Palm Oil Detectives

2025-02-15 15:33:00

The origins of animal words in SE Asia and what this reveals to us about our connection to them

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South East Asia is home to many fascinating creatures and rich biodiversity. The secrets of animal origins and ancient legends are revealed in their names: #Orangutan, #Gibbon, #Binturong and #Siamang in South East Asian languages. Help these animals to survive and #Boycottpalmoil

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SE #Asia has many fascinating creatures and the secrets of their origins and ancient legends are revealed in their names: #Orangutan, #Gibbon, #Binturong and #Siamang 🦧🧡🐒🤎 in South East Asian languages #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife https://wp.me/pcFhgU-3KW

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Forest creatures include some of humanity’s closest biological relatives. Due to human threats, they are also some of the most endangered animals on our planet.

Southeast Asia hosts many unique forest species, and many of our English words for forest creatures have their origins in Southeast Asian languages. What sound to English speakers like exotic loanwords are meaningful in their original languages.

By exploring the Southeast Asian etymologies of these names, we can understand how humans have maintained relationships of respect and affinity with forest creatures over the centuries. And, as these ecosystems are under grave threat, it is important to recognise a different way of relating to our most endangered relatives is possible.
Shutterstock
Here, then, are the names of four of my favourite Southeast Asian forest species, and what we know about the origins of their names.

Orangutan

Orangutans belong to the great ape family, our closest biological relatives. This familial link is reflected in the word orangutan itself, which Malay speakers today can still recognise as deriving from the phrase orang hutan, which means “forest person”.

My recent research shows this term goes back over a thousand years, contrary to the conventional belief it was coined by European visitors to Indonesia in the 17th century.

Orangutans are one of our closest relatives, as reflected in the Malay word orang hutan, or ‘forest person’

Photos by Craig Jones Wildlife Photography

Surprisingly, the oldest surviving texts to use the word orangutan do not come from Sumatra or Borneo, where orangutans live today, but from the neighbouring island of Java. One of the oldest texts to mention orangutans is the 9th-century poem Rāmāyaṇa. Written in the Old Javanese language, the poem describes “the orangutans, all bearded, climbing up”.

The word orangutan came into Old Javanese from another archaic language related to modern Malay. These early appearances show the word was circulating among the archipelago’s languages well over a thousand years ago.

This origin as the phrase “forest person” shows for many centuries Southeast Asians have viewed orangutans as human-like creatures residing in the forest.

Gibbon

Gibbons are a type of ape ideally suited to swinging through the trees of Southeast Asia’s forests. The word gibbon entered European languages through French in the 18th century.

The French adopted it from the Malay word, kebon. But recent research shows this Malay word originally came from a group of languages called Northern Aslian, spoken by indigenous communities in peninsular Malaysia. In Northern Aslian, it was probably pronounced kebong.

Called gibbons in English, many Southeast Asian languages call these creatures wak-wak

Northern White-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus leucogenysNorthern Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon Nomascus annamensisPileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatusPileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatusLar Gibbon Hylobates larRed-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus gabriellaeRed-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus gabriellaePileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatus
Gibbon is a relatively rare term in Southeast Asia itself. It even fell out of use in Malay after the 18th century. More common in the region’s languages is the word wak-wak. Like orangutan, this word appears in the Old Javanese language as early as the 9th century and seems to derive from the crow-like sound gibbons make.

Through my research, I suggest the word wak-wak may have inspired the Middle Eastern legend of the Wakwak Tree: a fantastical tree from a far eastern land whose fruits produced human heads and bodies which cried out “wak wak”. Folk memories of the gibbon’s piercing cry may have been transmitted across the Indian Ocean many centuries before the animal was identified by European science.

Binturong

Binturongs, also known in English as bearcats, are long and heavy tree-dwellers with large tails which they use to communicate. The word binturong first appeared in English in the 19th century as a borrowing from Malay.

