© Stanislav Lhota.

A new environmental impact of palm oil industry

By Stanislav Lhota, M.Sc., Ph.D. (Czech University of Life Sciences)

We are starting to realize how our consumer choices determine the future of our planet. We are becoming aware that the expanding production of palm oil, which is present in a variety of foods, cosmetics and other products on the shelves of our supermarkets, is responsible for unprecedented disappearance of the tropical rainforests and the loss of the traditional farming land. However, few of us realise that the ocean is under threat from the palm oil business, too.

Palm oil bulking stations and refineries are mushrooming along the coasts of Indonesia, taking advantage of the increasing supply of crude palm oil from the endless plantations. They are causing increasing damage to the lush mangrove forests, ancient coral reefs, and endangered species including dolphins and it and even leading to increasing poverty of the traditional fishermen communities. For the first time, one such case is attracting international attention. Environmental NGOs are now calling for two prominent palm oil corporations to halt the ongoing environmental destruction in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Stanislave Lhota, a research scientist arrived in Balikpapan Bay in 2005 to conduct an ecological research of the endangered proboscis monkeys and soon realized that the population of this iconic primate in Balikpapan Bay is one of the biggest known populations in Borneo. The habitat was an almost continuous belt of mangrove forest extending from the outskirts of Balikpapan City to the most remote parts of the bay. There were also Irrawaddy dolphins, green turtles, estuarine crocodiles and dugongs and the mangroves were continuous with the rainforest reserve Sungai Wain, known as one of the first orangutan rehabilitation sites.

This changed after 2007. Two multinational corporate giants, Wilmar Group and Kencna Agri Ltd. Group, started clearing the mangrove-fringed coasts to build palm oil bulking stations and, in the next phase, refineries. Wilmar clear-felled 18 hectares of lush mangrove forest, and is getting prepared for more land reclamation within its 50-hectares concession, which is almost all tidal mangrove swamp.

There were unique coral reefs located just next to the other concession belonging to Kencana Agri Ltd. Group. In less than 2 years, more than 50 % of the corals died under a layer of silt washed from the construction site.

Several endangered species are losing their habitat due to activities of these two corporations and their impact is starting to be felt by local communities as well. Several traditional fishermen villages are located along the south-west coast of the bay, in an area which belongs to Penajam Paser Utara Regancy (PPU). The permit secured by Wilmar and Kencana Adri Ltd however was given by a different district, Balikpapan, and the corporations feel no obligation to consider needs of people who live on the opposite shore of the bay in PPU. But these people vitally depend on the healthy condition of the ecosystem and several thousand of these fishermen who have no skills to work in factories are now facing a bleak future for their fishing livelihoods.

The impact caused by the two corporations might have easily gone unnoticed, due to the remoteness of the area which has no road access. Hoever, local fishermen and field scientists documented and brought it to the attention of the international community. Complaints were filed to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which both companies were members of. Kencana Agri Ltd., who claimed the RSPO membership on their website at the time was found out to be a non-member and had to remove statements claiming RSPO membership from their website. Wilmar Group, who is one of the leading RSPO members, agreed to postpone further development until a satisfactory solution is reached but so far however, no satisfactory solution has been offered by Wilmar.

The case of Balikpapan Bay poses a new and important challenge to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. It is the first time that this leading international organization of palm oil producers and distributors, conservationists and other stakeholders, has to face the problems caused by bulking stations and refineries to the mangroves and oceans.

Link to the petitions:

http://www.change.org/petitions/kencana-agri-ltd-stop-destroying-coral-reefs-in-balikpapan-bay

http://www.change.org/petitions/wilmar-group-and-kencana-agri-of-indonesia-palm-oil-back-off-balikpapan-bay-2

Young African Wild Dogs – waiting for their family© SAVE.

Rescue plan for the last 2500 African Wild Dogs

African Wild Dog. © Jo Bathmann

With its vanilla-brown-black paintedcheckered coat the African Wild Dog at first sight looks like a multi-coloured German Shepherd Dog. Its wiry body remembers a hyena and its pointed face a wolf with the ears of a bat.
This charming mixtutemixture of dog, wolf and hyena makes one thing very clear: The African Wild Dog whose scientific name “Lycaon pictus” means “multicoloiuredmulti-coloured wolf” is a very extraordinary species about which not much is known so far.

© SAVE

© SAVE

But Wild Dog researchers are deeply worried about the future of the “multi-coloured wolf”. In former days there lived 250,000 ani9mals in southern Africa, today there are approximately 2,500 left. Its habitat is threatened because the population in these countries is growing steadily or threatened by mining construction. It´s hunting areas as large as 1000 kilometres p.squ. are cut by motorways so that many animals are run over.

Researcher Botilo with anaesthetized Wild Dog.
© SAVE

But there is also hope for the African Wild Dog: Some few experts fight for its survival among them a team of SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund. The Wild Dog experts in Botswana have worked out a rescue plan that makes immediate rescue possible: Calling an SOS-emergencey number farmers at the border of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve get immediate help if a pack of Wild Dogs enters their farming grounds, help by chasing away the Dogs or resettling them. SAVE is hoping that as many farmers as possible make use of this emergency number. Only then there is a larger chance of securing the survival in the conflicted areas of Botswana.

