Western legal systems are only just beginning to bring a biological understanding of the world to the law.”
Craig Kauffman, University of Oregon
Originally published by 360Info.org on January 6, 2023 as ‘The Rights of Nature’, written by Senior Commissioning Editor, 360info Asia-Pacific and republished here under Creative Commons licence.
ENDS
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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
IUCN Status: Endangered
Extant (resident): Bangladesh; Bhutan; Cambodia; China; India; Indonesia; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Myanmar; Nepal; Thailand
Possibly Extinct: Vietnam
Extinct: Afghanistan; Kazakhstan; Korea, Republic of; Kyrgyzstan; Mongolia; Russian Federation; Singapore; Tajikistan; Uzbekistan
Presence Uncertain: Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of; Pakistan
Fiercely protective, elusive and beautiful #Dholes are an ancient species of #wilddog that diverged from other dog species millions of years ago living in #Bangladesh, #Cambodia, #China, #India, #Indonesia, #Laos, #Myanmar, #Nepal and #Thailand. Dholes are also known as Asiatic Wild Dogs, Indian Wild Dogs, Red #Wolves and Mountain Wolves. Once found across the Russian Steppe, China, the Middle East and northern Asia their range has been fractured and reduced dramatically by human-related pressures and threats. Ongoing major threats are #deforestation for #meat and #palmoil along with human persecution. They are now classified as Endangered on IUCN Red List. Help them to survive, every time you shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Fierce, and mysterious #endangered #Dholes/Red #Wolves are rapidly disappearing with no protection. Resist #palmoil 🌴🔥 and #meat 🥩🔥 #deforestation in #India 🇮🇳! Take action and be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🧐⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/16/dhole-canis-cuon-alpinus/
Ancient wild #dogs: 🐶🐺 #Dholes/Red #Wolves have survived millions of years. Yet #palmoil and #beef #deforestation in #India is now a real threat. Help them when you shop, be #vegan 🥕🥦☮️🫶 #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸🚫#Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/16/dhole-canis-cuon-alpinus/
The Dhole have a striking and intense appearance with thick and dense fur ranging from pale gold, to yellow to dark reddish-brown and grey-brown. Their underside is typically a paler colour of creamy white. They differ from other dog species in that they have a thicker muzzle, one fewer molar on each side of their jaws and additional teats. They are average sized dogs and typically weigh between 10 – 25kg with males being about 4.5kg heavier than females.
They are the only extant member of the genus Cuon, and they differ from the Canis genus as they have a reduced number of molars and more teats.
Dholes are classified as endangered by IUCN Red List due to ongoing habitat loss, a reduction in the number of prey species and competition from other predators, human persecution and possibly diseases from domestic and feral dogs.
They typically live in structured and hierarchical packs of between 5 to 12 individuals. These consist of a dominant male, dominant male and pups. As with other wild dog species, each pack usually has only one breeding female. Packs sometimes congregate together to form larger groups of up to 40 dogs.
Together they carry out cooperative hunting and care for the pups as a group. Although extremely hierarchical, pack members hardly ever become aggressive to each other.
They have great stamina and can hunt and chase prey for many hours, although they aren’t as speedy as jackals or foxes. They predominantly hunt during the morning (rather than night as with other wild dogs and wolves) this indicates that they rely heavily on their sight for hunting.
During a hunt the pack will alternate lead dogs to pursue the prey, with several dogs taking the lead while the rest fall back to a slower pace. Then the dogs will alternate once the lead dogs get tired. They can typically be found close to water. After a hunt they will leave their quarry nearby so that they can quench their thirst at the riverside.
Dholes are fearful and cautious of humans and yet they are extremely bold in their collective hunting. They have been known to take down large animals like water buffaloes and tigers. In general their prey includes large or medium sized ungulates: chital, sambar deer, muntjac, mouse deer, swamp deer, wild boar, gaur, water buffalo, banteng, cattle, nilgai, goats, Indian hares, Himalayan field rats and langurs.
Prey animals are pursued over long distances and then killed by being disembowelled. They are unlike African wild dogs in that they will allow their puppies to eat first after a kill.
Chavez, D.E., Gronau, I., Hains, T. et al. Comparative genomics provides new insights into the remarkable adaptations of the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). Sci Rep 9, 8329 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44772-5
Dholes prefer open spaces and can be found in the jungle clearings, jungle roads, riversides and pathways. They can also be found on the forest steppes, hills and thick jungles of Central Asia (including Manchuria, Burma, India and the Malayan Archipelago.
The primary threat to Dholes’ survival is habitat loss and deforestation across their range. The number of dholes alive is estimated to be 4,500 individuals according to IUCN Red List with 949-2,215 are mature individuals. They are classified as Endangered.
IUCN Red List
In northeastern India, prey depletion is contributing to the decline of Dholes in the region (Gopi et al. 2012).
