Remote camera traps tiger then illegal bulldozer then another tiger

From WWF

Jakarta, Indonesia — A video camera trap installed by WWF and partners has captured footage linking the destruction of a crucial Sumatran tiger forest to the expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia’s Riau Province.

Videos and photos captured in May and June 2010 – released to the public for the first time today – caught a male Sumatran tiger walking straight to a camera and sniffing it.

A week later, the heat-activated-video camera trap documented a bulldozer clearing trees for an illegal palm oil plantation in the same exact location. The next day, the camera recorded a Sumatran tiger walking through the devastated landscape.



Bukit Batabuh, where the film was taken, was classified as a protected area by Riau Province in 1994, and categorized as a limited production forest based on Indonesia’s 1986 Land Use Consensus, meaning no company can legally exploit the forest.

Clearing forest most likely illegal
“Because of its status, both as a protected area and limited production forest, the area cannot be developed as a palm oil plantation, therefore any forest clearence —including bulldozing activities to clear the path — strongly indicates this excavation was illegal,” said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesia’s Director of Forest and Species Program. “The law should be enforced in this matter.”

“And to stop illegal activities such as this, the palm oil industry should not source its material from farmers or producers who develop their plantations illegally.”

Since mid-2009, WWF has installed video camera traps in Bukit Batabuh to study Sumatran tiger distribution, habits, and threats they are facing. The wildlife corridor connects Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, making it a crucial area for tiger conservation.

This area is an important habitat for Sumatran tigers

“These video camera traps show that Bukit Batabuh area is an important habitat for the Sumatran tiger in Riau, functioning as a wildlife corridor between Bukit Tigapuluh and Rimbang Baling Tiger Priority Landscape, hence it becomes a priority area for tiger conservation,” explained M. Awriya Ibrahim M.Sc Director of Investigation and Forest Protection, Ministry of Forestry.

“Forest clearance in this area threatens this endangered species because it reduces natural habitat and consequently increases human-tiger conflicts, an unfortunate consequence for both sides. Therefore, we encourage all stakeholders—namely provincial and district level government, business sectors, and communities—to support protection for this landscape. The Ministry of Forestry is investigating this matter and will take strong measure in law enforcement, if this activity is proven violating the law.”

Previous footage documents tigress and cubs only 200 metres from this location
The location where the tiger and bulldozer were documented by video in May 2010 is only 200 meters away from a video camera trap which captured a tigress and her cubs passing by in October 2009. ( Watch video)

Indonesia has adopted protection for critical tiger habitats as part of its commitment to the Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for Sumatran Tiger 2007, and the National Tiger Recovery Plan, delivered at the Pre-Tiger Summit Partners’ Dialogue Meeting in Bali, in July 2010.

During the Bali meeting, which was attended by government delegates from all13 tiger range countries, a strategic plan to achieve an overarching goal of doubling wild tiger populations by 2022 was discussed. The plan is expected to be ratified by heads of government at the Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, scheduled for 21-24 Nov. 2010.

“The Indonesian government’s commitment to improve protection for its biodiversity—including an ecosystem-based land-use planning delivered in international fora like the Pre-Tiger Summit Partners’ Dialogue Meeting in Bali last July, and upcoming Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October —should be supported by stakeholders in provincial or district levels especially on the issue of overlapping land-use planning,” explained Chairul Saleh, General Secretary of the Sumatra Land Use Forum (ForTRUST).

Saleh said sufficient prey and protection for the remaining wild Sumatran tiger populations will allow the species to procreate and provide it with an intact home range and habitat that will minimize incidents of human-tiger conflict.

“Bearing this in mind, a revision of Riau’s Provincial Land Use Planning—based on sustainable development principles adhering to ecosystem preservation and accomodating the tiger’s habitat—is crucial.”

Land clearing practices for palm oil plantations in the area have been going on for some time, pushing the tiger to have close contact with humans. Workers have testified that they frequently find tiger tracks in palm oil plantations.

The deforestation rate in Riau pushed WWF to intensify tiger population surveys in the province. Aside from vast deforestation, the population declines are exacerbated by illegal poaching. In March, WWF’s Tiger Patrol Unit and Riau’s Nature Conservation Agency confiscated more than 110 tiger snares in Bukit Betabuh.

Tigers everywhere are losing habitat
There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in Indonesia, or about 12 percent of the estimated global tiger population of 3,200 tigers. With its significant percentage of the global tiger population, Indonesia has a prominent role in tiger conservation efforts. The tiger population is threatened by loss and fragmented habitat, decreasing prey populations, illegal poaching and trading of the tiger and its body parts, as well as human-tiger conflicts.

