Palm Oil and Orangutans?

Last night, I went to a talk about how the palm oil industry affects many wildlife species, in particular the orangutans. I did not know that in order to have a palm oil plantation, they had to set fire to forests, so that there is space for there palm oil plants!!
SO these orangutans lose their homes and have no where to go. The organisation BOS (Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation) came to give us a talk about how they rescue these orangutans and raise them so that they will be fit for release in the future. Their first planned release is next year. I hope it works out. It can be quite difficult as the orangutans are being taken care of by humans, they are training them to learn how to climb trees and what foods they should eat and not eat, and eventually human contact will be diminished so that when they are released they won't try to come in contact with humans. However, another issue is that there is still belief that certain body parts of the animal are useful in medicinal preparations, so there are still poachers/hunters that will kill these animals, and usually there will be orphaned orangutans without their moms. In these incidences, people will actually sell these baby orangutans in the pet trade!! But its illegal to keep them as pets.....

So alot of things need to be done to try and protect these animals. It will take a very long time for this program to be successful. Other animals such as the Sumatran Tigers are also being pushed to extinction due to the palm oil products.

It seems like such a big project and feel that what one person could really do. But during the talk the presenter did mention that what we individuals can do is that we have the right to choose food products that won't push them to extinction. We can read the food labels to ensure there is no palm oil in them. But this is proven to be quite difficult as food companies are not obligated to list palm oil under the ingredients.

This talks always gets me thinking, but I never know how I could help...=/
At least this time I can send this postcard thing which is a petition about how we can choose food products that won't push Tigers to extinction! I'm not sure if it'll really work. But I hope so!

Today: Sunny, second last week of school and counting down=)