Dholes face a number of human-related threats:
Dholes are omnivorous and will eat any small, medium or large sized prey that they can find from rodents to deer, wild pig, goats, hares, livestock and monkeys. They have been known to opportunistically hunt tigers or leopards in hunting packs.
They will also eat vegetable matter and fruit more readily compared to other canid species and in captivity they are known to eat grasses, leaves and herbs seemingly for enjoyment.
Alpha females and alpha males will mate for life and they are followed and assisted by other less dominant dogs who form the pack. Mating typically occurs between September to February. After a two month gestation period, the alpha female dhole will give birth to a litter of 4-10 pups. Other females in the pack will assist with childcare in the den and may also be pregnant or mothers as well. The puppies of all females are protected in the den and are brought regurgitated meat from other members of the pack. Together, female dholes guard the puppies.
Play is important for young pups and after 10 weeks in the den, the puppies will explore the world outside. Dominance orders are established by the time the pack’s pups are weaned and begin hunting independently in the pack at the age of 6-7 months old. Pups reach sexual maturity by the age of 1 year old.
There are no known formal conservation activities in place for this animal. Make sure that you #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket and raise awareness of these beautiful ancient dogs in order to support their survival! Find out more here
Kamler, J.F., Songsasen, N., Jenks, K., Srivathsa, A., Sheng, L. & Kunkel, K. 2015. Cuon alpinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T5953A72477893. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T5953A72477893.en. Accessed on 06 September 2022.
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
The National Health Service (NHS) is the UK government’s public health service. In this factsheet, they recommend people limit palm oil, meat, dairy and other saturated fats in their diets.
For optimal health, the NHS recommends people to adopt a largely palm oil free, plant-based diet rich in diverse plants and wholegrain foods. Adopting this diet along with exercising regularly and limiting alcohol and cigarettes substantially reduces one’s risk of dying of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and obesity, as well as many chronic health conditions.
There are other benefits to adopting a palm oil free and plant-based diet. By doing this, you are refusing to sponsor palm oil related ecocide and human rights atrocities in the developing world. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
This @NHS #factsheet recommends that you #Boycottpalmoil for your #health. Eating #palmoil is linked to #stroke 🫀🫁 #heartdisease #obesity and more. Go #palmoilfree for yourself and rainforest animals 🦏🐅🐘🦧🦍🐍🦉🦜 #Boycott4Wildlife https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/12/nhs-health-guide-lower-your-cholesterol-reduce-palm-oil-and-other-saturated-fats/
This fact sheet of health advice was originally published by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Read original version.
To reduce your cholesterol, try to cut down on fatty food, especially food that contains a type of fat called saturated fat.
You can still have foods that contain a healthier type of fat called unsaturated fat.
Check labels on food to see what type of fat it has in it.
Aim to do at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of exercise a week.
Some good things to try when starting out include:
Try a few different exercises to find something you like doing. You’re more likely to keep doing it if you enjoy it.
Smoking can raise your cholesterol and make you more likely to have serious problems like heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
If you want to stop smoking, you can get help and support from:
They can give you useful tips and advice about ways to stop cravings.
Try to:
Ask your GP for help and advice if you’re struggling to cut down.
This fact sheet of health advice was originally published by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in 2022. Read original version.
ENDS
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Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
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Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
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In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
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Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Curtailed press freedom in Asia makes the job of calling out greenwashing increasingly difficult – at a time when corporate accountability is critical in the fight against climate change. Experts think greenwashing is only just beginning as PR firms try to mislead regulators, investors and consumers writes Robin Hicks for Eco Business News.
#Greenwashing is rife within the palm oil industry. Claims that the efficiency of the crop make it “sustainable” are greenwashing.
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Fight back with your wallet and and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Strict press freedoms in #Indonesia make it difficult to cast a critical eye on #greenwashing and #humanrights abuses and spurious claims of “sustainability” of @rspotweets and #palmoil industry #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
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Media story written by Robin Hicks and originally published in Eco-Business News, August 26, 2021. Read original.
Stories in publications such as The Guardian and The Economist report that palm oil produces more oil per hectare than other vegetable oil crops, so is inherently sustainable.
“Productivity shouldn’t ever be a proxy for sustainability,” Geall said. “Just because you can get a higher yield from palm oil in Indonesia than sunflower oil in Belarus, this doesn’t mean the land has the same ecological importance.”
Palm oil is often grown on biodiverse, carbon-rich peatlands home to critically endangered species such as orangutans, he pointed out.
~ Sam Geall, London-based chief executive of China Dialogue,
The post-pandemic surge in misleading green claims could be the beginning of a new era of greenwashing in Asia, as corporations race to fulfill sustainability commitments and cash in on the rise of conscious consumerism.
“Sadly, I think it [greenwashing] is only just getting started,” said Sam Geall, London-based chief executive of China Dialogue, an independent online publication that reports on the environment in China and Asia-Pacific.
The push from governments to meet decarbonisation targets, investors to find sustainable options for their capital and consumers to seek greener products has created the right conditions for greenwash, he said. “Enter public relations companies and increasingly sophisticated strategies to try to mislead regulators, investors and consumers.”