Take action now and sign the Tiger Pledge on the WWF Action Centre.

For more information please contact:

M. Awriya Ibrahim M.Sc of Directorate-General Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia +62 21 5730138

Karmila Parakkasi, WWF-Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger research team leader, m + 62 8117510735

Desmarita Murni, WWF-Indonesia’s Communications Manager, m +62 811793458, dmurni@wwf.or.id

The video of Sumatran tiger and forest clearing activities in Sumatra’s Bukit Batabuh (referenced in the above text) can be downloaded from http://gvn.panda.org/?r=356&k=11fca67902
- The link includes copyright information, a shot list, and a description.

The Internet works! Nestlé commits to stop using products that come from rainforest destruction

Sweet success for Kit Kat campaign: you asked, Nestlé has answered
from Greenpeace.org

A big 'Thank You!' to the hundreds of thousands of you who supported our two-month Kit Kat campaign by e-mailing Nestlé, calling them, or spreading the campaign message via your Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles. This morning, Nestlé finally announced a break for the orang-utan - as well as Indonesian rainforests and peatlands - by committing to stop using products that come from rainforest destruction.

The new policy commits Nestlé to identify and exclude companies from its supply chain that own or manage 'high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation'. This would apply to notorious Sinar Mas, a palm oil and paper supplier that Greenpeace has repeatedly caught destroying the rainforest - if it fails to meet Nestlé's new criteria - and also have implications for Cargill, one of Nestlé's palm oil suppliers which purchases from Sinar Mas.

Nestlé's announcement sends a strong message to the palm oil and paper industry that rainforest destruction is not an acceptable practice in today's global marketplace - and it wouldn't have happened without you. From the very beginning, the strength of our Kit Kat campaign has been the truly amazing support from the public - online and offline - both concerned consumers and social media-savvy activists alike.

The support from the online community has been clear since day one when our 'Have a break?' video's removal from YouTube sparked online calls of censorship, several spin-off uploads to YouTube, and drove hundreds of thousands of views on the video within hours of it being re-uploaded to Vimeo - the total number of views on all versions of the video is now over 1.5 million!

Facebook was another key online arena for the Kit Kat campaign, where a steady stream of pressure was applied to Nestlé via comments you left on its Facebook Fan page. While many of you also 'wore your support on your sleeve' Facebook-style by changing your profile pictures to images of orang-utans, rainforest, and our campaign Kit Kat 'killer' logo.

The power of social media combined dramatically with our direct actions to deliver the message directly to Nestlé at events like its Annual General Meeting on April 15th. Outside the meeting venue, shareholders were greeted by protesting orang-utans as they arrived, while inside our activists hid in the ceiling in order to drop down over shareholders heads just as the meeting began to deploy banners asking Nestlé to give orang-utans a break. Online our supporters were sending tweets to shareholders throughout the meeting via a fake Wi-Fi network we had set up, which sent shareholders directly to greenpeace.org/kitkat when they connected.

Online and offline the message to Nestlé has been strong and relentless over the past two months - give rainforests and orang-utans a break. All of it - from protesting orang-utans on the streets to Facebook status updates - has brought us to today's commitment. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who helped us get here - now go on and announce it to the world. Please boast about your involvement in the success of our Kit Kat campaign on Facebook and Twitter - or any of your other social network profiles - you deserve it!

Our goal remains the complete protection of Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands. We will be watching Nestlé closely to make sure it sticks to its word and puts them into action fast. We will also continue to investigate and expose unscrupulous palm oil and paper companies that destroy rainforests and to pressure the Indonesian government to act. In the meantime, today's new Nestlé 'no deforestation footprint' policy is something to celebrate. We hope it will inpsire action by other international companies - like Carrefour and Wal-mart - to hear our message that there is no room for forest destruction in the products we buy.

Nestle "fiasco" continues: Indonesian oil palm planters threaten boycott too

Photo: An orangutan is seen with an tranquilizer dart in his side - to make him sleep before rangers relocate him to another place on Borneo island, away from this palm oil plantation.. Photo taken on November 19, 2008. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)via landcoalition.org

from mongabay.com
by Jeremy Hance

Candy and food giant Nestle is finding itself between a rock and a hard place. The online campaign against Nestle continues: today protesters once again posted thousands of negative messages on the company's Facebook page, most demanding that Nestle cut out palm oil linked to deforestation from its products. At the same time, a new problem has cropped up for Nestle: Indonesian oil palm planters are threatening to boycott Nestle products.