Binturong also appears in a wide variety of languages from Sumatra and Borneo. This shows the word was coined early in the history of the region: probably several millennia ago, before these languages began to diverge.
The binturong does not leap from tree to tree, instead it makes its way along the ground. ShutterstockBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturong
The earliest form of this word we know about was maturun, which probably meant “the one who descends”. It was inherited by many languages of Borneo and Sumatra, undergoing a series of regular sound changes. This is how the Malay form benturong evolved, which was later adopted by English.

Unlike many other tree creatures, binturongs do not nimbly leap among the branches. Rather, they tend to descend one tree and walk along the ground to another tree. The aptness of the name maturun shows us these early Southeast Asian communities were close observers of animal behaviour.

Siamang

The endangered siamangs are the largest type of gibbon. They have distinctive black coats and communicate with a complex system of booming calls.

Siamangs communicate with complex booming calls. Shutterstock
Siamang Symphalangus syndactylusSiamang
The ultimate origin of the word is probably the word ʔamang (where the ʔ represents a glottal stop), found in several indigenous languages of the Central Aslian group.

When speakers of Malay borrowed the word ʔamang, they added the personal article si. Similar to an honorific like “mister”, si generally applies only to humans, or to animals, spirits or objects that are personified. Malay speakers later interpreted the word amang as “black”, giving rise to a folk etymology of si amang as meaning something like “Mr Sooty”.

The Malay expression was eventually treated as the single word siamang. For the Malays, the charisma exuded by siamangs entitled them to the status of personhood — another recognition of the affinity between humans and our forest ape relatives.

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, Research associate, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalCommunication #animalIntelligence #animals #Asia #Binturong #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Gibbon #history #indigenousKnowledge #language #orangutan #Siamang #SiamangSymphalangusSyndactylus #wildlife

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan — Profile on The Conversation

^{The Conversation}

Palm Oil Detectives

2025-02-15 15:33:00

The origins of animal words in SE Asia and what this reveals to us about our connection to them

---

South East Asia is home to many fascinating creatures and rich biodiversity. The secrets of animal origins and ancient legends are revealed in their names: #Orangutan, #Gibbon, #Binturong and #Siamang in South East Asian languages. Help these animals to survive and #Boycottpalmoil

---

SE #Asia has many fascinating creatures and the secrets of their origins and ancient legends are revealed in their names: #Orangutan, #Gibbon, #Binturong and #Siamang 🦧🧡🐒🤎 in South East Asian languages #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife https://wp.me/pcFhgU-3KW

Share to BlueSky
Share to Twitter

Forest creatures include some of humanity’s closest biological relatives. Due to human threats, they are also some of the most endangered animals on our planet.

Southeast Asia hosts many unique forest species, and many of our English words for forest creatures have their origins in Southeast Asian languages. What sound to English speakers like exotic loanwords are meaningful in their original languages.

By exploring the Southeast Asian etymologies of these names, we can understand how humans have maintained relationships of respect and affinity with forest creatures over the centuries. And, as these ecosystems are under grave threat, it is important to recognise a different way of relating to our most endangered relatives is possible.
Shutterstock
Here, then, are the names of four of my favourite Southeast Asian forest species, and what we know about the origins of their names.

Orangutan

Orangutans belong to the great ape family, our closest biological relatives. This familial link is reflected in the word orangutan itself, which Malay speakers today can still recognise as deriving from the phrase orang hutan, which means “forest person”.

My recent research shows this term goes back over a thousand years, contrary to the conventional belief it was coined by European visitors to Indonesia in the 17th century.

Orangutans are one of our closest relatives, as reflected in the Malay word orang hutan, or ‘forest person’

Photos by Craig Jones Wildlife Photography

Surprisingly, the oldest surviving texts to use the word orangutan do not come from Sumatra or Borneo, where orangutans live today, but from the neighbouring island of Java. One of the oldest texts to mention orangutans is the 9th-century poem Rāmāyaṇa. Written in the Old Javanese language, the poem describes “the orangutans, all bearded, climbing up”.

The word orangutan came into Old Javanese from another archaic language related to modern Malay. These early appearances show the word was circulating among the archipelago’s languages well over a thousand years ago.

