Western consumers are inadvertently driving the Sumatran elephant to extinction by eating, washing, and wearing - in cosmetics - the derivatives of a fruit that is destroying the animal's last remaining forest habitat. Jim Wickens reports. More…

The Critically Endangered Siberian tiger has an effective population of just 14 animals - that's the worrying conclusion of a recent study into these stunning cats.

Troubling times for Siberian tigers

The Siberian tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, is the world's largest cat. Previously it ranged far across northern China, Korea and south eastern Russia. In the early 20th Century the Siberian tiger was driven close to extinction through poaching and habitat loss and was wiped out from 90% of its once large range. By the 1940s, only 20 to 30 wild Siberian tigers remained. Over the past 60 years, the population has increased to 500. However, scientists have recently discovered that the effective population of Siberian tigers is just 14.

Effective population is a measure of the genetic diversity of a species. A low effective population means that there is low genetic diversity within the Siberian tiger population as a whole.

A more genetically diverse population of Siberian tigers has much better chance of survival. A genetically diverse population is more likely to have resistance to a variety of diseases and is less likely to succumb to rare genetic disorders. Low genetic diversity means that any rare genetic disorders, mutations or susceptibility to disease is likely to be passed on to the next generation. More…

One of the Sumatran orangutan's richest habitats, an area of swampland containing the highest density of the red apes on the planet, is being illegally slashed and burned by palm oil companies to make way for palm oil plantations.

"If we can't stop them here, then there really is no hope," said Ian Singleton as we stood on the edge of what had once been pristine forest, home to hundreds of orangutans, but now reduced to a charred wilderness as far as the eye could see. As he spoke we could hear the distant sound of a chain saw. More…

The habitat of the endangered Sumatran tiger is being rapidly destroyed in order to make tissues and paper packaging for consumer products in the west, new research from Greenpeace shows.

A year-long investigation by the campaigning group has uncovered clear evidence, independently verified, that appears to show that ramin trees from the Indonesian rainforest have been chopped down and sent to factories to be pulped and turned into paper. The name ramin refers to a collection of endangered trees growing in peat swamps in Indonesia where the small number of remaining Sumatran tigers hunt. More…

30 NAMES PALM OIL CAN BE LABELLED UNDER

Foods, Body Products, Cosmetics & Cleaning Agents:

• Vegetable Oil
• Vegetable Fat
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (in almost everything that foams) ^
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate ^
• Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS) ^
• Palm Kernel#
• Palm Oil Kernel #
• Palm Fruit Oil #
• Palmate #
• Palmitate #
• Palmolein #
• Glyceryl Stearate #
• Stearic Acid #
• Elaeis Guineensis #
• Palmitic Acid #
• Palm Stearine #
• Palmitoyl oxostearamide #
• Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3 #
• Steareth -2 *
• Steareth -20 *
• Sodium Kernelate #
• Sodium Palm Kernelate #
• Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate *
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate ^
• Hyrated Palm Glycerides #
• Sodium Isostearoyl Lactylaye ^
• Cetyl Palmitate #
• Octyl Palmitate #
• Cetyl Alcohol ^
• Palmityl Alchohol #

# These ingredients are definitely palm oil or derived from palm oil.
* These ingredients are often derived from palm oil, but could be derived from other vegetable oils.
^ These ingredients are either derived from palm oil or coconut oil.

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The destruction and degradation of the tropical rain forest, particularly lowland forest, in Borneo and Sumatra is the main reason orangutans are threatened with extinction. This has been caused primarily by human activity (intense legal logging, illegal logging, conversion of forest to palm oil plantations and timber estates, mining, clearing forest for settlements, and road construction) and also by large-scale fires facilitated by the El Nino weather phenomena. Additionally, the illegal animal trade has been a factor in the decline of wild orangutan populations. Finally, orangutans are occasionally hunted and eaten by some of the indigenous peoples of Borneo as well as migrant loggers and plantation workers who do not have dietary prohibitions against eating primate bushmeat. More…

Truth and Consequences: Palm Oil Plantations Push Unique Orangutan Population to Brink of Extinction A manmade inferno inside the globally renowned Tripa rainforest in Aceh, Indonesia is pushing this forest?s unique population of Sumatran orangutans to the brink of extinction. Destruction inside palm oil plantation leases is driving the end of this great lowland forest, despite years of efforts by local communities to defend their forests and livelihood. More…