Sumatra hunger strike: the last recourse for a forest community
Here in Riau, Indonesia, signs of the struggle to save the last of Sumatra’s forest is everywhere. Daily, the papers cover stories of timber and oil palm companies destroying forests,…
RSPO Dispatch: Duta Palma destroys rainforests and lives
On the first day of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Pak Jamaluddin was quiet. He said the air conditioning of Kuala Lumpor gave him the flu. He seemed…
RSPO Dispatch: Cargill’s message to local communities – We have no time for you
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was founded to create a path towards sustainability in the palm oil industry. A voluntary process, oil palm producers, traders, buyers, and NGO’s…
RSPO Dispatch: Tough times for climate and forests, but RSPO still intact
Contrary to a number of sensationalist media reports leading up to this year’s Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, the RSPO is not breaking up. At the core of the…
RSPO Dispatch: Oil palm is not development
The RSPO is the world’s largest annual meeting of oil palm industry, environmentalists, human rights advocates, and, most importantly, community members. Today, I watched as a community member from Borneo…
Commodity Colonialism – Oil Palm development in Papua New Guinea
A new, hard hitting, RAN case study on Cargill’s oil palm operations in PNG, ‘Commodity Colonialism’, is now available for download HERE. Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a nation that…
The elephant in the oil palm plantation: China’s growing influence in the oil palm industry
Here at RAN the agribusiness campaign is hard at work pressuring US agribusiness companies, with a focus on the massive privately held company Cargill, to stop their dirty and dangerous…
Indonesia’s deforestation: no mystery here
A new report published in Environmental Research Letters uses precise satellite imaging to show that the pace of forest clearing in Indonesia steadily increased from 2000-2005. At the end of…
The IFC freezes funding of oil palm
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has frozen new investments in oil palm projects and is reviewing all current oil palm projects. The IFC…