This origin as the phrase “forest person” shows for many centuries Southeast Asians have viewed orangutans as human-like creatures residing in the forest.

Gibbon

Gibbons are a type of ape ideally suited to swinging through the trees of Southeast Asia’s forests. The word gibbon entered European languages through French in the 18th century.

The French adopted it from the Malay word, kebon. But recent research shows this Malay word originally came from a group of languages called Northern Aslian, spoken by indigenous communities in peninsular Malaysia. In Northern Aslian, it was probably pronounced kebong.

Called gibbons in English, many Southeast Asian languages call these creatures wak-wak

Northern White-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus leucogenysNorthern Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon Nomascus annamensisPileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatusPileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatusLar Gibbon Hylobates larRed-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus gabriellaeRed-cheeked Gibbon Nomascus gabriellaePileated Gibbon Hylobates pileatus
Gibbon is a relatively rare term in Southeast Asia itself. It even fell out of use in Malay after the 18th century. More common in the region’s languages is the word wak-wak. Like orangutan, this word appears in the Old Javanese language as early as the 9th century and seems to derive from the crow-like sound gibbons make.

Through my research, I suggest the word wak-wak may have inspired the Middle Eastern legend of the Wakwak Tree: a fantastical tree from a far eastern land whose fruits produced human heads and bodies which cried out “wak wak”. Folk memories of the gibbon’s piercing cry may have been transmitted across the Indian Ocean many centuries before the animal was identified by European science.

Binturong

Binturongs, also known in English as bearcats, are long and heavy tree-dwellers with large tails which they use to communicate. The word binturong first appeared in English in the 19th century as a borrowing from Malay.

Binturong also appears in a wide variety of languages from Sumatra and Borneo. This shows the word was coined early in the history of the region: probably several millennia ago, before these languages began to diverge.
The binturong does not leap from tree to tree, instead it makes its way along the ground. ShutterstockBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturongBinturong Arctictis binturong
The earliest form of this word we know about was maturun, which probably meant “the one who descends”. It was inherited by many languages of Borneo and Sumatra, undergoing a series of regular sound changes. This is how the Malay form benturong evolved, which was later adopted by English.

Unlike many other tree creatures, binturongs do not nimbly leap among the branches. Rather, they tend to descend one tree and walk along the ground to another tree. The aptness of the name maturun shows us these early Southeast Asian communities were close observers of animal behaviour.

Siamang

The endangered siamangs are the largest type of gibbon. They have distinctive black coats and communicate with a complex system of booming calls.

Siamangs communicate with complex booming calls. Shutterstock
Siamang Symphalangus syndactylusSiamang
The ultimate origin of the word is probably the word ʔamang (where the ʔ represents a glottal stop), found in several indigenous languages of the Central Aslian group.

When speakers of Malay borrowed the word ʔamang, they added the personal article si. Similar to an honorific like “mister”, si generally applies only to humans, or to animals, spirits or objects that are personified. Malay speakers later interpreted the word amang as “black”, giving rise to a folk etymology of si amang as meaning something like “Mr Sooty”.

The Malay expression was eventually treated as the single word siamang. For the Malays, the charisma exuded by siamangs entitled them to the status of personhood — another recognition of the affinity between humans and our forest ape relatives.

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, Research associate, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalCommunication #animalIntelligence #animals #Asia #Binturong #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Gibbon #history #indigenousKnowledge #language #orangutan #Siamang #SiamangSymphalangusSyndactylus #wildlife

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan

Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan — Profile on The Conversation

^{The Conversation}

Palm Oil Detectives

2025-02-11 14:09:00

Deadly Harvest: How Demand for Palm Oil Fuels Corruption in Honduras

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Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats to their lives and real dangers they face in the long-term fight for protect Honduran rainforests, indigenous peoples and animals from annihilation #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

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🌿 #LatinAmerica’s #Honduras is rapidly increasing #palmoil production – at HUGE cost. Rangers face daily death threats 💀 while defending #rainforests 🌳 #indigenous peoples and #wildlife. 💔 Fight back! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8YV

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💀 Park rangers in #Honduras 🇭🇳 #SouthAmerica risk their lives every day to protect animals 🐒 #indigenous peoples and #rainforests from #palmoil plantations. Their fight is real. Resist when u shop! 💪 #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8YV

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Words and photography by Fritz Pinnow in Tela, Honduras. Originally published in The Guardian, 27 November, 2023 and republished via the Guardian’s open license agreement, read original article.

