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Petition Tag - orangutan
The issue of palm oil plantations displacing and killing orangutans and tigers, as well as other forest dwelling creatures, and the displacing forest communities through removing their food source, and utterly devastating vast tracts of biodiverse jungle in and around Sumatra has been at the forefront of environmental issues for quite some time.
However, following the apparently intentional forest fires in late March 2012 by the palm oil companies, which is believed to have killed hundreds of orangutans and countless other creatures, it is time to enact an immediate blanket ban on the import of palm oil, and the import of products containing palm oil, and use of palm oil in domestically produced products in Australia, as well as mandatory labelling.
2. Demand the labeling of palm oil in cosmetic products 
The Sumatran orangutan society, have been very successful in campaigning to get palm oil labeled in all products who use it. They have recently won their clear labels, not forests campaign and it is now compulsory for all food products containing palm oil to be labeled in Europe and the UK. However this does not cover all products...cosmetics are not included in this campaign but i believe they should be.
The palm oil industry is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of deforestation in other countries. Currently 300 football fields are destroyed in south east Asia every hour for palm oil. And it's not just the vegetation that is being affected! The animals that rely on the forest (such as orangutans) are affected, many orangutans have no place to go when the forest is destroyed. 20 years ago their were more than 300,000 Bornean orangutans in the wild, now their are less than 45,000 in the wild. Orangutans only give birth once in 6 - 10 years therefore it is hard for them to breed as much as they are dying out due to deforestation.
Please go to http://www.wspa.org.uk/wspaswork/orangutans/ for more information on orangutans.
But worst of all the industry does not even label palm oil! Most palm oil is labeled as vegetable oil, therefore many people are unaware that it is in their shopping products. This is taking away our freedom to know what exactly goes into our cosmetics, it takes away are choice of whether or not to use palm oil! This is wrong, they should label palm oil and deliberately point out if it is palm oil free!
EVERY HOUR an area the size of 300 football fields of the world's oldest and most valuable forest is lost, along with the animals it homes, many of them critically endangered. Entire ecosystems are being lost at dramatic rates.
The climate is irreversibly damaged by the carbon released through this practice. Much of this logging is illegal.
DeforestACTION is working with governments to put a STOP to this, but we need your support. Please add your name to our growing list of supporters. Stand up and be counted. By adding your name you are joining Taking It Global and DeforestACTION in their fight to stop illegal logging, re-forest areas of degraded land and rehabilitate the Orangutans rescued during this process. Please add your name and pass on to others who might be interested in signing up.
4. Mandatory Labeling of Palm Oil
Every hour over 300 football fields of pristine, tropical rainforest is destroyed to make room for the establishment and expansion of palm oil plantations. Huge swaths of rainforest are burnt to the ground, leaving thousands of innocent animals, including the endangered Orangutan, helpless. Local tribes who have lived in the forest for thousands of years are forcibly removed, often without compensation.
BUT it doesn't have to be this way. There is an abundance of degraded land and grassland that could easily be converted to palm oil plantations. The only reason companies destroy the rainforest is to selfishly profit from the sale of the timber.
To help support sustainable palm oil, the first step is for palm oil to be labelled on food products. Currently, with no mandatory labelling, consumers do not know if the food products they purchase support this destruction. You have a right to know!
Passed in the sente on the 23rd June, the truth in labeling bill is set to be presented to the House of Representatives as early as July 4th. To show your support for this bill, please sign our petition.
Visit http://www.truthinlabelling.com.au/palmoil.html for more information on the Bill being put forward by Nick Xenophon (Independent Senator for South Australia).
Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown and Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, Senator Barnaby Joyce, are calling for greater truth in labelling.
In 2009, the three Senators introduced the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Laws) Bill and the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Laws – Palm Oil) Bill.
These Bills address the issues of labelling of Country of Origin and Palm Oil, both of which consumers have a right to be informed about.
5. Label Palm Oil. Save the Orangutan. Save the Rainforest.
The orangutan and its habitat are seriously at risk due to palm oil production - an ingredient in 10% of our supermarket products. As consumers, we cannot make informed and ethical choices on purchases as palm oil is not properly labeled.
Please sign this petition to ask the EU parliament to lead by example and to start to take some action. It is time to to action NOW - before it is too late. Please share this petition with your friends, family and colleagues and on your social networking sites.
Thank you.
Red Alert Orangutan Preservation Campaign
www.primateprotection.org.uk
Auckland Zoo is asking the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to label palm oil on all food products, and we'd love you to join us!
The growth of oil palm plantations to produce palm oil in South East Asia is destroying rainforest habitat and driving the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant, Asian rhino and other rainforest species to extinction.
