Forget the Black Gold, Just Clean Water Please

I’m sitting opposite the ‘Hotel Black Gold’ as the sun goes down over Lago Agrio and the streets start to hum with evening traffic, people returning home from work and…

Could Chevron Have a Change of Heart?

Fabiola is a beautiful thirteen-year old girl with sparkling bright eyes and an infectious smile. As we approached her house in the village of Taracoa in Ecuador, she marched right…

New research questions value of REDD project in Sumatra

David Gaveau et al. have released an innovate paper that takes a critical look at the widely touted Reduced Emissions through avoided Deforestation and Degredation (REDD) project in the Ulu…

Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh: a natural asset under threat

Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is one of the worlds richest collections of lowland rainforest, biodiversity, and site of the world’s only successful Orangutan rehabilitation program. Margaret Swink’s great depiction of…

If REDD can’t save this…

Cross-posted at Grist Bukit Tigapuluh Forest is truly one of those special places. It’s got three endangered species, two minority groups of indigenous people and a superlative: it’s the last…

Sumatra Burns, Climate talks simmer

In a twist of fate, Jakarta’s Tempo is reporting that Arif Mundar, one of Indonesia’s climate negotiators, could not make it to the international climate summit in Bangkok because of…

Oil Palm: An illegal threat too

Reuters ran a story this week on illegal palm oil development in Aceh, Indonesia. The story takes an interesting angle, completely ignoring the massive scale of legal oil palm development…