forests

Building dams at a Greenpeace camp in Sumatra. International funds and a moratorium would make this a thing of the past

While our campaign to stop HSBC investing in deforestation continues, events have been quickening at the political end. Money and a moratorium have been promised for Indonesia today, both of which are desperately needed to help safeguard the country's forests from further devastation.

The good news just keeps on coming. Our Canadian colleagues (including several working here in London) are thrilled about a new, far-reaching agreement between campaign groups and logging companies which should see vast areas of the country's Boreal forest protected. As detailed on our international site:

"Today the biggest, most ambitious forest conservation deal ever has been announced: the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. After more than seven years of hard-fought campaigning to end the on-going destruction of Canada's Boreal Forest, Greenpeace and eight other non-governmental organisations have agreed to a truce with the logging industry: we will suspend the battle for the Boreal.

Given we've turned our sights away from Nestle towards HSBC, a few more details might be in order about why we've gone from chocolatey giant to banking colossus as the next stage in our campaign to stop Indonesia's rainforests being replaced with palm oil and paper plantations. It's a lateral step but then our intent has always been to tackle the palm oil industry at every level, from production to consumption and all points in between.

You'll never guess what. Nestlé has only gone and agreed to our campaign demands! And you've made this possible. We really, seriously could not have done it without you. Now we need to move straight on to the next big player in the palm oil industry - banking giant HSBC.

The Chinese river dolphin is just one of the thousands of species lost in recent times (© Idolector)

The great Douglas Adams once said: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." He was no doubt talking about writing deadlines but another deadline is fast approaching, one Adams would have been very interested in and one which is far more significant than whether a manuscript gets delivered on time.

Back in 2002, parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - or in other words, most nations on the planet - agreed on a target to stem the loss of biodiversity by 2010, which by no coincidence is also the International Year of Biodiversity. There are still more than six months to go before that deadline officially expires but the results of the global efforts already being called and it's not good news.

Okay, so Nestlé has received tens of thousands of emails, not to mention hundreds (maybe even thousands) of phone calls about the palm oil in its products, but we're still not seeing much in the way of affirmative action. So how about putting a huge advert in a major international newspaper to remind the executives that we're still expecting to see some major announcements very soon?

Nestlé's AGM has broken up and, while shareholders feasted on cup-a-soups and instant noodles (I kid you not), I spoke to Ian and Pat, two of our campaigners who spent all afternoon in the meeting.

According to Ian, the moment our banners popped down was perfectly timed. Nestlé's chair, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, was explaining how well the company had performed over the last fiscal year when noises were heard up in the roof and leaflets began raining down, not at all unlike a shower of cash. The shrieks from those of a nervous disposition as the two banners were unfurled only added to the excitement.

As well as having Greenpeace people in the audience at Nestlé's AGM, we also had a couple of people in a more elevated position - in the rafters of the Lausanne Capitale Olympique, where a couple of climbers were waiting to drop a banner and a cascade of leaflets. According to Ian who's been texting me from the meeting, "everybody shrieked" when the banner dropped.

Meanwhile, outside our orang-utans were being dragged away by the police. Surely they're 'armless?