As High-Profile Conservationists Including Ed Begley Jr. Continue To
Fight To End The Destruction Caused By The Palm Oil Industry, History-MakingBill To Protect Orangutans & Their Rainforest Habitat Advances In CaliforniaSenate
The California Deforestation-Free Procurement Act; a critical bill designed tocombat threats, such as climate change and the palm oil industry, co-sponsoredby Peace 4 Animals, has advanced to the State Senate Appropriations Committee.The move follows last week’s vote in its favor by the Committee onGovernmental Organization. While filming her new documentary ‘We Are One’ inIndonesia last year, Katie Cleary and her team, along with The OrangutanInformation Center, rescued this pregnant orangutan from a palm oil and rubberplantation that was about to be bulldozed to the ground for replanting.
This important legislation, which will require California contractors sellingtropical forest-risk commodities, such as palm oil or rubber, to develop andcomply with a “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policy;ultimately saving rainforests and precious endangered species such as:orangutans, tigers, rhinos, and elephants that call these rainforests theirhome.
“I have long advocated for change in the palm oil industry having experiencedthe devastation it continues to cause to the rainforests and endangeredspecies first-hand in Sumatra and Borneo,” said Katie Cleary, Founder of Peace4 Animals, as well as its breaking animal news network World Animal News(WAN).
While filming her new documentary ‘We Are One’ in Indonesia last year, Clearyand her team, along with The Orangutan Information Center, rescued a pregnantorangutan from a palm oil and rubber plantation that was about to be bulldozedto the ground for replanting. Sadly, there is little primary rainforest leftin Indonesia for orangutans to thrive due to deforestation caused by palm oilcompanies.
Recently, WAN had the opportunity to talk with actor and environmentalist EdBegley, Jr. about this urgent issue during the 6th annual Pongo Awards at theOrang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF) and The Orangutan Project fundraiser.
“Assault against orangutans continues to this day, so more must be done toprotect them,” Begley told WAN, pointing to poaching and the palm oil industryas being among the most significant threats against orangutans.
“Don’t buy products that contain palm oil,” advised Begley, a longtimesupporter of OURF and its founder Gary Shapiro. This is one of the many wayspeople can help save orangutans and their rainforest habitat.
Shapiro, who has been working with orangutans for more than 44 years,mentioned to WAN that ” the passage of AB 572 will not only benefit criticallyendangered orangutans, but other wildlife and local people whose veryexistence is threatened by the conversion of biodiverse rainforest for thelarge-scale cultivation of conflict commodities such as palm oil.”
Cleary has long agreed that people should look on the back of products and notpurchase anything containing unsustainable palm oil or its derivatives; somuch so that six years ago Peace 4 Animals created the “Palms Off Palm Oil”campaign to educate the public about the severe ramifications of buyingproducts containing unsustainable palm oil and encouraging local grocerystores to stop selling it.
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