© SAVE

There is also another touch of hope: The African Wild Dog is one of the speciasspecies to profit essentially by the new Mega-conservation area of KaZa. Its extension is over five countries and with KaZa the second-largest continuous conservation area of the earth is created. Fences will be torn down and old travel-paths for elephants, zebras, gnus and also for the African Wild Dog will be opened.

Balikpapan Bay, Kalimantan. © Friends of Borneo

RSPO member destroys environment at Borneo with ecological certificate

Proboscis monkeys, Balikpapan Bay,
Kalimantan. © Friends of Borneo

A group of environmental non-profit groups including Save Wildlife Conservation Fund, Friends of Borneo, Jakarta Animal Aid Network and research scientists today filed a complaint to the RSPO over the destruction of a biodiversity hotspot in Borneo.

The group alleges that the actions of palm oil company PT Mekar Bumi Andalas (MBA) is in open violation of many of the RSPO’s Principles & Criteria including encroachments into areas that are considered High Conservation Value Forests. MBA and other RSPO members have been building crude palm oil bulking stations in Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan which has open access to sea shipping. According to Stan Lhota, a research scientist that has studied the area since 2005,

Balikpapan Bay, Kalimantan.
© Friends of Borneo

Besides the destruction of terrestrial habitats, there are unique coral reefs and sea grass beds near the estuary of Sungai Berenga, that have been affected by brackish and muddy waters created by the developments in the area. Huge amounts of soil have also been washed away from the construction site and corals are dying as they are being covered by several millimetres of thick sediments.

Balikpapan Bay, Kalimantan.
© Friends of Borneo

The area is home to Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaela brevirostris) with approximately 60 - 140 animals counted. Studies have determined that the area is crucial to their feeding and daily migration between the upper and lower sections of the Bay, in accordance with tides. One of the few remaining populations of dugongs (Dugong dugon) is found in Balikpapan Bay as well and their prime feeding grounds are in in sub-tidal sea grass beds. An early indicator of localized extinction can already be seen in the decreased sightings of Green turtles that once lived in the coral reefs and sea grass beds.

The complaint against PT MBA cites over a dozen violations of the RSPO’s Principles and Criteria and is demanding that the RSPO put a stop to all activities not only from PT MBA but also from all other RSPO members in the area until all environmental concerns have been addressed. This complaint is a new challenge to the RSPO whose Principles and Criteria do not apply to bulking mills or refineries but in the words of Lars Gorschlueter, Director of Save Wildlife Conservation Fund,

Balikpapan Bay, Kalimantan.
© Friends of Borneo

The group further demanded that the stoppage be immediate to prevent an embarrassing repeat of the Muara Tae situation where a long drawn out discussion between RSPO member, First Resources Ltd of Singapore and complainants became meaningless as the forests in question were almost completely clear cut in the two years it took the RSPO to try and decide on the case.

Senseless killing for palm oil production suspected

In the Malayan part of Borneo fourteen pygmy elephants were found dead within two weeks. Rangers in the Malayan state of Sabah were confronted with sad pictures at the end of January: At the roadside a three-months-old calf touches its dead mother with its trunk trying to wake her up. More pygmy elephants lie rigid at the precipice of a muddy embankment. They have dropped off. Blood runs out of their body`s orifices.

Dr Sen Nathan, head veterinarian of Sabah Wildlife Department, sees a direct connection in these deaths. He reported no signs of gunshot wounds or other physical attacks on the animals but the heavy bleeding pointed to poisoning.

For Dr Sen Nathan as well as for international organizations for the protection of endangered species this is a black hour for protection of species. For the pygmy elephants of Borneo belong to endangered species. Worldwide there are less than 2000 animals, 95% of them living in Sabah. So far they have fairly protected there in comparison to the neighbour states of Sarawak and Kalimantan where the foresting of rain forest has already heavily destroyed their habitat.

Who has poisoned these animals and why is not clear at the moment. SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund urgently demands that the local authorities clear up the case urgently and to punish the culprits severely to make an example of them.

Insiders surmise that owners of plantations are to be blamed for the elephant’s murders because the elephants are a thorn in their side. The animals use the plantations as travel corridors thus destroying their plantations. This is the logical consequence of the fact that palmoil plantations are penetrating further into the habitats of the elephants. The thesis that owners of oil plantations or their workers are responsible for the elephant murders is supported by the fact that there were no signs of poaching. Neither tusks nor meat were taken.

As palm oil plantations expand, the human and wildlife conflicts are also increasing and Sabah state had already reported increased incidents in the past 2 years. It is expected that more of these tragic incidences will happen again unless something drastic is done.

SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund urges an immediate moratorium of any extension of palm oil plantations. Such moratoriums have been announced by the government several times in the last two years, but have never implemented. One may ask whether these promises just serve to silence conservationists and anti-palm-oil-activists.

Furthermore SAVE urges WWF, one of the main international organisations present in Sabah state, to do its utmost to clear up this crime and above all to support the future protection of the elephants.

Furthermore, this case is of special public interest as the pygmy elephants are one of the main tourist attractions of Sabah. If the local justice does not deal with clearing up the case quickly, insiders see bad prospects for tourism for Sabah as it makes the local governments seem cold and uncaring to the unique wildlife in their care.