Palm oil is now in one in 10 supermarket products, but on most of these products, it's not labelled.
We all have the right to make informed choices about what food products we buy, and to not buy foods that destroy rainforest habitat and drive wildlife to extinction.
Please sign our 'Don't Palm Us Off' petition by clicking here or pick up a postcard at the zoo.
Tell FSANZ don't palm us off.
7. Save Orangutans – demand only sustainable palm oil is used by Supermarkets/Manufacturers!
Boycott Palm oil until we have answers!
I have been writing to Manufacturers and Supermarkets in the UK in the past 3 months who are known to use palm oil in their products and are in the top 100 for UK sales, and the news is not very positive and most of them have omitted to answer the questions I posed, particularly in providing me with a list of their products containing palm oil and whether it is sustainable or unsustainable palm oil that they use. Unsustainable palm oil plantations are the biggest threat and killer of the Orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra – these plantation Companies burn and tear down the Rainforests (the Orangutans habitat), kill and torture them. There is a supply of sustainable palm oil out there and it is not being used, so there is no excuse!
I now refuse to use ANY of their products, where possible and instead use products from Companies that do not use palm oil at all until there is proof of sustainable palm oil use. I do not want to be consuming this unhealthy saturated fat.
RSPO – is it just a cover?
The RSPO (Round table for Sustainable Palm oil) was set up in part by one of the biggest users of unsustainable palm oil in the World, in order to manage the promotion and changeover to sustainable palm oil for Companies. It appears to be doing good work, but I do feel that some of the members could be hiding behind their membership and saying that they are ‘doing their bit’ when they are actually, as a Company, doing very little. This does not mean everyone, but some of them, so do not take their membership as being the be all and end all – it is not and we need more proof.
It’s all about time
Time is actually running out for the Orangutan’s and many other animals, such as the Sumatran Tiger. If deforestation for the planting of unsustainable palm oil plantations is not stopped, then the Orangutan will be extinct within around 10 years!
Most Manufacturer’s, Supermarkets, and the RSPO itself do not have strict time scales that they commit to, to make the required changes (change to sustainable palm oil). This is no good – we want some promises and action before the Orangutan is extinct! We need them to tell us WHEN they are going to do something.
It is essentially all about greed……..
1. Our consumer greed for tasty and cheap products. (do we really need to eat biscuits and long life bread anyway?)
2. The Manufacturer’s greed for selling in bulk, their budget products, using palm oil as a cheap bulking agent.
3. The Palm oil Companies greed for selling quickly grown, cheaply produced and lucrative oil.
Listing Palm oil as ‘Vegetable oil’.
The law regarding ingredients listings, is an EU law, and allows manufacturers to list palm oil within the general term ‘vegetable oil’ making it difficult for us to avoid palm oil – please see my other petition for information on this very important subject and sign my other petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-orangutan-demand-labelling-of-palm-oil.html
8. Save the Orangutans – Demand Government law change on the labelling of ‘Palm oil’ in our products!
We need to ask the Government to put forward new legislation on the labelling of our products containing palm oil so that Manufacturers cannot label our products with the generic term ‘Vegetable oil’ when it contains destructive palm oil. Label palm oil!
It’s all about time.....
Time is actually running out for the Orangutan’s of Borneo and Sumatra and many other animals, such as the Sumatran Tiger. If deforestation for the planting of unsustainable palm oil plantations is not stopped, then the Orangutan will lose their homes and be extinct within around 10 years!
I have been writing to Manufacturers and Supermarkets in the UK in the past 3 months who are known to use palm oil in their products and are in the top 100 for UK sales. The news is not very positive and most of them have omitted to answer the questions I posed, particularly in providing me with a list of their products containing palm oil and will not commit to whether it is sustainable or unsustainable palm oil that they use. There is a supply of sustainable palm oil out there and it is not being used, so there is no excuse!
List of products containing palm oil......
Until they provide me with a list, as a consumer, I will refuse to use ANY of their products, where possible and instead use products from Companies that do not use palm oil at all. At the end of the day, I do not want to be consuming this unhealthy saturated fat anyway and lessen my chance of a heart attack. BUT the main thing is that we are not allowed the choice to know whether a product has it in or not…..
Listing Palm oil as ‘Vegetable oil’.......
The law regarding ingredients listings, is an EU law, and allows manufacturer’s to list palm oil within the general term ‘vegetable oil’. There is not enough pressure on the European Union to change that right now so we need to do something. As a consumer, I do not want to be munching on palm oil (a saturated fat) and I feel cheated that I have been eating it for so long in my breads, chocolate, biscuits, chewing gum and lot’s more – every day! It is awful that we are not allowed to have the choice to see what products have palm oil in them, because the law says we do not have to be given that choice.
