Sunday 3 November 2019

Say yes to palm oil and save the orangutan!


Sweat dripped into my eyes and my heart pounded in my ears as I stumbled along the overgrown path towards my destination. It was around 30C and humidity was close to 100%; not a whisper of a breeze provided any respite, yet the leaves rustled and chattered around me, teeming with life. 

Although we were alone on the path, a cacophony of sounds met my ears; the hoarse calls of hornbills soaring overhead, the snapping of twigs as red-leaf monkeys traversed the canopy above my head, and the murky-brown river crashing through the valley below.

Danum Valley
View of the canopy in the Danum Valley

I was in the depths of the primary rainforest in Malaysian Borneo, three hours from the nearest town, trekking through a dense jungle trail with my guide, Dean. We had already climbed to a lofty viewpoint, along a trail littered with coffins from the previous inhabitants of the forest many years before, where I had been startled by the sheer scale of forest around me –  a sea of green reaching as far as I could see in every direction – and now we were descending back to the valley floor below for a well-deserved cold drink by the Danum River.

Danum Valley
Dean overlooking the canopy

Suddenly Dean, who was ahead of me, stopped dead and cocked his head to one side. Listening. I could hear nothing out of the ordinary, but he remained silent for a couple of minutes, and then pointed to the trees off to the side of the path.

“Wait and watch there,” he whispered, gesturing to a perfectly motionless patch of green around 20 feet ahead.

I followed his instructions, straining to try and hear what Dean had, but nothing caught my ear for several minutes above the tireless screeching of the cicadas. Suddenly, a slight rustling and the tops of the canopy twitched slightly. Blink and you’d miss it. Still we waited. Finally, through the leaves and the murky darkness of the rainforest, I saw a figure ambling slowly, quietly through the towering trees towards us. I squinted, then gaped, elated. This was what I had travelled halfway around the world to see, and yet hadn’t dared to dream that I would.

A large, male orangutan loomed through the murky light, grasping the branches of a tree just a few feet in front of me, reaching for whatever delicacy lay at his hands. He was bigger than I had expected, yet far more graceful. His cheek pads and lengthy arm span gave away his stature and gender, although he blended seamlessly into his surroundings from a distance. When I peered closer, I could make out the burnt orange colour of his hair, and the dark, textured skin around his solemn eyes. He had a very human-like expression on his face as he considered his snack.

He paid Dean and I no consideration at all, yet I knew that he knew we were there. He paused, sniffed, and continued to eat, before sensing something in the forest above us and ambling down the hillside, away from our vantage point, branches crashing in his wake. I let out a shaky breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding.

Danum Valley
Braving the canopy walkway in the Danum Valley

Here, in the middle of the primary rainforest, in a world far away from anything I had ever imagined, I’d had my first encounter with a truly wild orangutan, and it was the most magical moment I could ever have dreamed of. It hadn’t even occurred to me to try and pick up my camera; I’d been rooted to the spot and couldn’t take my eyes from his. I was hooked and knew that nothing would ever be the same again. I had fallen in love with this beautiful island and the creatures that called it home.

Orangutan
Baby orangutan clinging to its mother

The start of my love affair with Borneo was auspicious, and I have been lucky enough to see my beloved orangutan on every visit since. I have cruised along the tributaries of the Kinabatangan River, stumbling upon herds of pygmy elephants splashing on the banks and dodging fallen branches from the proliferate proboscis monkeys above, their large noses protruding through the leaves. I have stayed on board on a traditional Indonesian klotok on the Sekonyer River, eating a delicious homemade rendang curry with the Milky Way sparkling in the night sky, bioluminescent plankton glittering ahead as the boat cut through the water, and fireflies lighting up the river banks like Christmas trees.

Tanjung Puting
Overlooking the Sekonyer river

And yet there is something so heart-breaking about each and every experience; a tinge of sadness that cuts through even the most magical of encounters. The orangutan, along with many other species endemic to Borneo, are critically endangered, and each time I visit I know that this may be my last sighting. That, unless things improve, my future children aren’t going to be able to have the same incredible wildlife experiences that have shaped me.