---

Park ranger Adonias Cruz was out monitoring illegal oil palm crops in Blanca Jeannette Kawas national park, on the north coast of Honduras, on 10 September, when an unknown armed man came to his flat and rang the bell. When the stranger realised Cruz was out, he left him a death threat.
Oil palm fields growing at the edges of the national park in Honduras. Photography: Fritz Pinnow.

“I had already received death threats from people in the community for leading a team to eradicate a new oil palm plantation in the central zone of the park,” says Cruz. “It was frightening to know they were in my flat and that everything could have ended differently if I had been home that day.”

Cruz, 28, is one of four park rangers dedicated to protecting national parks and monitoring illegal oil palm crops in Honduras. It is a high-risk job: groups linked to the exploitation of palm oil in environmental reserves and drug trafficking have made it clear they are ready to kill if they think the agents interfere too much in their business.

“Most people see us as their enemy. We can have friendly conversations with everyone here, but you never know who will be behind the next assassination attempt,” says Cruz.
Park ranger Adonias Cruz and colleagues patrol a mangrove lagoon in Blanca Jeannette Kawas national park looking for signs of illegal oil palm. Photo: Fritz Pinnow.
Fellow park ranger Cesar Ortega, 22, adds that the team’s work is monitored by the criminals. “From when we leave the office, they know exactly where we are and where we are heading. They have people at every intersection calling in our position and asking if we are with soldiers,” he says.

Cruz and Ortega are two of the many rangers who have been threatened while fighting against the rapid spread of oil palm plantations. Palm oil, especially from the oil palm’s fruit, has become an essential export business in Honduras, used in the food industry, in beauty products and as a biofuel. Its low production costs make it a cheap substitute for most oils, such as sunflower and olive, significantly lowering manufacturing costs in global markets.

Palm oil accounts for about 40% of global demand for vegetable oil as food, animal feed and fuel – about 210m tonnes. Between 1995 and 2015, annual production quadrupled, from 15.2m tonnes to 62.6m tonnes, and it is expected to quadruple once more in 2050. Latin America, the fastest-growing producer, accounts for almost 7% of global palm oil production.
Park ranger Cesar Ortega points out newly planted oil palm: “When the oil palm is still so young, it is critical to remove it
In Honduras, oil palm gained traction as a crop in2014, when the former president Juan Orlando Hernández invested almost $72m (£57m) in loans and grants to incentivise its cultivation. “All one needed was the willingness to plant oil palm, and the rest was served on a plate,” says Pablo Flores Velásquez, professor of environmental investigations at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).

For the traffickers, oil palm crops are a way of legitimising their presence in the territory and securing physical control over the land.

Frances Thomson, Latin America specialist

The problem is that the extensive cultivation of oil palm has not only proved to be lucrative, but also poses a risk to the environment. “The oil palm presents a serious threat to the biodiversity of the wetlands and the water quality communities depend on,” says Velásquez. “As a monoculture, the installation and establishment of the crop necessitates the complete eradication of the biodiverse area, paralysing the ecosystem completely and permanently.”

In Honduras, these crops – whose harmful effects on the soil can create “green deserts” – account for almost 4% of all exports, mostly going to the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Switzerland, with a value of $334m in 2021. Six large companies control the production, and two claim more than half of all exports.

Nevertheless, 60% of the production in Honduras is in the hands of smallholders, who sell to corporations for refinement and export. Palm oil is highly lucrative for the farmers and provides an income every 15 days. The regional price of palm oil fruit varies greatly, from about 2,400 lempiras (£77) a tonne during low season to double that in summer.
Cesar Ortega looks at an area deforested for oil palm plantations. “They have stopped because of flooding, but as soon as they can access this area again this will all become palma,” he says
Read the remaining article on The Guardian’s website.