But we must petition and ask the Government to change the law – please sign today!
Plus, see my other petition on the subject of our demand for sustainable palm oil to be used by manufacturers and Supremarkets - signthe other one from this link …http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-orangutan-demand-sustainable-palm-oil-use.html
A long time ago people started to use a product which is now in most of our everyday life's this is called palm oil.This product is used in many things such as soaps in the body shop to oil's and being deep fried in chicken from KFC, things like this are tearing up our beautiful rainforests and habitat's in Borneo.
They destroy the forest by burning and bulldozing the trees leaving the orangutans caged up with no place of their own.
10. Stop Arnott's Use of Deadly Palm Oil
The Palm Oil industry is the greatest threat to Orangutan's in the wild. On average, it costs the lives of about 50 orangutans per week. This means that more than 2,600 Orangutans die every single year simply so that we can enjoy products such as TimTams, Pringles and many more
In the time that it takes you to read and sign this petition, another Orangutan may have died as a consequence of the savage Palm-Oil companies drive to get rich, regardless of the environmental consequences.
Orangutans share 98% of our DNA, and yet we're killing them off as if they are nothing more than garbage. You can help put an end to this mindless murder now by signing this petition. YOU can make a difference.
11. Stop Logging Indonesian Rainforest and Endangered Orangutan Habitat
A proposal for further forest clearing and destruction of over 33,600 ha of rainforest has recently been put forward by a joint venture company, Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group.
The Bukit Tigapuluh (“Thirty Hills”) ecosystem is located in Central Sumatra, Indonesia. This globally important ecosystem provides a safe haven for many species which are threatened by extinction or are extremely rare - including the critically endangered Sumatran orang-utan, tiger and elephant.
Over 100 orangutans have been released to date via the Bukit Tigapuluh Sumatran Orangutan Reintroduction Project – the only reintroduction site for this critically endangered species. It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild and it could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat
Between 1985 and 2007, Sumatra island lost 12 million hectares of natural forest, a 48 percent loss in 22 years. By 2007, the island had only 30 percent natural forest cover (around 13 million hectares).
The Indonesian Ministries of Forestry, Environment, Public Works and Interior, as well as the governors of all 10 Sumatran provinces, including Jambi, last year announced their collective commitment to protecting the areas of the island with “high conservation values.”
The natural forest slated for destruction by APP – Bukit Tigapuluh – is a prime example of the high conservation value areas that the governors promised to protect. If the APP proposal for pulp paper production is accepted is will destroy the forest home of many species, and clearing on the ground could start as soon as 2010
Many environmental NGOs and Government organisations work in the landscape (including WARSI, the Sumatran Tiger Conservation and Protection Foundation, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Zoological Society of London, WWF and the Australian Orangutan Project).
Several Australian Government and NGOs also financially support the landscape including the Australian Orangutan Project, Human Society International (Australia), Perth Zoo, Auckland Zoo, Adelaide Zoo, Australia Zoo, and Dream World. Hundreds of individual Australians also provide financial support for the Park’s protection through the Australian Orangutan Project’s Safe Guard Program.
Millions of hectares of natural rainforest in Indonesia are being destroyed, right as you read this, for palm oil plantations.
Not only is this detrimental for the environment, but for the animals that require this forest for homes and habitats.
Two endangered species, the orangutan and the Sumatran Tiger, are being driven from their homes, forced into villages looking for food and shelter, where they are captured and killed.
13. Say Yes to Orangutan Friendly Palm Oil
Presently in Borneo (Indonesia and Malaysia) and Sumatra the Orangutan population is down to around 69,000.
This may initially sound like a fairly large number, but when you discover that we are currently losing 50 Orangutans a week and that at the present rate of killing there will be none left by 2026, you then realise why the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have raised the alarm to an unprecedented level with a new report : "Last Stand of the Orangutan : A State of Emergency".
The reason for this panic and devastation unfortunately lies very close to home.....Palm Oil.
In your home right now there are likely to be a number of products that you use & consume everyday which contain Palm Oil from Borneo or Sumatra. To enable us to have these products millions of hectares of natural Rainforest are being destroyed to be replaced with Palm Oil Plantations.
These Rainforests are the homes of the Orangutans, but everyday more and more are being slaughtered with guns, machetes, wooden stakes and even set on fire so that multi-national Palm Oil companies can get richer quicker.
In some cases the babies of these Orangutans manage to escape, but unless rescued their fate is as heartbreaking as their parents. Orangutans share 96.4% of human genes and the helpless babies stay stuck to their mothers side for at least the first 5 years of their lives............ Just like our children.