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Sign to protest Indonesian rainforest destruction
Klaus Schenck , Christiane Zander, Diet Simon - 08.07.2009 04:52
Your signature requested to stop further rainforest destruction in Indonesia
The large Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS and the French BNP Paribas intend to fund one of the worst rain forest destroyers of Indonesia, the palm oil company Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), with millions to spend on more forest clearing.
The German activist group Rainforest Rescue requests your signature under a prepared protest letter to the banks at  http://www.regenwald.org.
Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) is the world’s biggest stock-traded palm oil company, producing 10% of Indonesia’s output. The giant wants to expand further.
In Kalimantan (Borneo) and Papua another 1.3 million hectares of land is to be developed for oil palm plantations. The banks are now organising increased capital for Golden Agri-Resources. New shares and options are to raise 185 million euros.
Indonesia is in the process of destroying its biggest treasures. For more palm oil monocultures the big island country is gambling away its unique jungles. At the gambling table are the Indonesian government, transnational companies and banks – and European fuel consumers.
The German and European agrofuels policy supports the thirst for palm oil in car tanks.
The biggest losers are people and animals who will lose the foundations of their lives with the forests. But what does the world community lose when the climate on earth becomes unbearable?
In recent years seven million hectares of rain forest and peat moors were sacrificed in Indonesia for oil palm plantations. These monocultures are to increase to another 20 million hectares under government plans.
It is successfully attracting foreign investors, such as the banks mentioned above now raising funds for Golden Agri-Resources.
Golden Agri-Resources is the holding corporation of the infamous Sinar Mas Group in Indonesia.
This company shrinks from nothing – not from land theft, not from human rights violations. Nor from simply immobilising people fighting for their land.
We saw the courage with which farmers are fighting for their rights in the village Karang Mendapo on Sumatra. More than a hundred farmers and human rights activists were assembled when Muhammad Rusdi was taken in a prison van to his trial.
The mayor of Karang Mendapo is the victim of a conspiracy run by Sinar Mas to shut him up. Rusdi constantly led his farmers against the land theft of the palm oil firm. Fearlessly the farmers of his village now told the court who was hurting them.
Since January Rusdi has been behind bars, expecting a verdict on 11 July. That he’d now being defended by good lawyers is due in parts to donations raised by Rainforest Rescue.
Neither Credit Suisse nor UBS will say whether they check the effects of their business on people and the environment. High-risk firms like the Indonesian palm oil and paper industries could not pass serious scrutiny and are a high risk for investors.
Credit Suisse has already been the main financier of the paper firm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), another Sinar Mas subsidiary. APP is not only responsible for the destruction of large areas of forest, but in 2001 also caused one of the biggest company failures in Asia.
Now Credit Suisse, UBS and BNP Parisbas want to find Golden Agri up to 185 million euros. Please take part in our protest action by asking the banks to stop selling shares of Golden Agri Resources immediately.
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