climate… Present and Persistent Palm Oil Problems 27 Jun 2018 The IUCN Oil Palm Task Force has just published a review of the current conundrums of industrial oil palm crops in the tropics. Land-clearing for plantations geard toward international palm oil production remain…
News and Links… 1001 Citations! 10 Mar 2018 I just checked my Google Scholar profile today, and noticed something semi-momentous: "Orangutan Cultures and the Evolution of Material Culture" has been cited by 1,001 other publications. This is the primary publication…
disasters… Global Demand for Natural Resources Eliminated More Than 100,000 Bornean Orangutans — Serge Wich’s research and projects 15 Feb 2018 We just published a new paper that indicates a massive decline of orangutans on Borneo. The paper was published in Current Biology. via Global Demand for Natural Resources Eliminated More Than…
disasters… Palm Oil reporting and interactive map 30 Jun 2017 The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) developed SPOTT to report on some of the main drivers of tropical deforestation and habitat loss. They've released transparency scores and assessments of the major palm…
climate… The Smoke of Centuries: Indonesia’s Fires 9 Nov 2015 The fires in Indonesia burn rainforest trees that have grown and fed and housed orangutans for decades or centuries, and peat that has stored carbon for centuries or millennia. George Monbiot…
education… Saving What Matters: Taking Sustainability Personally 20 Sep 201520 Sep 2015 I was asked to deliver a talk to the School of Arts, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University last week. As I was preparing, I recorded a rehearsal version…
disasters… Leuser Under Threat Again 14 Sep 2015 And yet another sad but important recent article related to my upcoming talk, this time on the Leuser Ecosystem (where I studied orangutans at Suaq Balimbing and Ketambe research sites in…
disasters… Latest article on the Palm Oil threat to the Leuser Ecosystem 23 Jul 2015 A recent summary of the current challenges facing Leuser, where I went 16 years ago to study orangutans, then watched their home being desecrated by the relentless chainsaws. "Right now, huge swaths…
disasters… Evidence of illegal logging activity detected by conservation drones in Gunung Leuser National Park 3 Oct 20143 Oct 2014 More logging in Leuser - ouch! At least the Gunung Leuser National Park officials seem to have given an appropriate response. Here's hoping those conservation drones can catch more illegal…
education… Conservation Drones? 4 Sep 20148 Sep 2014 When I was slogging through the swamps and slipping down the mud-slicked trails of Sumatra, following orangutans, I often daydreamed about how the right tech would make the job so…