By Rainforest Rescue, Hamburg
Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (BGA), a palm oil company, is clearing large areas of rainforest in Tanjung Puting National Park and the adjacent buffer zone in order to convert the land into oil palm monocultures.
Borneo's Tanjung Puting National Park covers an area of 400,000 hectares and is home to unique tropical forest ecosystems. The coastline and the estuaries are lined by dense mangrove forests. Swamp and peat forests still dominate the landscape.
The forests are the habitat of highly endangered proboscis monkeys. The tree-dwelling animals, which always live close to water, can only be found in Borneo. The protected area is also home to 6,000 orangutans, around 250 bird species and over 600 tree species.
BGA's clear-cutting of these forests and the resulting destruction of the habitat of endangered species violates numerous laws. In 2011, the Indonesian President Yudhoyono imposed a moratorium on the deforestation of the country's rain and peat forests and extended it for another two years in May 2013.
The company has not performed environmental impact assessments for its plantations and is said to have obtained the permits only by bribing local authorities. Inhabitants of the village Sekonyer in the affected area are protesting the plantations that would destroy their traditional way of life.
BGA is pursuing an "aggressive expansion strategy" with plans to establish a further 13,000 hectares of oil palm plantations every year.
Read background at https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/928/borneo-axing-a-national-...
Please help us put an end to the destruction and sign our petition to the Indonesian government.
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/928/borneo-axing-a-national-...
