Hardly a day goes by without depressing news from our partners in Indonesia: the rainforests have been in flames for more than three months. The islands of Borneo and Sumatra are hardest hit, with 25 million people suffering from the choking haze. The pollution has killed 15 people – mostly children – to date. The main cause of the disaster: palm oil companies slashing and burning rainforest land for new plantations. The palm oil boom was kicked into overdrive by the EU’s tragically flawed efforts to protect the climate by mandating the blending of “green” biofuels with conventional diesel.
Producing the 1.6 million tons of palm oil burned by European vehicles every year requires a plantation area of 5,500 square kilometers – an area of former rainforest land nearly four times the size of London or seven times the size of New York City.
Please call on the EU to drop the mandatory blending of biodiesel NOW to protect the people of Indonesia and their rainforests.
Thanks for being involved,
Reinhard Behrend
Rainforest Rescue (Rettet den Regenwald e.V.)