Geall was speaking to Eco-Business after the Sustainability Media Academy (SMA), a new training initiative for journalists in Asia, organised by EB Impact, Eco-Business’s philanthropic arm. He was part of a panel discussion on how to navigate greenwashing, the practice of making sustainability claims of dubious credibility.
Greenwashing is a problem for journalists across Asia, particularly in countries where press freedom is low and authoritarian governments lean on newsrooms, making it harder for journalists to hold powerful elites to account, said Kavita Chandran, a Singapore-based journalism trainer for Thomson Reuters.
In recent years, laws designed to curb fake news and disinformation have resulted in arrests and convictions for journalists in Southeast Asia, which is home to some of the world’s most heavily censored media. Governments have used the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to impose tighter controls on the press and reinforce obstacles to the free flow of information, according to Reporters without borders, a media watchdog.
A journalist working for a Singapore government-run publication told Eco-Business that state media have less opportunity to challenge greenwash than independent media. Last October, Singapore introduced an anti-foreign interference law which makes it easier for the authorities to clamp down on news outlets.
Enter PR companies and increasingly sophisticated strategies to try to mislead regulators, investors and consumers.
Sam Geall, CEO, China Dialogue
But it is still possible for journalists to call out greenwash, even in countries like China where press freedom is lower than almost anywhere in the world. Probing top-down sustainability commitments, such as China’s net-zero emissions target, is one opportunity for doing so, said Geall.
“The space for watchdog journalism has shrunk considerably in China in the last few years. But in contrast to other issues, environmental sustainability is a space where journalists can still hold actors to account,” he said.
“China’s net-zero commitment is a big political narrative. It sends a signal to the whole system to get in line and that opens up an opportunity to do reporting that scrutinises local governments and companies to ensure they stick to these commitments.”
Solutions journalism – which a July study of international media revealed is growing in popularity as newsrooms shift editorial focus from the problems caused by climate change to potential fixes – is particularly greenwash-prone, Geall noted.
“Too often, it is easy for companies to claim they have achieved sustainable innovation, when it either doesn’t work, or is an early stage discovery far from commercialisation, a solution to one problem that causes another problem, or there is a trade-off they’d rather not talk about,” Geall told Eco-Business.
“In other words, there is too much hype and not enough serious reporting about the technologies that will likely shape the future of energy, food, mobility and more, and the economic models that will sustain them,” he said.
Phil Jacobson, an Indonesia-based journalist for independent conservation news website Mongabay, highlighted palm oil as one sector that has managed to greenwash its role as a provider of livelihood benefits for local communities and smallholder farmers in the media, until recently.
An investigation by Mongabay, non-profit journalism outfit The Gecko Project and the BBC in May revealed that big palm oil companies in Indonesia have been depriving smallholders of millions owed to them. Legally, palm oil companies have had to ensure that rural communities benefit from the large palm oil plantations near them.
Geall said that the palm oil trade has also succeeded in greenwashing the argument that palm oil is an environmentally sustainable crop because it is high-yielding. Stories in publications such as The Guardian and The Economist report that palm oil produces more oil per hectare than other vegetable oil crops, so is inherently sustainable.
“Productivity shouldn’t ever be a proxy for sustainability,” Geall said. “Just because you can get a higher yield from palm oil in Indonesia than sunflower oil in Belarus, this doesn’t mean the land has the same ecological importance.”
Sam Geall, CEO, China Dialogue
Palm oil is often grown on biodiverse, carbon-rich peatlands home to critically endangered species such as orangutans, he pointed out.
Media story written by Robin Hicks and originally published in Eco-Business News, August 26, 2021. Read original.
ENDS
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Read more
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
Read more
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Read more
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
Read more
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
Read more
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Red List Status: Near Threatened
Extant (resident): Costa Rica (Costa Rica (mainland)); Honduras (Honduras (mainland)); Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz, Tabasco); Panama
Possibly Extant (resident): Nicaragua
The Spiny-headed Tree Frog Triprion spinosus is a stunning small frog species hanging on to survival in fragmented patches of forest in #CostaRica, #Panama, #Honduras, #Mexico. They have many common names including the spiny-headed tree frog, spiny-headed tree #frog, spinyhead treefrog, coronated treefrog, and the crowned hyla. These elusive an shy, arboreal frogs are rarely seen and they live out their lives quietly in bromeliads and other tropical plants. However palm oil, timber, soy and meat deforestation along with a fungal disease are grave threats. Help them to survive and be #Vegan #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Tiny and cute #frogs in #Panama 🇵🇦 #Honduras 🇭🇳 Spiny-headed Tree Frogs 🐸💚 are Near Threatened from #palmoil and #soy #deforestation. Help them and use your wallet as a weapon #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔🔥🧐🙊⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/02/spiny-headed-tree-frog-triprion-spinosus/
Spiny-headed Tree #Frogs 🐸💚💌 of #Mexico 🇲🇽 #CostaRica 🇨🇷 are Near Threatened by #PalmOil #deforestation. Males make a “boop…boop” sound when calling females. Fight for their survival, be #Vegan and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/04/02/spiny-headed-tree-frog-triprion-spinosus/
They lack vocal sacs or slits however their loud “boop-boop-boop” call can be heard from up to 100 meters away.
