Websailor's Wacky Wildlife World
Created | Updated May 7, 2008
A quirky look at wildlife. To be taken with a pinch of
salt, but with more than a grain of truth!
In the Palm of your Hand
To most people, palm trees signify balmy beaches, sun-kissed seas, cool
drinks and a wonderful holiday. Either that or the promenades and
hotel gardens of some of Britain's South West seaside resorts.
What they don't signify to most people is that (oil) palm trees provide the oil in soap and many cosmetics. Neither do they signify that this 'vegetable oil' is found in almost every processed food product you can imagine. Biscuits, cereal bars, crackers, salted
nuts, ice cream, chocolate, crisps, margarine in addition to toothpaste, soap and detergents to name just a few. These are generally labelled only as containing vegetable oil. To see how misleading that label is, take a look at this list for a fairly comprehensive list of such oils!
No harm in that you might say, but the destruction of forest and the loss of wildlife habitat to provide the oil is catastrophic. It is rare that we hold the fate of another species in the palm of our hand quite so definitively. For the beautiful orang-utan, the 'Old Man of the Forest', that is exactly what we are doing by supporting such a wide use of palm oil.
The two species of orangutan, Sumatran and Bornean, are listed on Appendix I of CITES. The former as critically endangered, the latter as endangered. There is little to choose between the two categories. Both are on the IUCN Red List of Mammals.
Without our consent we are contributing to rainforest destruction on an epic scale in Indonesia. Millions of species, including the orang-utan, are being wiped out, biodiversity is being lost forever and as if that is not enough, the slash and burn methods of clearing trees
and vegetation are posing huge health hazards to humans from the thick, smoky haze which spreads far and wide.
Read and watch the video here: Sky News.
Originating from Western Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) has become the 'fool's gold' of the 21st century. Its ability to grow profusely where heat and regular rainfall abound has made this cleaner-burning, renewable fuel and food-source the apparent answer to the
energy crisis facing us. We should think again. Now.
There are about 2,600 species of palm tree (Arecaceae or Palmae), mostly found in tropical or sub-tropical climates. Traditionally, true palms are a source of many materials for baskets, roofs, buildings and for making wine, soap etc. Date and coconut palms are familiar and rattan, too, which is popular for basketware and furniture.
In South America, palm trees were used for building purposes; harpoons for catching fish, and arrows (poisoned) were made from various palms.
Musical instruments, boxes, chests, hammocks, bow-strings, fishing-lines and fish hooks all came from palms. Fruit and drinks too. Is it any wonder then that palm trees are prized wherever they grow?
Such uses by local people were sustainable, until the wider world came to realise the value of oil palms in particular.
The vegetable oil comes from the pulp of the fruit. Palm kernel oil comes from the kernel of the palm trees, is not edible, and was
originally used mostly to make soap. However, the use of palm oil as fuel too, is now causing major concern.
Vast plantations in Borneo provide the material for biodiesel, an alternative to petrol. On the surface, any fuel that lessens the need for crude oil seems a good idea, but the scale of planting required to meet demand is enormous. Huge swathes of forest are cut down, yet oil
palms will grow happily in any brown field degraded areas. New biodiesel factories are springing up all over.
The manufacture of biodiesel containing palm oil is destroying some of the world's most valuable rainforests. Contrary to the commercial view, this is not a 'green' fuel and we are being badly misled by the hype.
How can it make sense to destroy a habitat that gives life to so much wildlife and to humans, helps keep the earth's rainfall in check, stores carbon and feeds the soil? In 2006/7 an area the size of Wales was cleared, and the destruction continues apace. That cannot be right.
At the present rate the whole rainforest will disappear in less than fifteen years, and the orang-utans in less than ten years. That is the opinion of the UN. All the other indigenous wildlife will also disappear and the land will not be fit for future agriculture.
The monoculture of palm trees is of no use to wildlife, and the soil, without the forest, will sustain growth for only a short while. Often licences for clearing forest for palm oil production are just a means
to an end, as the companies move in to log out the lucrative timber before moving on, leaving desecration behind.
It is fast becoming a greater disaster than the logging of the Amazon rainforest. Of course the palm oil industry is not the only problem.
Mineral mining and illegal logging also play a big part.
In Borneo and surrounding countries in particular the most heartbreaking part of the whole issue is the wanton killing of thousands of orang-utans and other animals, often in the cruellest way imaginable. The adult orang-utans are beaten, shot, burned and buried
alive and the babies taken to be caged and sold on to the pet trade.
Bonuses are offered to local people for killing orang-utans!
They are disappearing at a rate of 5,000 a year, the population having halved in the last ten years. 80% of their habitat has gone. It is not only the orang-utans that suffer, though their agony is plain to see,
but all wildlife in such areas. For more information drop in here but
beware, some of the photos are distressing!
Organisations and individuals trying desperately to save the orang-utans and highlight the destruction are being offered bribes by the developers, and when that doesn't work, they are threatened with their lives. See Born To Be Wild for more details.
Among all the sad news one nugget of information caused a smile:
In January of this year it was reported that wild elephants in Indonesia broke loose from a training centre and damaged 1,256 oil palm trees and a security post near the plantation.
The noise of chainsaws and illegal logging in the area had upset the elephants and they broke loose to look for food. As a result, the local people were asked to stop cutting trees and opening up new land in the forests, which are the habitat of wild elephants. So it seems wildlife might be fighting back!
We should begin to fight back too by telling our food manufacturers and supermarkets that we need to know what products contain palm oil, and whether they are from a sustainable source, failing which we will
shop elsewhere.
At present, they haven't a clue so they should be told that all palm oil should be sourced from plantations that use only already degraded
land for palm oil production. They must ensure that no high value forests are cleared for oil palm cultivation and they must respect the traditional land rights of local people. Fire must not be used for land clearance, and corridors should be left to connect existing
forests to allow free movement of animal species.
Bonuses must not be offered to kill orang-utans (and the killings and
torture must cease - my words).
The ability to change things lies in the palm of our hand - in the power of our money.
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