Tag Archives: Indonesia

Ask APRIL CEO Sukanto Tanoto to release Indigenous community protestors and return stolen native lands

For generations, the Indigenous Batak communities of Northern Sumatra have harvested and traded the sap from the trees in their sacred benzoin forests. The sap is used for the production of incense and perfumes, and exported to the international market. The villages thrived and forests were healthy.

Today, these communities are fighting for their lands and livelihoods against the controversial paper giant APRIL. Please write to APRIL’s CEO Sukanto Tanoto today and ask APRIL to peacefully resolve this conflict now and return the community lands it has stolen.

Earlier this week, hundreds of villagers risked life and limb by standing between their forest home and the machinery of APRIL’s logging operations. In response, Indonesia’s notoriously abusive security agency, known as Brimob, was called in to forcibly suppress the protest. At least 16 village members have now been arrested in connection to this latest dispute.

This land conflict is just one example of the widespread human rights violations that have plagued APRIL’s operations for many years. This case has been simmering since 2009, when an APRIL affiliate began deforesting the community’s territory and planting eucalyptus plantations on their ancestral land.

Tell APRIL CEO Sukanto Tanoto to release the 16 Indigenous activists who are still being held, to stop expansion on Batak lands, and to return the lands already stolen from them.

Last September, APRIL workers and security forces again began to clear forest on the Batak communities’ land. The community gathered in large numbers to stop the machinery, confiscating weapons and chainsaws from the logging crew. Three days later, eight villagers were summoned to the police station. Instead, nearly 1,000 community members arrived in an inspiring act of solidarity.

We must stand with these communities. This remains a dangerous and unresolved confrontation between a major corporation seeking to maximize profits and an Indigenous people desperately seeking to preserve their identity and ancestral lands.

APRIL’s massive logging operations have run roughshod over the rights of local communities for far too long. Please write to APRIL’s CEO and let him know these practices are unacceptable and must stop now.

		For the forests,
		Lafcadio Cortesi Rainforest Free Paper campaigner

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Laila Sapphira Williams, Greenpeace

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

Cameroon Indonesia Herakles Farm and Bruce Wrobel

www.greenpeace.org

A U.S. corporation has its eyes set on plowing down an area of African rainforest ten times the size of Manhattan for a palm oil plantation.
Take Action

Send a message right now to Herakles Farms’ CEO Bruce Wrobel demanding his company drop its plans and commit to a ‘zero deforestation’ policy.

www.greenpeace.org

Industrial scale palm oil production is coming to Africa and it’s bad news for the rainforest of Cameroon.
Palm oil is the world’s cheapest edible oil and global demand is booming. That’s why a U.S. corporation called Herakles Farms is pushing ahead with plans to plow down an area of primate rainforest ten times larger than Manhattan to create a palm oil plantation in Cameroon.
Together we have won major victories to save rainforest from expanding palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Now we’re launching a campaign to do the same in Africa.
Rainforest from the proposed site has already been cleared. We have to act before the large scale destruction starts.
Send a message right now to Bruce Wrobel, the CEO of Herakles Farms, demanding his company drop plans to destroy rainforests for palm oil in Cameroon and commit to a ‘zero-deforestation’ policy.
Cameroon holds part of the world’s second largest rainforest. And the proposed plantation site is home to wildlife species like the African elephant and endangered chimpanzee. It also provides for the livelihoods of more than 14,000 Cameroonians who rely on the forest for small subsistence farming.
Yet Herakles Farms’ CEO Bruce Wrobel refuses to acknowledge these facts, instead claiming that the company is aiming to help the community through economic development. But the facts on the ground tell a different story. The Herakles Farms project is simply the wrong project in the wrong place.
Help us shine a public spotlight on Herakles Farms’ African palm oil plantation proposal by sending a message to the company’s CEO today.
We’ve voiced our concerns and, so far, been ignored. But Herakles Farms won’t be able to ignore thousands of your messages.
Coming off of one of the biggest breakthroughs in forest conservation history only a couple of weeks ago in Indonesia, we know what citizen activism can do when it comes to protecting the world’s rainforests. If we flood Herakles Farms’ inboxes with letters over the next few days, the company will no longer be able to ignore us and will be forced to address the truth about its plans in Africa.
This is only the beginning of our work. Over the next few months, Greenpeace will continue working with local partners in Africa to stop this project and to showcase solutions with farmers already active in the region.
It all starts with getting Herakles Farms’ attention. That starts with you taking action today. Together, we can put a stop to this project before it really gets started.
For the forests,
Laila Sapphira Williams Greenpeace Forest Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