A shy, arboreal species, Spiny-headed Tree Frogs are rarely seen and they live out their lives quietly in bromeliads and other tropical plants. They can be found in the subtropical forests of mountain ranges. They prefer intact forest and secondary growth forest. They have on occasion been observed living in coffee plantations.
They are light brown with darker brown markings and a black belly. It takes them between 60 to 136 days to morph from tadpole to mature frog depending on the number of surviving tadpoles and the competition for food. Their life span is 10 to 15 years.
As breeding takes place in the watery hollows of plants and trees, Spiny-headed Tree Frogs face enormous threat from deforestation.
This beautiful tiny frog faces several anthropogenic threats
A captive “insurance population” is bred and maintained by the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center, Panama, Atlanta Botanical Garden, United States, and a few AZA zoos.
Human-related threats constrict their ecological range and there are now fragmented populations in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Mexico. Like many frogs they are nocturnal and most active at night time.
They prefer to eat insects and small arthropods and worms. Tadpoles will eat unfertilised eggs that are deposited by their mothers.
Males have a distinctive “boop..boop…boop” sound and call to females from within the water-filled hollows and crevices of bromeliad rosettes and bamboo internodes.
Females approach the calling males and clasp them immediately and together pair dive into the water. The female will lay between 50 to 300 eggs and then the male fertilises them. Only one in 25 eggs will hatch, which takes around a week to occur.
The watery catchment where female lays her eggs is safe sanctuary away from potential predators. Developing tadpoles will eat unfertilised eggs laid by the mother. The mother will return to visit egg laying locations to lay more unfertilised eggs for the tadpoles to feed on. Tadpoles will prompt their mother to do this by nibbling on her belly.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2020. Triprion spinosus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T55296A3028482. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T55296A3028482.en. Accessed on 31 October 2022.
Spiny-headed Tree Frog Triprion spinosus on Wikipedia
Spiny-headed Tree Frog Triprion spinosus on Animalia.bio
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
As with the forest kingdoms of #Borneo and the Amazon rainforest, the Indian forest kingdom of the Golden #Langurs and Pygmy Hogs is under siege by palm oil in the north east of India. The region is home to some of the most endangered wildlife in the world. Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, the whole area is one of the most fertile and diverse places on the planet. This region is earmarked for destruction for palm oil. Renowned British wildlife photographer Craig Jones went there to photograph pygmy hogs and report on their dwindling home.
The Eastern Himalayas harbours an amazing diversity of life. There are 163 globally threatened species found in the Himalayas, including Asia’s three largest herbivores – Asian elephant, greater one-horned rhinoceros, and wild water buffalo – and its largest carnivore, the tiger. The region is home to:
• 10,000 types of plants
• 300 mammals
• 977 birds
• 176 reptiles
• 105 amphibians
• 269 freshwater fish
Attention Indian 🇮🇳🪷 #nature and #wildlife lovers 🦏🐅🐒 – #palmoil #deforestation is a threat to rare and beautiful animals in North East #India. Help them when you shop and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🤮🤢☠️❌ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/03/26/a-broken-record-on-repeat-animal-extinction-likely-if-palm-oil-expands-in-north-east-india/
#Wildlife photographer @craigjones17 captures the beauty #India’s #animals 🦏🐒🐵🐯🐅 Learn about animals threatened by #palmoil #deforestation. And how to #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife when you shop! @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/03/26/a-broken-record-on-repeat-animal-extinction-likely-if-palm-oil-expands-in-north-east-india/
The Himalayan grasslands have the densest population of Bengal tigers, which live alongside Asian elephants and one-horned rhinos. The mountains offer refuge for red pandas, golden langurs, takins and pygmy hogs. This is the only known location in the world where Bengal tigers and snow leopards share habitat.
Pygmy Hogs make small nests in the ground by digging a small trench and lining it with vegetation. They use leaves and other soft materials to then make it really cosy inside. During the heat of the day, they stay within these nests. They also use them to hide away their young from predators and other dangers.
Craig Jones
The Pygmy Hog lives in the southern foothills of the Himalayas. In the 1960’s numbers had declined to such an extent that the species was thought to be extinct. Following a fire in the Barnardi Forest Reserve in 1971, a group of Pygmy Hogs were found seeking refuge in a nearby tea plantation.
The plantation owner took these mini pigs into captivity to protect them from local hunters and called on the assistance of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to advise on managing the newly formed captive population. Read more
Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet. In India, most commonly used as cooking oil as well as an ingredient in a wide range of consumer goods. India is the largest user of palm oil products, capturing over 20 percent of global supply.
