frogblog

The Indonesian Embassy and documentary producers Natural History New Zealand hosted Russel and Jeanette along with some 180 other people at Peter Jackson’s studios - Park Road Post Production - last night for the launch of the nature documentary series Orangutan Island. Jeanette also spoke briefly to the gathering.

Orangutan Island is a 13 part series produced NHNZ for the TV channel Animal Planet and the series is based in a stunningly beautiful area of Indonesian Borneo following the dramas of a group of dysfunctional orphaned orangutan children, many of whom have lost their parents due to logging.

As Russel noted last night:

[T]here’s been a thousand-fold rise in imports of a rainforest-destroying feed - palm kernel - used right now to prop up New Zealand’s rapid dairy expansion.
The palm oil industry is knocking down rainforests and burning peat across Indonesia and Malaysia to meet increased demand. This is resulting in release of massive amounts of greenhouse gases and the destruction of the habitat of endangered animals such as the orang-utan.

The rapidly increasing demand for palm kernel is a significant secondary driver of the palm oil industry. Increases in consumption of palm kernel mixtures or ‘cakes’ by New Zealand agriculture over the last seven years, excluding this year, would need up to 900,000 hectares of rainforest to be cleared for palm oil to meet increased demand if new plantations were required.

The Indonesian Ambassador Amris Hassam, in his speech, also spent some time discussing  the serious problem of deforestation in Kalimantan.

For some more disparate links about palm oil check out Treehugger on its ubiquity,  Greenpeace on soap, and the Guardian on violence in Columbia.

Photo Credit: Graham Racher