The Most Important Place You’ve Never Heard Of

Can you picture a rhinoceros in the rainforest? Add a herd of elephants, families of orangutans swinging through the treetops and tigers prowling the understory and there is only one place in the world you could be: Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, one of Earth’s most ancient forest ecosystems…

rhino, elephant, and tiger

Community Struggles for Land Rights and Livelihoods in Singkil-Bengkung region

Tens of thousands of people depend on the intact forests of the Leuser Ecosystem and the area is rife with looming threats and unresolved conflicts between local communities and rogue palm oil plantation operators. The expansion of palm oil plantation companies has harmed community livelihoods by damaging local resources, including agricultural land such as rice fields, and has brought terror, intimidation and criminalization into the lives of local community members.

Gizmodo: Your Favorite Snacks May Be Driving Deforestation in Ancient Indonesian Peatlands

“The fact that it takes an NGO-conducted investigation to expose that these major global brands are still actively sourcing Conflict Palm Oil from illegal sources, years after each of them has issued public policies explicitly committing them to stop sourcing from suppliers destroying rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands, signals a major failure of the implementation efforts conducted to date by these companies. Consumer trust is understandably undermined when…”