Words and photography by Fritz Pinnow in Tela, Honduras. Originally published in The Guardian, 27 November, 2023 and republished under Guardian’s open license agreement, read original article.

ENDS

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Read more about deforestation and ecocide in the palm oil industry

Nancy Ma’s Night Monkey Aotus nancymaae

Deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Nancy Ma’s night monkeys peer out of the trees during the dusk with their large, soulful eyes and striking facial markings. Also known as…

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Major Food Companies Sued Over Addictive Ultra-Processed Foods Targeting Children

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Read more

Tufted Ground Squirrel Rheithrosciurus macrotis

The tufted ground squirrel, or groove-toothed squirrel, is a striking nut-cracking rodent native to the island of Borneo. Sporting a voluminous, club-shaped tail, the tufted ground squirrel carries the largest tail-to-body size ratio…

Read more

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1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

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How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

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#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #corruption #deforestation #Honduras #indigenous #LatinAmerica #PalmOil #palmOilBiofuel #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #rainforests #SouthAmerica #vegan #wildlife

Honduras invertirá 71 millones dólares en producción de palma

Jacobo Paz, titular de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), indicó que el país busca casi duplicar el cultivo de palma africana.

^{Christian Baide Figueroa (La Prensa)}

Palm Oil Detectives

2025-02-11 14:09:00

Deadly Harvest: How Demand for Palm Oil Fuels Corruption in Honduras

---

Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats to their lives and real dangers they face in the long-term fight for protect Honduran rainforests, indigenous peoples and animals from annihilation #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

---

🌿 #LatinAmerica’s #Honduras is rapidly increasing #palmoil production – at HUGE cost. Rangers face daily death threats 💀 while defending #rainforests 🌳 #indigenous peoples and #wildlife. 💔 Fight back! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8YV

Share to BlueSky
Share to Twitter

💀 Park rangers in #Honduras 🇭🇳 #SouthAmerica risk their lives every day to protect animals 🐒 #indigenous peoples and #rainforests from #palmoil plantations. Their fight is real. Resist when u shop! 💪 #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8YV

Share to BlueSky
Share to Twitter

Words and photography by Fritz Pinnow in Tela, Honduras. Originally published in The Guardian, 27 November, 2023 and republished via the Guardian’s open license agreement, read original article.

---

Park ranger Adonias Cruz was out monitoring illegal oil palm crops in Blanca Jeannette Kawas national park, on the north coast of Honduras, on 10 September, when an unknown armed man came to his flat and rang the bell. When the stranger realised Cruz was out, he left him a death threat.
Oil palm fields growing at the edges of the national park in Honduras. Photography: Fritz Pinnow.

“I had already received death threats from people in the community for leading a team to eradicate a new oil palm plantation in the central zone of the park,” says Cruz. “It was frightening to know they were in my flat and that everything could have ended differently if I had been home that day.”

Cruz, 28, is one of four park rangers dedicated to protecting national parks and monitoring illegal oil palm crops in Honduras. It is a high-risk job: groups linked to the exploitation of palm oil in environmental reserves and drug trafficking have made it clear they are ready to kill if they think the agents interfere too much in their business.

“Most people see us as their enemy. We can have friendly conversations with everyone here, but you never know who will be behind the next assassination attempt,” says Cruz.
Park ranger Adonias Cruz and colleagues patrol a mangrove lagoon in Blanca Jeannette Kawas national park looking for signs of illegal oil palm. Photo: Fritz Pinnow.
Fellow park ranger Cesar Ortega, 22, adds that the team’s work is monitored by the criminals. “From when we leave the office, they know exactly where we are and where we are heading. They have people at every intersection calling in our position and asking if we are with soldiers,” he says.

Cruz and Ortega are two of the many rangers who have been threatened while fighting against the rapid spread of oil palm plantations. Palm oil, especially from the oil palm’s fruit, has become an essential export business in Honduras, used in the food industry, in beauty products and as a biofuel. Its low production costs make it a cheap substitute for most oils, such as sunflower and olive, significantly lowering manufacturing costs in global markets.