MercyCorps

02/19/2013 Nativegrl77

February 2013 Newsletter

Central African Republic: One LRA survivor’s story

Last year, a teenage girl arrived at one of Mercy Corps‘ counseling centers. She had been kidnapped by the terrifying Lord’s Resistance Army, raped and forcefully married to a soldier. She finally escaped with her baby two years later, but how could she begin again? Read her story ▸

From the Field

Kosovo: New homes after more than a decade of displacement

Syrian refugees in Lebanon: Warm coats are a simple source of hope

Kenya: Betting on peace as high-stakes elections approach

Video: See how your support changes lives

Spend a minute with the people your generosity has touched around the world. Because of you, we are changing these lives — and so many more. Thank you.

Latest Photos

DR Congo: Lives spent on the run

Timor-Leste: Fighting hunger in a neglected nation

Lebanon: New coats for Syrian refugee kids

Yemen: A boy’s thank you

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National Geographic Winners

12/17/2012 Nativegrl77

Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

From a rain-pelted dragonfly to a double rainbow over Indonesia, see the winning shots of our most recent reader photo competition.

Travel Photo Contest’s Top Shots

Our editors received 12,000 entries from 152 countries, so the winners must be pretty darn good, right? See for yourself.

Best Wildlife Pictures of 2012

It’s tough to compete with pounce-ready cheetah cubs and a beady-eyed croc. But National Geographic’s Paul Nicklen did—and won, with his effervescent image of bubble-jetting penguins.

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Less stuff, more orangutans

11/28/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Give the gift of RAN.

It’s so easy to give something meaningful.

Forget Black Friday. It’s Non-Profit Tuesday! (No, we didn’t make that up.)

The holidays are coming up soon, and you’re probably starting to look for gifts for your loved ones. But—going out on a limb here—I’m willing to bet you don’t want to give a bunch of useless stuff to your friends and family. That’s why we’re excited to offer a variety of gifts that will make a world of difference without crowding our world with more disposable junk.

A Certificate of Action from RAN isn’t stuff—it’s a unique way to support our work to protect rainforests around the world and the people and wildlife that depend on them. You’ll be giving a meaningful gift to a loved one while at the same time doing something good for the planet.

Action Packed Gifts for 2012
	Found only in Malaysia and Indonesia, man’s closest relative is being threatened by rapid loss of rainforest habitat. Your gift will support efforts to stop the devastating expansion of paper and palm oil plantations into Indonesia’s tropical forests, saving the lush wild places that orangutans call home.
	Your gift directly supports the grassroots efforts of historically underfunded organizations and communities struggling to protect their rainforest homelands—known to be the best guardians of the forest. Help ensure that small local organizations and Indigenous federations across the globe are supported in their efforts to protect the world’s remaining rainforests for many generations to come.
	There are less than 400 Sumatran tigers remaining in the wild and habitat destruction by the pulp and paper industry is a primary cause of their decline. Your gift will support RAN’s campaign to stop the conversion of Indonesia’s stunning and diverse rainforests into a wasteland of single species pulp plantations to make cheap copy paper, books, tissue and toilet paper.
	The biggest banks are threatening to take us to the edge of an ecological catastrophe if they don’t stop funding coal, the primary driver of climate change. Coal is responsible for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and poisons the world’s streams, rivers and oceans with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals. It’s long past time that U.S. banks start funding a renewable energy economy.