The protected areas of forest, home to diverse wildlife on both the Malaysian and Indonesian sides of the island are shrinking quickly; in the Danum Valley I was surrounded by primary rainforest as far as the eye could see, yet I had driven through oil palm plantations for almost three hours to reach the protected sanctuary. The Kinabatangan River is a diverse wildlife corridor, one of the best places to see all of Borneo’s endemic species, yet it is only so because it is a narrow, protected haven surrounded by acres of uniform oil palm trees. Sailing up the Sekonyer River in Kalimantan, the Tanjung Puting National Park stretches to the horizon on the right-hand side of the river. On the left, oil palm plantations stretch to the opposite horizon.

Kinabatangan River
Sunset over the Kinabatangan River

On the surface, this can seem devastating. The media constantly shows images of rainforest contrasted against deforested land and sparse oil palm plantations alongside calls for a boycott on palm oil, as if to emphasise the pure evil of the industry. It’s true that palm oil is one of the primary causes of deforestation that has caused the decline of the orangutan and other endemic species on the island, although they have also been kept as pets and sold on the black market. But the issue is not as black and white as it may seem.

Palm oil itself is not an inherently evil substance. It is an incredibly efficient crop that provides 35% of the world’s vegetable oil on just 10% of the land. It is in over 50% of products on supermarket shelves, including chocolate, cakes, pet food, spreads, toiletries and cleaning products. The palm oil industry employs 16 million people worldwide, 4 million of those in Indonesia alone.

 Malaysia and Indonesia supply around 90% of the world’s palm oil, and it is one of the main income generators for the two countries that are teetering on the brink of poverty. Indonesia in particular has a population of 272 million people to support, on 17,000 islands which are prone to intense natural disasters. It relies heavily on palm oil both for its economy and as a source of employment. 10% of its population are currently on or below the poverty line; without the palm oil industry it would be many more.

Orangutan
Baby orangutan in Tanjung Puting National Park

The problem with palm oil is not the substance itself, it is the way it is grown. Thriving in hot and humid climates, it grows best along the equator, where land is already inhabited by rainforest. This is then deforested and replaced by oil palm plantations on the fertile peat soils. When the fruit is harvested, the cheapest and easiest way to clear the land for a new crop is simply to burn it, draining the peat to expediate the process and exhausting the soil in the process.

This means that new land must then be cleared to make way for new plantations, leading to much more widespread deforestation. These slash and burn practices also lead to out of control forest fires, creating a smog of haze over much of Southeast Asia as the dry season draws to a close in September and October. These practices are now illegal in both Malaysia and Indonesia, but policing this is difficult; particularly in Indonesia where resources are thin, and palm oil is big money.

Tabin
Guide looking for wildlife in Tabin Wildlife Reserve

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created in 2004 in response to increasing concerns around the environmental impact of the oil palm plantations. As well as loss of habitat for the wildlife of Borneo and Sumatra, the loss of the canopy meant that carbon emissions were increasing.

The RSPO has been working to create a set of criteria that both producers and consumers must comply with to ensure that palm oil is grown in a sustainable way. Whilst calls for an out and out boycott of palm oil were initially supported, it soon became clear that this would be catastrophic both for the environment, and for the economies of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Not only would 16 million people be out of work, with little chance of finding other employment, but it would be nigh on impossible to find a more efficient crop. Therefore, a more destructive cash crop would simply take the place of palm oil, moving the problem elsewhere and causing further deforestation. The root of the problem would not be solved. Increasingly the emphasis has been put on deforestation-free palm oil, meaning that plantations are grown on land that has already been deforested. The RSPO is working with grassroots movements throughout Southeast Asia to incentivise sustainable plantations and has created resources for consumers around the world to support the practice.

By purchasing products made with palm oil from a sustainable source and boycotting those which are not, this encourages large corporations to continue to source their palm oil sustainably, and thus incentivises producers to create deforestation-free plantations. An out and out boycott of palm oil is only a good option of the alternative is purchasing from an unsustainable source. The RSPO logo is appearing increasingly on products on supermarket shelves, and Chester Zoo – a huge proponent of sustainable palm oil – has created a fantastic shopping list with brands who have proven they source their palm oil sustainably.

