Research: AI Helps Unlock the Curious Secrets of Orangutan Chatter

A groundbreaking and exciting study has started to decode the complex communication of Bornean orangutans, revealing the intricacies of their vocalisations and offering new insights into their rich and mysterious world. All species of orangutans are critically endangered, primarily due to palm oil deforestation. To help these remarkable great apes, you should always #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop. Learn more about how you can take action.

Palm oil substitutes offer rainforests a fighting chance

Palm oil is a versatile substance used in a wide range of products from foods to cosmetics. The trouble with it is that the cultivation of oil palm trees has caused massive enviromental harm, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, which together account for 85% of palm oil production in the world.

But scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Malaya in Malaysia say they have an answer as to how we can wean ourselves off palm oil.

Reasons to Hope: Palm Oil Alternatives Without Deforestation

Discover hopeful research projects that replace palm oil with alternatives created without deforestation using yeast, CO2, algae and more

Nature’s Hidden Wealth: Conservation’s Opportunity

Animals and plants constitute a very small part of our native biodiversity (roughly 5%). The vast majority – fungi, bacteria and the enormous diversity of other microscopic organisms, including invertebrates – is a massive, largely unexplored economic resource.

The best known examples of commercial uses for biodiversity are the thousands of drugs secreted by bacteria and fungi. But others are examples of what is known as “bio-inspiration” and “bio-mimicry”, where wild species provide the blueprints for products. The combination of nature and biotechnology can offer us all a tentative reason to hope for the future.