Monday, January 31, 2011

Paper That Kills Tigers, Elephants and Orangutans

Paper cuts are no fun.

But here is paper more destructive and heinous for it kills endangered tigers, elephants and orangutans in one blow.

Here is photo featured in an eye-opening post by George Monbiot.

It shows the destruction of Sumatran rainforest in Sungai Sembilang National Park in Sumatra.

Sungai Sembilang National Park, Sumatra
Photograph: Romeo Gacad


According to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN):

"Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Royal Golden Eagle Group’s Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) are among Indonesia’s most destructive corporations. Between them, they produce 80 percent of Indonesia’s pulp and paper. This comes from clear cutting rainforests and replacing them with monoculture acacia pulp wood plantations grown on these cleared rainforests and peatlands. Many leading international companies and consumer brands are contributing to this tragic pattern of destruction by, often unknowingly, purchasing paper products from affiliates of APP and APRIL."

"Deforestation in Riau has been driving both Sumatran elephants and tigers to local extinction: as of 2007, Sumatran elephant and tiger populations in Riau had declined about 75 percent over the past 25 years to as few as 210 and 192 individuals, respectively. If forest clearing is not halted, both may become locally extinct in a few years’ time."

Please be informed of the many companies/minions of APP including:
APP has also reneged on millions of US taxpayer monies.

"In 2008, APP was ordered by a New York federal judge to pay back more than $100 million of that debt to the taxpayer-financed U.S. Export-Import Bank. The debt remains unpaid."

The Forest Stewardship Council and Rainforest Alliance, and companies like Target, Walmart, Staples and Office Depot have severed ties with APP.

Sumatra is not the only APP stop.

According to this post, Cambodia is also suffering the same loss and destruction where APP has set up companies: Green Rich and Green Elite.

App has also been charged with illegal logging in China.

What can we do as humans and gnomes to help stop this deadly paper destroying our forests and killing our precious animals and resources?

Please educate yourself and read about APP here.

Boycott products from APP and its minions.

Please see the Natural Resources Defense Council's Consumer Guide for responsible paper products that help protect forests and not destroy them.

Shop for "paper products with paper products with recycled content -- especially post-consumer fibers."

Visit NRDC for more tips to help save our forests.

Please help by using your wallet responsibly and help send a clear message to paper companies.

Use super paper that helps save the world and go green!

(c) 2009-2011 Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Slaughter of the Rhino

Mama gnome strives to stay positive and see the glass half-full.

But it's hard to keep a stiff upper gnome lip and be optimistic when you learn about the slaughter of the Rhino.

Rhinos are being slaughtered for their horns.

Rhino horns are illegally sold and bought in Asia for use for "traditional Chinese medicine" and in the Middle East as handles for ornamental daggers.

Last June 2010, poachers in South Africa killed..."the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg...(it) bled to death after having its horn hacked off."

The rhino was a mother.

"Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos."

According to this report, rhino poaching has severely worsened with:

Wildlife officials in...South Africa say 2010 was an extraordinarily bad year, with 333 rhinos poached, nearly three times as many as were lost in 2009. Five more rhinos were killed in the first weeks of 2011.

There are five species of rhinoceros:

First, the White Rhinoceros with two subspecies, the northern and southern white rhinoceros.

White Rhino
photo by: Ikiwaner, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waterberg_Nashorn3.jpg

Since 2008: "The last four northern white rhinoceros remaining in the wild are feared to have been killed for their horns by poachers and are now believed to be extinct in the wild. "

The second species, the Black Rhino, is listed as critically endangered by IUCN.

Black Rhino
photo by: Ikiwaner

According to the IUCN..."one of the main threats to the population is poaching for the international rhino horn trade."

The third species is the Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros. IUCN lists the Indian rhino as vulnerable and habitat decline threatens this species.

Indian Rhino
photo by: Fritz Geller-Grimm

The fourth species is the Javan Rhinoceros.

Javan Rhino

1930 photo of Javan Rhino by: Hoogerwerf, Andries, Rhino Resource Center


Mama gnome has featured this rhino sadly as a Mystery Animal of the Day,for it is considered the most endangered of all the largest mammals in the world.

According to this report:
"Last year, a Javan rhino, which is one of the world's rarest mammals, was found dead in a Vietnamese national park with its horn chopped off. Experts believe only three to five animals still exist in Vietnam."


The fifth species is the Sumatran Rhinoceros.

Sumatran Rhinos at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens

photo by: Charles W. Hardin

IUCN lists the Sumatran Rhino as critically endangered with less than 250 mature individuals and their population continue to decline because of illegal poaching and habitat loss.

Here is a video reporting about rhino poaching. Warning. Some images show the slaughtered rhinos.


video by: AlJazeeraEnglish

Do you think there is any hope for the Rhino? What can we do to help save them?

Visit WWF.

Spread the terrible news about this animal.

Please help save the rhino.

Please help and go green.

(c) 2009-2011 Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog