Selva Beat Summer 2016 Issue
It's here! The Summer '16 Issue is now live and available for purchase. 60+ pages of palm-oil free, vegan, and environmentally conscious content. Pre-order options for the print issue will be available soon. Grab a digital issue today at http://www.selvabeat.com/shop/su16
Labor Abuses Common in Palm Oil Industry
"Just two countries are responsible for 90 percent of the world’s palm oil production: Malaysia and Indonesia. In those places, children as young as 8 and 9 sometimes work seven days a week in treacherous conditions. Undocumented immigrants are lured to faraway plantations with promises of safe working conditions and fair wages, only to find a kind of indentured servitude. Weak government oversight — together with glaring deficiencies in the main independent body tasked with regulating the industry — contribute to an atmosphere of violence, fear, and exploitation."
Orangutans: Victims of Sustainable Palm Oil"In Borneo, several starving orangutans have been rescued after their forest homes were clear-cut for a palm oil plantation. The rainforest was bulldozed by BGA, a member of the RSPO – the organization issuing the label for sustainable palm oil."
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Palm Oil: From Food to Fuel"Palm oil. It’s the ubiquitous additive in everything from soaps and lotions to cookies and diet foods. It’s found in junk food like Cheez-Its, Tootsie Rolls, and M&Ms, but it’s also found in the products of more ecologically conscious companies like Ben & Jerry’s, Nature’s Way, and Toms of Maine. According to Rainforest Action Network (RAN), palm oil can be found in almost half of the products found in grocery stores. The US consumes most of its 1.2 million metric tons of palm oil per year through these products. "
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In Indonesia, Environmentalists See a Disaster in the MakingWar among separatists and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami has kept some of Indonesia's most pristine rain forests in Aceh from being developed by the palm oil industry. Additionally, Irwandi Yusuf, known as the "green governor", who served from 2007-2012, helped by pledging to preserve Aceh's rain forests via an embrace of a United Nations-backed carbon-trading plan that aimed to reduce deforestation and inject much-needed money into the economy. "In 2011, however, he changed course, allowing the palm oil company PT Kallista Alam to develop a peat swamp inside the Tripa conservation zone, home to endangered Sumatran orangutans." Although this caused an outcry from environmentalists and conservationists, the governor defended his decision, noting that the money expected from the projects had not materialized. Similarly, the new governor has allowed the continued development of these areas, further threatening this region and the habitats of these animals and those non-human primates who live there. This New York Times article further describes the issues and why environmentalists are so concerned about these new changes.
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The Great Apes Summit and Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP)Delegates at "The Great Apes Summit," held in Jackson Hole, WY from September 21-24 2013, issued a coordinated response to protect priority forests and the apes that call them home, including chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans and gibbons. Additionally, this response seeks to promote the use of sustainably sourced palm oil through six action points. Read about those action points by clicking the button below.
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