[EXPOSED] Chainsaws enter Indonesia’s “Orangutan Capital” — Global brands implored to take action to keep forests standing and protect the Leuser Ecosystem from Conflict Palm Oil.

[EXPOSED] Chainsaws enter Indonesia’s “Orangutan Capital” — Global brands implored to take action to keep forests standing and protect the Leuser Ecosystem from Conflict Palm Oil.
Nestlé, Mondelēz and Mars are failing to prevent the burning of rainforests and tropical deforestation for Conflict Palm Oil in elephant habitat within Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem =>
An Indonesian palm oil company operating in and around the Leuser Ecosystem has released a much-needed commitment to protect rainforests and ensure its operations comply with global market requirements to halt deforestation for palm oil.
As we welcome the new year, RAN field investigators have discovered a highly concerning new palm oil mill being constructed directly adjacent to the Leuser Ecosystem. Worse, the mill belongs to a controversial, repeat-offender palm oil company…
Read Full StoryField investigations have once again revealed new land clearing and roading within some of the most important remaining lowland rainforests in Indonesia.
As major snack food brands continue to drag their feet, there is a very real and growing danger that the Sumatran orangutan could become the first member of the great apes, humankind’s closest living relatives, to be pushed to extinction in the wild.
Tens of thousands of people depend on the intact forests of the Leuser Ecosystem and the area is rife with looming threats and unresolved conflicts between local communities and rogue palm oil plantation operators. The expansion of palm oil plantation companies has harmed community livelihoods by damaging local resources, including agricultural land such as rice fields, and has brought terror, intimidation and criminalization into the lives of local community members.
Just weeks after a major undercover field investigation by RAN exposed global food brands as sourcing illegally grown palm oil from within Indonesia’s nationally protected Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve, RAN is releasing fresh evidence of deforestation in the region connected to many of the same brands through a different supplier, PT Laot Bangko.
Our undercover investigations expose rainforest destruction for palm oil, grown illegally in a protected wildlife reserve within the Leuser Ecosystem, and used to manufacture snack foods sold around the world.
Field investigation teams with Rainforest Action Network have documented alarming evidence of fresh forest clearance this past May, 2019 within some of the most important remaining lowland rainforests in Indonesia. Located in the northeast section of the Leuser Ecosystem, the forests being destroyed contain internationally recognized concentrations of biological diversity. In particular, these rich forests are among the most valuable remaining habitat for critically endangered Sumatran elephants, who use the region being deforested as a crucial migration route connecting larger areas of intact forest.