Oil palm grows in tropical rainforests, and the uncontrolled clearing of these forests for plantations has led to widespread loss of forests and the habitat destruction endangered species across the world where palm oil plantation has started.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged farmers across the eight northeastern states to set up palm oil missions to reduce India’s dependence on imported edible oils, in line with the Centre’s Atmanirbhar Bharat or Self-Reliant India campaign.
The world’s largest consumer of vegetable oils, the Indian public remains unaware of the dangers of massive palm oil plantations, especially in thickly forested regions. The threat to biodiversity is emphasised by experts in the northeastern region, which accounts for 25% of the country’s forest cover.
To clear land and help grow palm, swathes of rainforest will be burned, destroying habitat and homes and the fragile rainforest ecosystem. Trees that remove carbon from the air will be destroyed, removing their storage properties forever. And when the forest is burned, high levels of carbon dioxide and soot are released, a huge contributor to climate change.
The rainforests of North Eastern India are among the world’s most species-rich environments and homes to numerous endangered plants and animals, such as Bengal tigers, Water Buffaloes, and One-horned rhinos, red pandas, golden langurs, takins and pygmy hogs.
The destruction of natural habitats deprives the animals of the basis for their existence, causing an irreversible loss of biological diversity. These animals are dependent on large contiguous forest areas. In search of food, they often get lost in the plantations, where they are regarded as pests.
#India’s fifty year long Project #Tiger has been a successful conservation project. A new research study finds that protecting tigers and their rainforest home has additional benefits to #carbonemissions, saving 1 million tonnes of CO2 from being…
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Intelligent and social Irrawaddy dolphins, also known as the Mahakam River dolphins or Ayeyarwady river #dolphins have endearing faces. Only 90 to 300 are estimated to be left living in the wild. Their rounded and expressive looking…
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Lion-tailed macaques hold the title of one of the smallest macaque species in the world and sport a majestic lion-esque mane of hair. They exclusively call the Western Ghats in India their home. This area has been…
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The Jerdon’s Courser is a rare and captivating nocturnal #songbird belonging to the pratincole and courser family Glareolidae. These #birds are endemic to #India in the Eastern Ghats region of Andhra Pradesh. Currently they are only known…
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Green Dragontails could arguably be called the most exquisite and beautiful butterflies alive.
They flutter through sunlit patches of leaves near to streams and rivers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, and northeastern India.
…
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The Nicobar pigeon is the largest pigeon in the world and the closest living relative to the extinct dodo bird. They are famous for their gorgeous iridescent feathers. When threatened they make a pig-like grunt and are…
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India is pushng palm oil growth, a massive mistake for local biodiversity, land rights and climate change, Indians should resist and Boycott palm oil!
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The largest of the three rhino species in Asia, the Indian Rhino has a distinctive and unique armour-plated look which lends them a fairytale quality that has captivated admirers for aeons. Although Indian rhino numbers have climbed…
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Barasinghas Cervus duvauceli also known as Swamp Deers, are instantly recognisable for their enormous handsome antlers. They can have as many as 12 antlers and their namesake Barasinghas means ’12 antlered deer’ in Hindi. They are now…
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Assam Rabbit (Hispid Hare) Caprolagus hispidus Red List Status: Endangered Locations: Bhutan; India (West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam); Nepal. Presence Uncertain: Bangladesh; India (Madhya Pradesh, Bihar) Shy, solitary and wary Hispid hares are most active during dawn…
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Fiercely protective, elusive and beautiful #Dholes are an ancient species of #wilddog that diverged from other dog species millions of years ago living in #Bangladesh, #Cambodia, #China, #India, #Indonesia, #Laos, #Myanmar, #Nepal and #Thailand. Dholes are also…
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As with the forest kingdoms of Borneo and the Amazon rainforest, the Indian forest kingdom of the Golden Langurs and Pygmy Hogs is under siege by palm oil in the north east of India. The region is…
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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Frequent errors in news reports likely contribute to the animals’ undeserved bad reputation
Spiders are pretty remarkable. They live almost everywhere, from rainforests to deserts. Some even spend most of their lives underwater. They are smarter than you think, with some able to make plans and count. Scientists think they might even dream when they sleep. Yet many people find these eight-legged animals creepy or scary. Now, it seems, fake news may be partly to blame.
#Spiders are remarkable. Many news stories are negative about spiders. It’s high time that we tell the truth about them and their unique beauty #Boycott4Wildlife
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Media reports about people’s encounters with spiders tend to be full of falsehoods, a new study finds. Researchers analysed a decade’s worth of newspaper stories. These articles were published in dozens of countries. Nearly half contained errors. And those untruths about spiders had a distinctly negative spin.
This story was written by Betsy Mason for Science News Explores under the creative commons one-time use attribution licence. Read the original article here.
