Posted by jamie — 30 December 2008 at 10:27am
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Remember the palm oil tanker which the Esperanza prevented from docking in Indonesia last month? That same tanker - the Isola Corallo - arrived in European waters on Christmas Eve en route to Rotterdam, and was met by a group of Greenpeace activists who painted 'Forest Crime' along its hull.
I was on board the Esperanza during that first Indonesian action against the Corallo and it's brilliant to see this tanker - which is carrying 29,000 tonnes of palm oil belonging to Sinar Mas, Indonesia's largest producer - becoming the centre of attention once more here in Europe. It draws a thick line across the globe between the causes of deforestation in Indonesia and demand for products like palm oil on this side of the world.
It's been a few weeks since the Esperanza's
tour of Indonesia
wrapped up with an exhausting
but thrilling week of direct action focused on various palm oil tankers, and
I've since left those humid equatorial climes to return to a chilly British
winter. But even though the ship has moved on to other countries and campaigns,
the palm oil campaign continues and in the past few weeks there have been some developments.
The most obvious has been annual meeting of
the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Bali - this could have been
the moment the industry got its act together and did something other than spin the
usual load of greenwash over its involvement in the destruction of south east
Asia's rainforests. Sadly, it was
not to be. Although our ship painting/blockading actions drew a lot of
attention, as did our earlier revelations about United
Plantations and their 'sustainable' palm oil, no real progress was made.
Posted by jamie — 18 December 2008 at 4:03pm
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Our podcast has skipped a month, but then with the Rainbow Warrior gracing our shores things have been a tad busy around here of late. As you may know, she was here in October as part of the international Quit Coal tour, and we went to meet some of the Greenpeace supporters who came to have a look round during the open boat days.
Also on our radar was the recent Indonesia tour undertaken by that other Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza. I was lucky enough to be there and while the crew were busy painting and blockading palm oil tankers in Sumatra, I was able to talk to them about what it's like being in the middle of a major piece of direct action.
And you'll have to excuse my froggy throat in the introduction, there's a cold going around the office.
Jamie wrote this - his thoughts and reflections on the ship tour so far - as he was waiting for something to happen in Indonesia last night. Eventually, something did.
Direct actions can be quite boring at times. The few moments of excitement are the ones which make the headlines and the photos, but anyone who has participated themselves will know there can be long, drawn-out stretches when not much is happening. Direct inaction, if you will.
I'm currently experiencing that now. As I write this, nestled in the campaign office on board the Esperanza, we're playing a waiting game. You've probably read about what the crew here has been up to in the Indonesian port of Dumai, painting and blockading palm oil tankers.
After painting and obstructing various palm
oil tankers in Dumai earlier this week, we of the Esperanza have been playing a
waiting game. There was one tanker due in which the campaigners were
particularly interested in - not only was it bound for Europe, but it was
picking up a cargo of palm oil from Sinar Mas, the largest palm oil company in Indonesia. As
soon as it arrived, a climber was installed on the anchor chain and then there
was some more waiting. A lot more waiting.
An update from Indonesia: yesterday, the climber occupying the anchor chain of a ship carrying a cargo of palm oil was brought down, arrested and later released without charge.
Yesterday, we also received the intriguing photo above (later chosen by the BBC for its day in pictures). As it took us in the office a while to get our heads around what was happening, I thought I'd pass on Jamie's explanation:
Posted by jossc — 11 November 2008 at 2:19pm
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Indonesia: oil palm saplings are still replacing peatlands and rainforest
Cooking oil, chocolate, soap, washing powder, cosmetics and biofuels are just a few of the hundreds of products reliant on one key ingredient - palm oil. Demand for this versatile oil is rising rapidly. Today 80 per cent of world production comes from plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. Palm oil is the leading cause of destruction in Indonesia, where it is spelling disaster for local communities, biodiversity, and climate change as palm plantations encroach further and further into rainforest and critical peatland areas.
These issues are meant to be addressed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the self-regulating industry body created in 2001 to develop sustainable solutions to palm oil production. To date, despite seven years of existence, no "sustainable" palm oil has entered the market place appearing in products of its members (who include household names like Boots and BP). But that's supposedly now about to change as the first certified palm oil shipment from Malaysia arrives this week in Rotterdam.
The small (wet) figure above is a crew member of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. Darkness has fallen on the port of Dumai (Indonesia) since this photograph was taken several hours ago, but our climber is still there, in the dark, occupying the anchor chain and preventing the tanker from setting off to the Netherlands with its 27,000 tonne cargo of palm oil. As Jamie wrote on the Forests for Climate blog, it takes only one person to stop a giant palm oil tanker.
Remember the palm oil tanker which the Esperanza prevented from docking in Indonesia last month? That same tanker - the Isola Corallo - arrived in European waters on Christmas Eve en route to Rotterdam, and was met by a group of Greenpeace activists who painted 'Forest Crime' along its hull.
