WASHINGTON, DC — Monkeys and apes play a crucial role in dispersing the seeds of fruit trees in tropical forests. But across the tropics, habitat loss and hunting are decimating local primate populations, and may be putting many tree species at risk.

How a plant spreads its seeds – and how far – are key to its survival. Some species rely on wind or water to disperse their seeds, but for trees in the tropics, animals often play a critical role. Primates in particular are one of the most important seed dispersers in tropical forests.

Kathryn Stoner is a research ecologist at the National University of Mexico. She has been studying how certain monkeys contribute to seed dispersal in a tropical forest in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

“They’ll eat a fruit,” says Stoner, “then they move. They can move up to kilometers sometimes, seven or eight hours later before they actually defecate the seed.” Wherever the seed falls, it will germinate and grow to an adult tree. (more…)

LOS ANGELES — The American Palm Oil Council (APOC) today announced that the Malaysian palm oil industry, together with the Malaysian government, has launched the Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund (MPOWCF).

The MPOWCF is a $6.4 million revolving fund dedicated to studies, efforts and initiatives in conserving the wildlife and the environment. The Malaysian palm oil industry and the government provided equal funds to create the MPOWCF, which was officially announced last month at the International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference in Malaysia.

“For years Malaysia has been working to develop and implement policies and practices that result in palm oil that can truly be considered sustainable and we hope that this fund will further support those efforts,” said Mohd Salleh Kassim, Executive Director of APOC. “Especially given the worldwide concerns about the environmental impact of biofuels, we must do everything we can to ensure the protection and conservation of wildlife and biodiversity.” (more…)

HANOI — Speaking at the recent Asia-Pacific Forestry Week in Vietnam, keynote speaker Dr. Norman Myers of Great Britain stated: “I’m going to give you my bottom-line message right now, up front, this is a super crisis that we are facing, it’s an appalling crisis, it’s one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves 10,000 years ago. I’m referring of course to elimination of tropical forests and of their millions of species.”

Dr. Myers continued, stating that when he first went to school “across the tropics there was a bright rich green band denoting tropical forests” on his atlas. “I put to you that we have lost half of all that green band and unless we start to do a far better job than we have been doing than by the time my children and so on, so on and my grandchildren are in school than they will have atlases than they will see not a bright green band across the tropics but the might have to color those atlases a dirty brown color to show that was once there has now disappeared. And what was once there, it says something super special, it is the most exuberant and colorful, and diverse expression of nature that has ever graced the face of this planet in many millions of years. That is what is at stake here.” (more…)

JAKARTA — Environmental group Greenpeace has echoed calls by consumer goods giant Unilever to impose a moratorium on deforestation in Indonesia in support for the company’s pledge to purchase only certified sustainable palm oil.

Greenpeace also urged the country’s palm oil plantations to use sustainable forest management methods and stop expanding into peatland forests.

“Unilever’s calls for a moratorium on forest destruction in Indonesia should become an entry point for the government to stop the deforestation process,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia political advisor Arif Wicaksono. “The government has to take action to reverse deforestation by initiating a moratorium on logging and forest conversion.” (more…)