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…
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Field investigations have once again revealed new land clearing and roading within some of the most important remaining lowland rainforests in Indonesia.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Indonesian government’s palm oil company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) I has responded to recent revelations published by Rainforest Action Network that lowland rainforests have been cleared within its plantation, PTPN I Blang Tualang, with a statement of commitment to being a guardian of the forests of the Leuser Ecosystem.
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The amount of rainforest destruction in the Leuser Ecosystem has risen sharply in the critically important northeast lowlands of the Leuser over the first months of 2019. Satellite imagery and field investigations by Rainforest Action Network reveal that eight of the nine palm oil companies with concessions located in the lowland rainforests in the Leuser’s district of Aceh Timur have been actively clearing forests. A total of 606 acres was cleared during January to April 2019.
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Between April 9th and 11th, thousands of Indonesian protesters demonstrated against a proposed gold mining operation in front of the Acehnese Governor’s Office in Banda Aceh, as community members have also forcibly evicted mining company employees, effectively stopping the contested gold mining activities and operations in Beutong Ateuh Banggalang Sub-district.
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