Climbing Back to Forever

The destruction of orangutan habitat in Sumatra can't be undone overnight, but the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) has forever in mind as it replants a crucial forest.

In 2018, I wrote about the SOS campaign to buy a palm-oil plantation. The organization planned to restore the land to rainforest. Happily, the campaign succeeded, and the restoration process has begun at what is now called the Forever Forest.

Along with replanting the area, the restoration project builds relationships with local people to ensure the communities in the area can help protect the forest into the future. Check out a video of the progress so far:

The Forever Forest project involves many positive aspects. Besides the restoration of a rainforest destroyed by palm oil, the securing of orangutan habitat, and the sound strategy of forming relationships with local people, the overall plan helps protect an adjacent national park and gives many species threatened with extinction an expanded area to call home.

Forever might seem like a long time, but forests and projects like this one should have all the time in the world.

A Palm Victory at Hand

An important victory over palm oil is so close we can almost touch it.

Two months ago, I blogged about the Sumatran Orangutan Society's (SOS) Rainforest Home campaign, which seeks to raise funds to buy a strategic piece of land and restore it from palm-oil plantation to native rainforest. SOS broke the fundraising for the $1.1 million purchase into three phases. They hit their first two installment goals and now need just another $350,000 to secure the land. Check out the video below to learn more about the campaign.



As mentioned in the video, the plantation SOS seeks to purchase has strategic value even beyond its boundaries. Of course, the plantation land will benefit from restoration and give native species more room to live. However, the property would also serve as a buffer between development and pristine rainforest. That makes this last $350,000 invaluable.

SOS needs the final installment of fundraising by the end of February. If you are looking for causes for end-of-year donations or perhaps want to start 2019 on a hopeful note, please consider chipping in for this campaign. Here is the link to donate.

Let's not allow this victory over palm oil to slip through our fingers.

Taking Palm Matters into Their Own Hands

As palm-oil companies continue to grab up land, including areas in national parks, despite the pleas of environmental advocates, groups like the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) have begun taking the matter into their own hands.

For years, we've heard about the awful impacts of palm-oil plantations. They clear out rainforest and replace it with monoculture oil palm trees, displacing the native wildlife and destroying entire ecosystems.

Despite the growing awareness and campaigns designed to persuade international corporations from using palm oil, more and more rainforest disappears in the name of greed. The corporations continue to drag their feet, watching as the forests go up in flames or fall by the chainsaw.

Instead of waiting any longer for the companies to do the right thing, environmental groups have started buying the plantations and restoring the land to its natural condition. The current campaign from SOS seeks to raise $1.1 million to purchase a plantation in Indonesia. Click here and watch the video below for more information. The video creatively uses characters from Disney's The Jungle Book.



The existence of rainforest ecosystems and the wildlife that live in them is in our hands; corporations are too busy snatching land and cash to protect them.

Loud and Clear

If a tree falls in the forest, and an orangutan is around to hear it, does it make a difference?

The Rainforest Action Network's (RAN) campaign on palm oil makes sure we know it does. A common ingredient in many products, palm oil's demand has risen dramatically. As a result, many acres of rainforest have been cleared to grow more oil palms, destroying vital habitat and endangering the species that live there. RAN seeks to draw attention to the issue and spark action to stop the destruction.

One video from RAN's campaign promotes change by bridging the divide between humans and nature. It shows a girl who is deaf using sign language to communicate with an orangutan. Check it out below:



The discussion between the orangutan and the girl may be silent, but it sends resonating messages about our connection with nature and our place in the larger world. Sharing the planet with other species requires us to share communication with them as well. RAN's video shows us how to do both. To learn more about RAN's work, click here.

There's no question nature is sending us signals about the impacts we're having on it; the real question is how we'll respond.