“The vast majority of the spider content out there is about them being scary and hurting people,” says Catherine Scott. In reality, they note, “spiders almost never bite people.” An arachnologist, Scott studies spiders at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Of some 50,000 species of spiders known to science, only a few are dangerous. In fact, many spiders protect us by eating insects, such as mosquitoes, that spread disease. Even spiders that could pose a threat — such as the brown recluse and the black widow — rarely bite people, Scott says.
But error-filled news reports paint spiders in a different light. Some stories about spider bites blamed species that don’t even live where the bite happened. Others reported that people bitten by spiders showed symptoms that don’t match those of actual bites. In fact, Scott found, “Many stories about spider bites included no evidence whatsoever that there was any spider involved.”
For the new study, Scott and their colleagues analyzed more than 5,000 online newspaper stories about humans and spiders. Each had been published between 2010 and 2020. They came from 81 countries and were written in 40 languages.
The researchers didn’t just find errors in the stories. More than four in every 10 articles had sensationalized the spiders’ behaviors. Such overblown stories often used words like nasty, killer, agony and nightmare to describe the arachnids. International and national newspapers were more likely to use sensational terms than were regional outlets. Stories that included a spider expert were less sensational. That was not true for stories that quoted other types of experts, such as doctors.
If people knew the truth about spiders, they would spend less time blaming them for bites caused by other animals, Scott argues. People might also be less likely to kill spiders with pesticides that are toxic to other species (including humans).
Clearing spiders’ name would be good for them, too. (Say, for instance, the one in your house that doesn’t get squashed out of fear.)
Improving spiders’ public image could even boost conservation efforts in general. “Spiders are kind of unique in that they seem to be really good at capturing people’s attention,” says Lisa Taylor. This arachnologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville was not involved in the study. “If that attention is paired with real information about how fascinating they are … then I think spiders are well-suited to serve as tiny ambassadors for wildlife in general.”
Journal: S. Mammola et al. The global spread of misinformation on spiders. Current Biology. Published online August 22, 2022. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Red List Status: Endangered
Locations: Western Assam (India), Black Mountain (Bhutan), Manas National Park, Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, Kakoijana Reserve Forest, and forest fragments along the foothills of the Himalayas.
The regal, striking looking Golden #langurs Trachypithecus geei is also known by the common names Gee’s Golden #langur. They are the most endangered primate species in #India and are considered to be sacred to many Himalayan peoples. Once widespread, they are now only found in a handful of fragmented forests straddling India and Bhutan. They are classified as endangered due to #palmoil, #meat and #timber #deforestation and hunting. Golden langurs are known for their expressive eyes and grumpy expressions. This has made them the subject of global fascination and online memes. Help them every time you shop and be #vegan, #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife
Golden #Langurs 🙉🐒 are the most #endangered primate in #India 🇮🇳🪷 threatened by #palmoil and #meat #deforestation. Help save them and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸🚜🔥☠️❌ #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket! @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/03/19/golden-langur-trachypithecus-geei/
Regal and striking Golden #Langurs are known for their grumpy faces 🙊🐒 😠They have reason to be annoyed #Assam #India 🇮🇳 is being destroyed for #palmoil #deforestation. Fight for them when you shop! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/03/19/golden-langur-trachypithecus-geei/
Adults golden langurs are striking with their vivid black faces framed by a mane of pale hair, and their expressive, deep-set eyes reflect intelligence and curiosity. By contrast, infant langurs are born with cream-coloured fur that darkens as they mature. Golden langurs are medium-sized primates, with males weighing up to 13 kilograms and females slightly less. Their long tails, often longer than their bodies, help them balance as they leap gracefully between branches. Golden langurs are highly social, living in groups of up to 40 individuals, and communicate with a repertoire of calls, grunts, and alarm barks. They spend most of their lives high in the trees, rarely descending to the ground, and their movements are fluid and silent, like shadows flickering through the leaves.
The eyes of a golden langur are truly captivating, reminiscent of the molten gold in the dappled sunlight of their forest home in India. These golden langur eyes are the subject of countless online memes, possibly because of their human-like expressions. The expressive eyes of golden langurs convey a range of emotions that resonate deeply with people. Their gaze can appear curious, contemplative, cantankerous, moody or even agitated, making these animals relatable and endearing to a broad audience. This relatability, combined with their striking appearance, makes golden langur eyes a perfect focal point for memes, highlighting the beauty of these monkeys and the importance of conserving their natural habitats.
Golden langurs are heavily dependent upon forests for their ongoing existence. They are diurnal, preferring to forage in the morning and afternoon with a midday siesta. They spend most of the time in tree canopies and rarely come down to the ground.
Social grooming and social interaction is important to Golden langurs and they typically live in troops of between 8 to 50 individuals with several females to each adult male. Grooming is an important social activity and strengthens connection between group members.