Proving that the issues surrounding oil palm and deforestation are nothing if not complex: Facebook protestors say they will boycott Nestle if it doesn't cut out all links to Sinar Mas, a company that Greenpeace has linked to deforestation, whereas the Indonesia Palm Oil Growers Association are preparing a boycott if Nestle stops buying from Sinar Mas, according to the Jakarta Globe.

"About 10 million oil palm farmers in 20 Indonesian provinces have stated their readiness to boycott Nestle products. Apkasindo [Indonesian Palm Oil Growers Association] is now preparing to draw up a list of Nestle products on the market," Asmar Arsjad, Apkasindo secretary general, said over the weekend, adding that if Nestle stops buying from Sinar Mas it would hurt palm oil producers.

Adding fuel to fire, Antara News reports that Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil producers are threatening to stop exports of crude palm oil to the US and the EU if negative campaigns over their environmental practices continue. Palm oil, the world's most productive oil seed, has come to be used in everything from food products to cosmetics.

Nestle has already promised it will stop purchasing from Sinar Mas due to a report from Greenpeace showing that the Indonesian company was involved in destruction of rainforests and peatlands for oil palm plantations. However, Nestle still buys indirectly from Sinar Mas, since one of its suppliers, Cargill, buys from the Indonesian company.

Greenpeace and thousands of online protestors are demanding that Nestle sever all ties with Sinar Mas, direct or indirect. The company has responded that it will purchase only sustainable palm oil by 2015—a comment that angered most.

The online protest against the multi billion-dollar corporation, which began last Wednesday, took on a life of its own after the company had a Greenpeace video criticizing the company removed from YouTube, citing copyright violations. This action, seen by many as censorship, caused the video to go viral: it has been watched hundreds of thousands of times since. Statements made by Nestle on their Facebook fan page, which many viewed as rude, only worsened the situation for the company.

At the crux of the conflict is the importance of the world's rainforests for mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity. Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world due largely to deforestation. Between 1990 and 2005, Indonesia lost more than 28 million hectares of forest, including 21.7 hectares of virgin forest. The country's forest cover has declined from 82 percent in the 1960s to less than fifty percent today.

One of the world's most biodiverse countries, many of Indonesia's species are gravely threatened by deforestation, including both the Bornean and Sumatran orangutans; Asian elephants; Sumatran tigers; Javan and Sumatran rhinos; several species of tarsiers; the small wild cattle, anoa; and the proboscis monkey to name a few.

In all, Indonesia is home to over 30,000 recorded species of plants and over 3,000 mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Yet, the deputy assistant of biodiversity conservation at the State Environment Ministry, Utami Andayani, recently told the Jakarta Post that likely only half of Indonesia's species are known to science.

More good news today: Nestlé sets timetable for palm oil decision

Kit-Kat maker and supplier Cargill respond to Greenpeace campaign
by Kai Tabacek
from the guardian.co.uk

The head of operations for Nestlé Jose Lopez has told Guardian Sustainable Business that he expects to eliminate all traces of palm oil from Sinar Mas from its supply chain by mid-May, providing the allegations by Greenpeace linking the company to deforestation stand up.

Since Wednesday, Nestlé has been at the centre of a PR firestorm after Greenpeace alleged that its palm oil supplier Sinar Mas is involved in illegal rainforest clearance in Indonesia. Nestlé has since cancelled its contract with Sinar Mas, but says that it is still receiving palm oil from the firm through its supplier Cargill.

Cargill is one of the world's largest privately held corporations, exporting palm oil to more than 30 countries.

In a statement on its UK website, Nestlé said it had sought assurances from Cargill about its supply chain. "Cargill has informed us that Sinar Mas needs to answer Greenpeace's allegations by the end of April," the statement continued.

José Lopez told Guardian Sustainable Business that Cargill are investigating the case, and if found at fault, Sinar Mas would be cut out of Cargill's supply chain by Mid-May. "We definitely expect that to happen," he said.

John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's executive director, responded saying that action needs to be taken immediately. "Cargill need to delist Sinar Mas from their global supply chain and Nestlé need to make a decision not to buy Sinar Mas palm oil directly or indirectly."

Greenpeace's allegations have prompted calls for Nestlé to bring its target for sourcing all of its palm oil from sustainable sources forward from 2015. On this point, Mr Lopez said "as soon as quantities are available we will be doing that … but we are not going to promise things we can't deliver."

The greenpeace ad:

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

For more info go to greenpeace.org

Give the orangutan a break

For more info go to Greenpeace.org

Thanks to Jessica G & Liz W. for the link