There is still a lot of work to be done on this, and this is just the first rung of an increasingly growing list of things that must be considered going forwards. There are some arguments to suggest that the criteria for sustainable plantations aren’t stringent enough, as an example, but the rules and regulations can only improve with enough support and funding, and so this first step is crucial for the sustainable palm oil movement as a whole.

orangutan

Sabah in Malaysian Borneo committed in 2015 to certifying all of its palm oil to RSPO standards and to increase protected area coverage to 30% by 2025, and it is already 25% of the way there. Indonesia is some way behind, although it has more pressures on its economy than its neighbour; it is here that incentivising sustainable palm oil financially could have the biggest impact.

Supporting sustainable palm oil is not the only way that you can help to conserve the rainforest in Borneo. Tourism is also one of the main income generators and employers in both countries, and this is often in conflict with the palm oil industry. Visitors travel to the darkest depths of the Bornean rainforest in search of the island’s most iconic species, with images of deep, dark canopies untouched by humans, and an undergrowth teeming with life; not of bumpy journeys along logging tracks and many acres of oil palm to reach the haven of the rainforest.

Yet by visiting these protected areas you are contributing national park fees that go towards the forestry departments and conservation charities; you are contributing to the wages of guides, chefs, cleaners, maintenance staff and drivers in the area; you are buying snacks and souvenirs that directly contribute to the local economy. You are preventing the surrounding rows of palm oil from encroaching ever further into the canopy beyond.

Put simply, by searching for that once in a lifetime orangutan moment, you are funding an industry that by its very nature must protect the habitat of this critically endangered species and are incentivising the Malaysian and Indonesian governments to keep that forest home alive.

When I asked Dean, after that first magical moment, how he had known that the orangutan was there, he simply said that he had both heard and smelt him, his senses honed by years of guiding and co-existing with these great apes in their forest home. I have been back to Borneo a further 5 times since that first visit and, whilst my skills have improved slightly, I am still nowhere near the level of the impressive naturalist guides and continue to be awed by what they can do.

In my happy place, searching for orangutan on the Sekonyer river

 I am currently planning my next foray back to that most diverse of islands, deciding whether to revisit old haunts or to dip my toe into unknown territory. One thing is for certain; whether it’s my first encounter or my last, I will never take a glimpse of burnt-orange hair or wise brown eyes for granted and hope that, when I am grey of hair and wrinkled of face, I will still tread through the undergrowth, listening for the rustle of trees, safe in the knowledge that the ‘man of the forest’ is protected and thriving for many generations to come.

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Saturday 1 August 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

It's almost two years since I began living in Brighton, and I only have two weeks left here, so I thought it would be ridiculous of me not to go to Brighton Pride this weekend. This is my second Pride here in Brighton, and for the past 18 months I've been living and working in Kemptown, the heart of the gay community here.

Whilst I am hugely liberal, and love the ideas, ethos and community spirit behind Pride, crowds of people (especially people off their faces) aren't really my thing, so although I went to look at the decorations last year, I stayed away from the actual event as much as possible.

I'll be leaving Brighton in mid-August and heading off to pastures new (and green hopefully, as I'll be in Oxfordshire!) for an amazing new job, so I decided to man-up and at least see the parade this year. I'm currently 'homeless' and living on the floor of my amazing friends - fortunately they wanted to see it too, so at least I had company. Our friends from work were on one of the floats, so that sealed the deal - we definitely couldn't miss it this year!

The parade was due to start at 11am from Hove Lawns, and work its way through Brighton, finishing in Preston Park where the main event is due to continue long into the night. Although the start was delayed by an hour due to a bomb scare (which triggered 'suspect package' jokes throughout the Twittersphere) and rerouted slightly, when it got going it was amazing! Thousands of people lined the streets of Brighton, covered in rainbows and outlandish drag costumes, waiting to see the floats. Each float was run by a different business or organisation, and each had its own theme, and all were amazing!!

My favourites were the Dogs Trust (MASSIVE dog on the back of their float), all the emergency services (hot fireman on stilts and a bunch of paramedics doing the Conga helped this) and Unite, which was super colourful. It genuinely made us all feel really emotional as they came past; there were people from all walks of life, all celebrating their freedom and right to express themselves. From parents of gay and lesbians, to people marching for countries who don't have the same freedom (there were a LOT), and even a small group of Christians; everyone clubbed together, and made their point with an incredible festive atmosphere. I don't think I've ever heard so much ABBA, Madonna and Lady Gaga in such a short space of time. ;)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than me rabbiting on, check out my pictures below!

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

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Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015

Brighton Pride 2015