The Red List classifies the golden langur as Endangered, with palm oil expansion and deforestation for charcoal, livestock and timber as major drivers of habitat loss. Vast tracts of forest have been cleared for plantations and farmland, leaving the golden langur’s habitat fragmented and isolated. As the forest disappears, langur groups are forced into ever-smaller patches, increasing competition for food and shelter and exposing them to greater risks from predators and humans. The relentless pace of deforestation threatens to erase the golden langur from much of their former range, turning once-vibrant forests into silent, empty fields.
Logging has carved roads and clearings through the golden langur’s habitat, severing the canopy highways they rely on for movement and social cohesion. Fragmentation isolates groups, reducing genetic diversity and making populations more vulnerable to disease and environmental change. In some areas, only a handful of individuals remain, cut off from neighbouring groups by expanses of cleared land. The scars of logging are visible everywhere—fallen trees, eroded soil, and the distant sound of chainsaws echoing through the forest.
As forests shrink, golden langurs are increasingly forced into contact with humans, leading to conflict and persecution. Some are killed or captured for the illegal pet trade. There is a high rate of juvenile mortality and inbreeding when golden langurs are collected as pets. This is a cruel and devastating fate for any golden langurs who are captured. Some golden langurs fall victim to retaliatory attacks when they raid crops. Snares and traps set for other animals can maim or kill golden langurs. Unexpected human-caused deaths exert a heavy toll on wild troops and their social cohesion and structure. Poaching remains a persistent threat, fuelled by demand for exotic pets and body parts in Chinese medicine.
Shifting rainfall patterns and rising temperatures threaten to alter the delicate balance of the Himalayan forests. Changes in fruiting and flowering times can disrupt the golden langur’s food supply, while extreme weather events—such as floods and landslides—destroy habitat and isolate populations even further. The golden langur’s survival is now tied to the fate of the forests and the stability of the climate.
The golden langur’s range is restricted to the forests of western Assam in India and the Black Mountain region of Bhutan. Key strongholds include Manas National Park, Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, Kakoijana Reserve Forest, and a scattering of forest fragments along the Himalayan foothills. Once widespread, the golden langur now survives in isolated pockets, their habitat reduced and fragmented by decades of deforestation and human encroachment.
The Golden langur is primarily folivorous, feeding on a diverse array of young leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds. Their diet shifts with the seasons, following the cycles of fruiting and leaf flush in the forest. In times of scarcity, they may consume bark, twigs, or cultivated crops, bringing them into conflict with farmers. Golden langurs are selective feeders, choosing the most nutritious and digestible parts of plants, and their foraging plays a vital role in seed dispersal and forest regeneration.
Golden langurs breed throughout the year, with a peak in births during the late monsoon and early winter months. Females give birth to a single infant after a gestation period of around 200 days. The newborns are born with lighter fur, which darkens as they mature, and are cared for by their mothers and other group members in a system of cooperative parenting. Social bonds are strong, with frequent grooming and play reinforcing relationships within the group. Infants cling tightly to their mothers as the group moves through the canopy, learning the skills they will need to survive in a challenging and ever-changing environment. The average lifespan of a golden langur in the wild is estimated at around 15 to 20 years, though few reach this age due to the many threats they face.
Estimates suggest that fewer than 6,500 golden langurs remain in the wild, with populations continuing to decline due to ongoing habitat loss, fragmentation, and poaching. The largest populations are found in Manas National Park and the surrounding forests of Assam and Bhutan, but even here, numbers are falling as forests are cleared for agriculture and plantations. Researchers warn that without urgent action, the golden langur could disappear from much of their current range within a generation (Biswas et al., 2024; Das et al., 2021).
Golden langurs can live up to 20 years in the wild, though most do not reach this age due to threats from habitat loss, poaching, and conflict with humans. In captivity, some individuals have lived longer, but the stresses of confinement and social isolation take a heavy toll on their health and wellbeing. The golden langur’s longevity is closely tied to the health of their forest home and the strength of their social bonds (Das et al., 2021).
The greatest challenges facing the golden langur are palm oil, charcoal and meat deforestation, human-wildlife conflict, poaching and collection for the illegal pet trade. These threats destroy the forests these remarkable primates depend on, isolate populations, and expose them to increased risk of disease and predation. Effective protection requires indigenous-led conservation, agroecology, and the safeguarding of forest ecosystems from further destruction. Help them every time you shop and be #Vegan #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife (Biswas et al., 2020; Das et al., 2021).
Absolutely not! Golden langurs do not make good pets. Captivity causes extreme stress, loneliness, and early death for these highly social, intelligent primates. The illegal pet trade tears families apart and fuels extinction, as infants are stolen from their mothers and forced into unnatural, impoverished conditions. Protecting golden langurs means rejecting the illegal pet trade and supporting their right to live wild and free in their forest homes (Das et al., 2021).
Use your wallet as a weapon and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife. Support indigenous-led conservation and agroecology. Reject products linked to deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade. Adopt a #vegan lifestyle and #BoycottMeat to protect wild and farmed animals alike. Every choice matters—stand with the golden langur and defend the forests of Assam and Bhutan.
