U.S. forgives $30M in debt to protect rainforests in Sumatra, Indonesia

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0630-debt-for-nature_indonesia.html

A glimmer of hope for Sumatran Orangutans, tigers, rhinos and other animals as much needed help comes in from the US to Indonesia to help prevent the loss of more rainforest. The U.S. will forgive $30 million dollars of debt owed by Indonesia in return for protecting their precious rain forests on the island of Sumatra.

“This is a huge boost for the people and wildlife of Sumatra, and demonstrates a forward-looking policy on the part of the US government,” Jatna Supriatna, Vice President of Conservation International Indonesia, said in a statement. “The $30 million will help protect vital habitats and will also help deliver significant social benefits for the people of the island.”

Health In Harmony – Questionnaire from Kinari Webb

I just saw this posted on the Health In Harmony website. This is the foundation that we are donating the funds to that we collected from our change box drive this year.

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/omagazine/200904-omag-green-role-models/3

Kinari Webb, MD, 37
Founder, Health in Harmony, Oakland, California, and its counterpart, Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI), West Kalimantan, Indonesia

How She Started: I was studying orangutans in 1993 in Gunung Palung National Park in Borneo—a beautiful but threatened place. In the past two decades, 38 percent of the park has been damaged by illegal logging, one of the few sources of income for the local citizens. They’re now feeling the consequences: Floods are frequent, and infection from mosquito-borne illness is high. I went to Yale School of Medicine with the goal of returning to Indonesia to improve local health conditions and preserve the environment.

How It Works: We established a medical clinic in Sukadana, a large village in southwest Borneo, in July 2007, and we’ve seen more than 6,000 patients. We started a healthcare rewards program that provides discounted ambulance service and monthly mobile clinic visits to communities that stop the destruction of Gunung Palung. Also, anyone who cannot afford the clinic fees can work instead at our organic farm and seedling nursery, which is growing trees to be used in reforestation efforts.

Biggest Success: The day the head of a village—in a center of illegal logging—said he had personally hiked around to ensure that there was no more illegal logging.

Just One Thing You Can Do: Avoid palm oil. [Clearing land for palm plantations] is one of the major causes of rainforest destruction in Indonesia.

Cell Phone Recycling

The Primatology Student Association and Happy Hollow Zoo are teaming up to raise money for orangutans! If you have an old cell phone (broken or working!) that you are not sure what to do with, please consider donating it to us. 100% of the money raised will go directly to The Orangutan Conservancy to help protect these amazing animals. We will have a box beginning tomorrow (April 16th) in MH-426 which is the Anthropology office. If you would like to donate a phone but can’t seem to make it to the office just contact us and we will try to come to you when you are on campus.

If you would like to mail a phone or phones please send to

Department of Anthropology
Primatology Student Association
California State University, Fullerton
P.O. Box 6846 Fullerton, CA 92834-6846

New rare orangutan find in Borneo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7995970.stm

A new population of Bornean orangutans has been found in a very remote section of the island. Researchers estimate that there could be 1000-2000 orangutans living in the area and are now trying to gain protection for the surrounding forest. In a time when the news is seemingly hopeless and depressing regarding the numbers of orangutans this is happy news indeed.

Change Box Drive

We have officially started our change box drive for this semester. If you would like to donate your spare change to help conserve orangutans, the rain forest, and people of Indonesia please look for our box in the anthropology office MH-426! All funds collected will be donated to Health In Harmony.