23 August 2009
Palm oil is a controversial component of everything from cosmetics to confectionery. Its use has been blamed on the destruction of tropical rainforest and habitat for the Sumatran tiger and orang-utan. Public discontent is growing. Just last week, Cadbury New Zealand announced it had shelved plans to use palm oil in its Dairy Milk chocolate. But oil is not the only product that comes from palm.
31 August 2009
Forest fires are breaking out in the Sabangau forests in Central Kalimantan jeopardising the lives of the estimated 8,000 wild orangutans living there.
Zoos Victoria has launched a community advocacy campaign called "Don't Palm Us Off". Find out how you can help.
17 August 2009
Consumers secured an important victory today with Cadbury reversing its previous decision to put palm oil in its dairy milk chocolate. This will include all dairy milk chocolate made in Australia and New Zealand.
10 August 2009
AS SUMA, one of Melbourne Zoo's oldest orang-utans, fixes her trusting eyes on a playful toddler from the sanctuary of her enclosure, thousands of kilometres away her relatives in Sumatra and Borneo watch with fear the activities of the humans who come their way.
5 August 2009
Like Bruce Wayne switching to his Batman voice, orangutans may be going deep to deter predators, and some are even using tools to sound more intimidating, a new study says.
2 August 2009
A hundred or so orangutans have just returned from a day at "forest school," where they learn to find food, use tools and fear snakes.
28 July 2009
Movement through a complex meshwork of small branches at the heights of tropical forests presents a unique challenge to animals wanting to forage for food safely.
July 2009
Separated from land by rivers, the large red orangutans of Samboja Lestari forest park, East Kalimantan, are completely off-limits to humans.
24 July 2009
Asia Pulp & Paper’s proposal to convert the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem into pulp paper production in Sumatra - destroying critical Sumatran orang-utan, tiger and elephant habitat – continues to receive media attention.
23 July 2009
An article in New Scientist (22 July, 2009: Issue 2718) reports that October this year will see an unprecedented meeting of Malaysia's palm oil producers, conservationists and local government to figure out how to protect the world's last orangutans.
15 July 2009
European consumer groups and nongovernmental organizations have said they want environmentally friendly palm oil. Malaysian producers of palm oil that have made the switch are discovering that it is still a hard sell.
12 July 2009
A consumer backlash is mounting over Cadbury's decision to add palm oil to its chocolate, with Auckland Zoo pulling the confectionary giant's products from its shops and restaurant because of concern over the damage palm oil production does to rainforests.
It’s membership renewal time, with subscriptions for 2009/2010 falling due in July.
5 July
Thank you to the walkers and their sponsors for a successful Big Walk in aid of the orangutans.
4 July 2009
ENDANGERED orang-utans being raised in Australian zoos for return to Indonesia are about to have their rainforests razed to supply the global market for toilet and photocopy paper.
1 July 2009
In an effort to help save some of the world's disappearing tropical forests the United States is offering Indonesia some much needed debt relief.
30 June 2009
MALAYSIAN wildlife authorities have rescued three baby orangutans believed to have been smuggled into the country, in raids on a zoo and an ostrich breeder, a report said on Tuesday.
26 June 2009
As Borneo's rain forests are razed for oil palm plantations, wildlife centers are taking in more and more orphaned orangutans and preparing them for reintroduction into the wild. But the endangered primates now face a new threat — there is not enough habitat where they can be returned.
26 June 2009
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the World Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007: "The key understanding is to save the orang utan. For that, we must save the forest and by that, we are doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
23 June 2009
A famous British company, Jardines, is profiting as the lowland forest – which shelters the few remaining orang-utans – is razed to make way for massive palm oil plantations, reports Kathy Marks in Tripa, Indonesia
20 June 2009
Within a vast deforested area on Borneo island, Australia and Indonesia hope to turn an ecological disaster into a global lesson on how to help local communities save tropical forests and fight climate change.
18 June 2009
A University of Pittsburgh anthropologist argues in a paper published today that humans most likely share a common ancestor with orangutans, and not chimpanzees, which is the prevailing belief.
16 June 2009
The nation's most recalcitrant fast food chain has capitulated. Yum! Restaurants, makers of KFC, will ditch its artery- clogging palm oil for a healthier alternative, two years after the company stared down the Federal Government and refused to change its ways.
In conjunction with the Sydney Film Festival's screening of The Burning Season, Sydney's Customs House is sceening documentary trailers on its Digital Media Wall and displaying still photographs of the orangutans highlighted in the film along with stills from the film.
10 June 2009
Next month, Zoos Victoria, which manages Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary, will release its postcard campaign, Don't Palm Us Off. The campaign is designed to raise awareness about the destruction of forests in South-East Asia, home of the orang-utan.
6 June 2009
Humans aren't the only ones who like it in the armpit. Our fellow great apes - orangutans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas - also squeal in response to tickling, and new research shows this behavior may be the evolutionary root of human laughter.
6 June 2009
Selling credits for the billions of tons of carbon that are locked in Indonesia's tropical rain forests could be as profitable as converting these areas into palm oil plantations, a study released Friday found.
29 May 2009
Carbon credits derived from a fledgling forest conservation scheme for developing nations will struggle to compete with palm oil as an investment, industry advisers and conservationists said on Friday.
The acclaimed documentary The Burning Season is coming to Melbourne with a special 6:30pm screening on 3rd June. Join Cathy Henkel and Dorjee Sun this Wednesday evening for a Q&A session afterwards.
28 May 2009
Indonesia aims to more than double its crude palm oil output to 40 million tonnes by 2020 through increased yields and more plantations, officials said Wednesday.
An important orangutan habitat in Sumatra is to be logged to provide pulp. Please make your voice heard on this issue.
21 May 2009
Two female orangutans have been seen cannibalising the bodies of their recently deceased babies. Such behaviour has never before been recorded in any great ape species.
19 May 2009
AN INDONESIAN paper company is planning to log an area of unprotected jungle which is being used as a reintroduction site for about 100 critically endangered orangutans, activists said on Monday.
15 May 2009
The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) has recorded a significant decrease in the population of the morio (Pongo Pygmaeus Morio) orangutan in Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan.
11 May 2009
The operators of Britain's first "biofuel" power plants are considering burning palm oil, which is blamed for causing rainforest destruction in south-east Asia.