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Biswas, J., Shil, J., Sasi, R., Ahmed, M. U., Barman, K., Das, N., Basumatary, B., & Kumara, H. N. (2024). Ecological determinants of occupancy of golden langur Trachypithecus geei and its population characteristics in India. Global Ecology and Conservation, 53, e03003. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03003
Das, J., Medhi, R. & Molur, S. 2008. Trachypithecus geei. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T22037A9348940. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T22037A9348940.en. Accessed on 12 November 2022.
Gee’s Golden Langur Trachypithecus geei on Wikipedia
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
The system is failing. #Indonesia’s own parliament, backed by big business interests, has succeeded in weakening the very system set up to fight corruption. Resist the corruption! #FightGreenwashing #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife
#Indonesia’s 🇮🇩 efforts to fight government #corruption 🤑👿are being thwarted by big #palmoil #timber and #mining businesses. Story: @360info_global Resist the corruption! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🩸⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/03/15/oligarchs-weaken-indonesias-fight-against-corruption/
‘Oligarchs weaken Indonesia’s fight against corruption’, written by Charles Simabura and Haykal, Universitas Andalas. Originally published on December 1, 2022 by 360info and republished here under Creative Commons licence. Read original article.
At the beginning of the 2000s, Indonesian voters said enough to corruption in politics. The Reform Order (1999) was designed to fight corruption. Then, in 2004, Indonesians elected President Yudhoyono largely on his promises to fight graft and corruption.
People demanded reform. Tools were put in place to attack the corruption endemic in public life that was holding back development.
But the system is failing. Indonesia’s own parliament, backed by big business interests, has succeeded in weakening the very system set up to fight corruption.
The tentacles of the oligarchs have wrapped themselves around the executive arm of government, where several cabinet members have considerable business interests. Indeed, 55 percent of Indonesia’s parliament members have significant business holdings.
“People demanded reform. Tools were put in place to attack the corruption that had become endemic in public life and was holding back development. But the system is failing. Indonesia’s own parliament, backed by big business interests, has succeeded in weakening the very system set up to fight corruption.” ~ Charles Simabura and Haykal, Andalas University, Indonesia.
[Image] Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.
The Reform Order resulted in the creation of institutions that were expected to be able to free Indonesia from corruption. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had powers to investigate corruption. The Constitutional Court acted as the guardian of the constitution. The Judicial Commission was intended to ensure proper behaviour from judges. And the Ombudsman served as the ‘policeman’ of state officials.
But these institutions have failed to meet expectations. The fervour to fight graft that was there 20 years ago has faded. There has even been a revenge attack by corruptors backed by the oligarchs. A 2020 survey by Transparency International Indonesia showed he Indonesian Corruption Perception Index fell from 40 to 37.
In addition, the People’s Representative body was considered the most corrupt institution in Indonesia. The numbers show why. Between 2004 and 2020, 274 members of local and national parliament were arrested. Many MPs consider corruption eradication as a threat.
The efforts to undo Indonesia’s anti-corruption framework began with efforts to review the Corruption Eradication Commission Law to the Constitutional Court, where, according to data, more than 20 requests for review have been submitted. At the end of President Yudhoyono’s first term, the parliament succeeded in pushing for a revision of the law. As a result, the Corruption Eradication Commission was weakened and was listed as an institution that the public no longer trusted.
It has since become a toothless tiger. The weakening of the anti-corruption body began with its leadership. There are also questions about the recruitment of commissioners whose commitment to eradicating corruption is problematic.
Other commissioners have repeatedly violated the code of ethics, One chose to resign to avoid being fired. Legislation suspected of being corrupt was successfully passed because it did not receive supervision from the Corruption Eradication Commission.
“The way to stop the erosion of Indonesia’s anti-corruption efforts must come from the top. But president Joko Widodo doesn’t seem to be taking any serious steps. People will remember his legacy as ignoring the Reform Order, unless he takes radical moves before leaving office in 2024.”
There is a pattern of laws being drafted in secret and hastily passed which do not serve the interests of the public. The Anti-corruption body Law, the Mining Law, the Omnibus Law, and the Constitutional Court Law are all examples. The result is demonstrations. Any judicial review is usually rejected by the same people who passed the laws in the first place.
Parliament’s efforts to gain control over anti-corruption institutions have become increasingly evident, especially in the process of recruiting the members of those institutions. MPs replaced one constitutional judge because he was seen to be in conflict with the parliament’s agenda after he helped cancel the promulgation of the Omnibus Law.
The way to stop the erosion of Indonesia’s anti-corruption efforts must come from the top. But president Joko Widodo doesn’t seem to be taking any serious steps. People will remember his legacy as ignoring the Reform Order, unless he takes radical moves before leaving office in 2024.
‘Oligarchs weaken Indonesia’s fight against corruption’, written by Charles Simabura and Haykal, Universitas Andalas. Originally published on December 1, 2022 by 360info and republished here under Creative Commons licence. Read original article.
ENDS
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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
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