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f only the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and its members could see the harm done by the palm oil industry in Indonesia alone, maybe, just maybe, they might pull back from the ongoing environmental disaster they continue to cause all over Kalimantan and Sumatra.

We are Indonesians, proud of our heritage, our country, and doing our best for both the environment and future generations. We can’t bear to think of our children and grandchildren blaming us for not doing enough to save orangutans and other species, while there was still time.

It’s a shame palm oil company owners and directors don’t feel and think the same way. Every week we at the Center for Orangutan Protection come across orangutans that have suffered at the hands of palm oil companies.

Usually the orangutans are babies, orphaned and sold after their mothers have been killed. Sometimes we find dead or dying orangutans. Every day we see once pristine rainforests reduced to dust and it breaks our hearts, as it would most human beings with even an ounce of compassion and personal integrity.

With the forests gone, so too have all the wildlife that once looked upon the forest as their home. Sometimes the animals are caught and traded as bushmeat, more often than not they are caught and sold into the illegal wildlife trade, often ending up overseas in the cooking pots of Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, etc.

As far as the eye can see, nothing but land cleared of rain forests, sometimes legally, sometimes not, waiting to be planted with oil palm seedlings or land covered in established oil palm plantations.

Nothing natural is left. Local rivers poisoned with agricultural chemicals used on the plantations no longer can be fished, bathed in or used as a source of clean water. People working on plantations are virtual prisoners with living conditions Amnesty and Oxfam would condemn if they saw what we see.  

Indonesian palm oil companies bear as much responsibility as any others, but when we see Malaysian and Singaporean companies destroying Indonesia’s environment it really hurts. Imagine how they would feel if we went to their country and pillaged what is left of their natural environment.

Think about this for a moment: Indonesian palm oil companies clearing rain forests and killing orangutans and other protected species in Sabah.

If this was to happen, can you begin to imagine the political uproar? Let’s be honest, the Malaysians would not allow it to happen would they? But, they are quite happy to come to Indonesia to rape and pillage our forests.

At the end of October the RSPO has it within its grasp to insist on all its members respecting and enforcing a “No Kill — Zero Tolerance” policy toward legally protected wildlife. This, to us, seems a very reasonable thing to expect from any such organization or company.

The policy is not the only answer to the problem, but it will be a good beginning, something to build and improve on in much the same way the RSPO has grown and developed over the years.

We appeal to the compassionate, less ruthless RSPO members to support an immediate No Kill – Zero Tolerance policy.

We are not asking for much, but it’s a matter of life or death for the orangutans.