Palm oil accounts for about 40% of global demand for vegetable oil as food, animal feed and fuel – about 210m tonnes. Between 1995 and 2015, annual production quadrupled, from 15.2m tonnes to 62.6m tonnes, and it is expected to quadruple once more in 2050. Latin America, the fastest-growing producer, accounts for almost 7% of global palm oil production.
Park ranger Cesar Ortega points out newly planted oil palm: “When the oil palm is still so young, it is critical to remove it
In Honduras, oil palm gained traction as a crop in2014, when the former president Juan Orlando Hernández invested almost $72m (£57m) in loans and grants to incentivise its cultivation. “All one needed was the willingness to plant oil palm, and the rest was served on a plate,” says Pablo Flores Velásquez, professor of environmental investigations at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH).

For the traffickers, oil palm crops are a way of legitimising their presence in the territory and securing physical control over the land.

Frances Thomson, Latin America specialist

The problem is that the extensive cultivation of oil palm has not only proved to be lucrative, but also poses a risk to the environment. “The oil palm presents a serious threat to the biodiversity of the wetlands and the water quality communities depend on,” says Velásquez. “As a monoculture, the installation and establishment of the crop necessitates the complete eradication of the biodiverse area, paralysing the ecosystem completely and permanently.”

In Honduras, these crops – whose harmful effects on the soil can create “green deserts” – account for almost 4% of all exports, mostly going to the Netherlands, the US, Italy and Switzerland, with a value of $334m in 2021. Six large companies control the production, and two claim more than half of all exports.

Nevertheless, 60% of the production in Honduras is in the hands of smallholders, who sell to corporations for refinement and export. Palm oil is highly lucrative for the farmers and provides an income every 15 days. The regional price of palm oil fruit varies greatly, from about 2,400 lempiras (£77) a tonne during low season to double that in summer.
Cesar Ortega looks at an area deforested for oil palm plantations. “They have stopped because of flooding, but as soon as they can access this area again this will all become palma,” he says
Read the remaining article on The Guardian’s website.

Words and photography by Fritz Pinnow in Tela, Honduras. Originally published in The Guardian, 27 November, 2023 and republished under Guardian’s open license agreement, read original article.

ENDS

---

Read more about deforestation and ecocide in the palm oil industry

Nancy Ma’s Night Monkey Aotus nancymaae

Deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Nancy Ma’s night monkeys peer out of the trees during the dusk with their large, soulful eyes and striking facial markings. Also known as…

Read more

Marine Biologist and Illustrator Emily Underwood

Emily is a Sussex-based illustrator with a degree in Marine Biology and an MA in Illustration. Combining her scientific background with her creative talents, she is passionate about highlighting lesser-known endangered species through…

Read more

Maned Wolf Chrysocyon brachyurus

The Maned Wolf Chrysocyon brachyurus is a captivating creature known for their “foxes on stilts” appearance and distinctive cannabis-like urine odour. Their long legs allow them to peer over the tall grass in…

Read more

Major Food Companies Sued Over Addictive Ultra-Processed Foods Targeting Children

A landmark lawsuit filed in Philadelphia names major food companies: Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, Post Holdings, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Mars, and ConAgra and accuses them of designing and marketing ultra-processed foods…

Read more

Tufted Ground Squirrel Rheithrosciurus macrotis

The tufted ground squirrel, or groove-toothed squirrel, is a striking nut-cracking rodent native to the island of Borneo. Sporting a voluminous, club-shaped tail, the tufted ground squirrel carries the largest tail-to-body size ratio…

Read more

Load more posts

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

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How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

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#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #corruption #deforestation #Honduras #indigenous #LatinAmerica #PalmOil #palmOilBiofuel #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #rainforests #SouthAmerica #vegan #wildlife

Honduras invertirá 71 millones dólares en producción de palma

Jacobo Paz, titular de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), indicó que el país busca casi duplicar el cultivo de palma africana.

^{Christian Baide Figueroa (La Prensa)}