Tag Archives: Rainforest Action Network

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Less stuff, more orangutans

11/28/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

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.

Celebrate the holiday spirit this year by giving a gift that makes a world of difference. Thank you for your ongoing support!

		For the rainforests,
		Scott Kocino Membership Manager

P.S. These creative gifts make it easier than ever to support RAN’s work for the environment.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network

09/14/2012 Nativegrl77

Chip in to help hold paper villain Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) accountable.

Here are RAN, we are engaged in one of our largest campaigns yet in an emergency effort to save Indonesia‘s imperiled forests. We’re working in the U.S., Japan, and Indonesia to create the market leverage necessary to transform the corporate practices of APP, the largest paper company in Indonesia. And our campaign is working: major U.S. and European customers like Staples, Random House, Levi’s, and Gucci have stopped buying paper from controversial sources like APP.

Now is the perfect time to put more market pressure on APP, and that is directly where your support will go.
Make a tax-deductible donation to the Rainforest Action Network today.

Canadian donors, please click here.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Cargill needs to come clean … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

07/11/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

With palm oil in half of all products for sale in US grocery stores, we have the right to know the true cost of its production.

Cargill is the #1 importer of palm oil into the US, but the company refuses to be transparent about who it does business with. For instance: Is Cargill still sourcing from the notorious palm oil company Duta Palma even though this company is embroiled in severe social conflicts with communities near its destructive palm plantations?

Dozens of people are gathering outside Cargill’s offices today in Minneapolis to ask the company to come clean about its operations.

Will you help us amplify their voices by writing to Cargill now and demanding transparency around its “no-trade list”?

In the past, Cargill has said Duta Palma was on its “no-trade list,” but the company has never made this list public and RAN has reason to believe Cargill’s policy of sourcing from any company that pays membership dues to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil allows it to get palm oil from Duta Palma.

Please email Cargill CEO Greg Page now and ask him to come clean.

In 2009, Rainforest Action Network released a case study documenting illegal rainforest burning by Duta Palma on community lands used by the people of Semunying Jaya in Borneo. Duta Palma doesn’t have permits to operate these plantations and police refuse to do anything about this blatant land theft and environmental destruction.

So community members took action themselves.

A few weeks ago, members of the Semunying Jaya community seized several pieces of machinery, trucks, bulldozers and chainsaws, then barricaded the doors of Duta Palma’s palm nursery, shutting down operations. The community members are now facing possible criminal charges for standing up for the health and safety of their home.

We have the right to know: Is Cargill profiting from the oppression of the people of Semunying Jaya by buying palm oil from Duta Palma? Please demand transparency now.

For the forests,

Ashley Schaeffer

Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Extinction doesn’t get a second chance … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

06/25/2012 Nativegrl77

Click on the photo above for even more info

Extinction doesn’t get a second chance.

Endangered orangutans are hovering on the very edge of extinction. Palm oil companies have deforested so much of the forests orangutans depend on for survival, they literally have nowhere left to go.
Mankind’s closest relative urgently needs our help.
Wild orangutans are nearly extinct and need us to take a stand. You can help this important work by chipping in just $10 today.
The footage below, which I filmed in Borneo, shows a pregnant orangutan trapped inside an area of active palm oil development on the border of Tanjng Puting National Park. Because orangutans cannot swim, she cannot reach the protected lands on the other side of this river, condemning her to inevitable death by starvation or at the hands of plantation workers.

Watching her broke my heart.

Palm oil companies prioritize profit over life. Horrific scenes like the one captured above must come to an end.

RAN is pushing big industry buyers like Cargill to take responsibility for the very real impacts of their supply chains, their role in land conflicts affecting Indigenous communities, and the role palm oil is playing in species extinction.
By donating just $10 today, you are joining with hundreds of other donors to make sure that we are saving orangutans, like the one above, from extinction.
Deforestation in Indonesia has reached crisis proportions — but a narrow window of time remains to stop this historic tragedy before it is too late. During the past decade orangutan populations have decreased by about 50% in the wild. This means that without drastic intervention, orangutans may soon be extinct as biologically viable populations in the wild.

RAN is working hard to pressure the Indonesian government and palm oil industry giants like Cargill to end this tragedy once and for all.

Please be generous. Extinct orangutans don’t get a second chance.

		For the forests,
		Ashley Schaeffer Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

CEO John Watson … Wake Up

05/30/2012 Nativegrl77

Send Chevron CEO John Watson a wake up call now!

RAN activists will be joining a large coalition of labor groups, community organizers, climate activists, and other environmentalists tomorrow at a protest outside of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. While protesters call out Chevron for putting profits ahead of people and planet outside, I’ll be going inside the meeting with people from communities impacted by Chevron operations from Nigeria to Brazil.
Two of the brave Ecuadoreans suing Chevron to clean up of its massive oil contamination in the Amazon — Luz Trinidad Andrea Cusangua and Robinson Yumbo — will travel to San Ramon, CA to take their calls for justice directly to the company.
Chevron needs to know that for every person like Luz and Robinson inside the meeting and for every protestor outside the meeting, there are thousands more who stand with us. Can you call Chevron CEO John Watson and ask him to take responsibility for his company’s oily mess in Ecuador?
We’ve set up a page that has everything you need to send a wake-up call to Watson: Phone number, sample call script, and a form so you can report back to us how the call went. Send Chevron’s CEO a wake up call now!
Even a large number of Chevron shareholders feel the company’s executive team has badly mismanaged the Ecuador lawsuit. One recently wrote: “Chevron’s actions are hurting shareholders as well as the indigenous people of the rainforest.” You can be sure Chevron shareholders will make their voices heard at the meeting, just as Luz and Robinson will be making their calls for justice in Ecuador loud and clear.
Chevron CEO John Watson needs to hear from you too.