It's almost lunchtime, so like me, you may be operating on low blood sugar. While I'm sure it every moments of this presentation will be nothing less than riveting, to keep us on our toes, I'm going to ask for your expertise throughout this presentation and your questions at the end. To the first point, We're all here because we care about orangutans. But there are number of other iconic megafauna that are threatened by palm oil. Throughout the presentation, watch out for photos of some of these critters cause they mean chocolate! What you say, candy? Yes!. Here is how you get some tasty chocolate packed with almonds: When you see a full page picture of a species threatened by palm oil, raise your hand. One lucky winner will then name the species. Just for trying, Val will give you a chocolate bar. I am an expert on policy and campaigning, you all are the expert on animals. Please do correct me if I'm wrong. To start us off, who can name these guys?

hornbills (Bucerotidae), pictured: knobbed hornbill (Aceros cassidix) ©Wikimedia Commons-Tobias

For the new few mins…

• Story of me & Union of Concerned Scientists

• Story of palm oil

• Change we are making together

• Partnering

• Q&A

Now that I've got your attention, let me tell you a little bit more about me and how I came to this work. The child public health educators who were deep in the trenches of the battle against HIV-AIDS, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered "I wanted change the world.“ I spent my formative years building coalitions to make change: coordinating 10+ groups to hold rallies and teach-ins on domestic violence prevention and female empowerment for my fellow high school students and, over several summers, traveling to Central America to work with local NGOs and communities to improve public health as well as access to clean water. After studying international development & geography at Clark University, I moved to then war-torn Uganda to once again bring groups together to change the world. As a capacity building officer for the Uganda Network of AIDS service organizations, I worked with more than 1000 organizations to learn from and share best practices on HIV prevention. Upon returning to the states, I began working with Fortune 500 companies including GAP and Apple help identify and mitigate practices like child and slave labor in the factories that produce their goods. The truism, “All of Us is Smarter Than Any of Us” once again proved true. I witnessed dramatic and rapid transformations of corporate policy that improved the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of workers. This is where I developed my passion for helping business achieve a sustainable future. By the way, this is a photo of me in Sumatra, Indonesia. The Palm trees in the background are oil palms that were illegally planted right in the national park. I was working with the Orangutan Information Center to re-forest parts of the park that had been cleared for an illegal Palm oil plantation.

Founded in 1969 by a group of professors and graduate students at MIT. The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with citizens across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.

Let's delve into that a little bit more as well as how NGOs, zoos, and the business community working together to decouple tropical deforestation and endangered species habitat loss from Palm oil production. We heard a number of fantastic presentations yesterday from folks making change in the field who are looking for your financial support. To be very clear, UCS is not looking for funding from the Zoo community. We seek your help in building the movement for deforestation free palm oil. With over 185 million guests per year, the zoo community creates direct emotional connections with the endangered orangutans that we all seek to protect. Together, we are translating science into action, conserving hundreds of thousands of hectares of tropical forests and preserving habitats of the species we love most, including the orangutans, hornbill, rhino, and elephant. Many zoos, including Philadelphia Zoo's Unless Campaign and Point Defiance Zoo's Paws for the Cause, are harnessing visitors’ direct emotional connections to iconic mega-fauna into consumer action demanding that our favorite brands do not contribute to the loss of endangered species habitat. And it's working! Nearly weekly, Fortune 500 companies like Hershey's, General Mills and L'Oreal are announcing commitments to only purchase palm oil that is grown in a way that protects forest and habitats. Successful zoo campaigns have utilized partnerships with both the business and NGO communities to create this rapid change. We will share best practices from those partnerships as well as ways we can team up in the future.

Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) ©Flickr/Brian McKay

The Story of Palm Oil

Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) ©Wikimedia Commons-

The Union of Concerned Scientists was delighted to partner with the UNLESS campaign to share the infographic telling the story of Palm oil's connection to environmental degradation. Through UCS channels, this infographic had a potential social media reach of over 250,000 people. While that ’s great, When Philly zoo put it up at their exhibit, it has a potential audience of 1.2 million people.

The Philadelphia Zoo has been instrumental in informing the public about the link between palm oil and the loss of habitats for endangered species The UNLESS campaign empowers visitors to translate their direct connection with the animals into consumer action that has been instrumental in moving businesses like Kellogg's and General Mills to adopt zero deforestation policies, thus preserving critical habitats. Visitors are given the opportunity to channel their passion for preservation of the homes of orangutans, big cats, and other iconic mega fauna threatened by tropical deforestation, Into letters to for corporations demanding that our favorite consumer products are made while protecting endangered species, tropical forests, and our climate. Valerie Peckham’s leadership on this issue has engaged several other zoos in similar campaigns and was a key factor in an AZA resolution around Palm oil, further empowering the zoo and aquarium community to address this critical issue. Together zoos can transform habitat destruction for endangered species.

And these efforts are working! a wave of consumer goods companies have made public commitments to sustainable palm oil in the last 12 months. For example, the Philadelphia zoo’s unless campaign, urged Hershey’s to adopt a zero deforestation palm oil policy. Philadelphia zoo visitors signed nearly 10,000 postcards to Hershey’s which Zoo staff then delivered to Hershey’s HQ. So Hershey’s had heard that their consumers wanted , palm oil that protected both endangered species and tropical forests. Having worked with Hershey in the past to mitigate child and slave labor from their cocoa supply chain, I understood their internal structure for decision-making around corporate social responsibility and has some relationships within the company. When Val told me of their petition delivery, I was able to bring that into my direct negotiations with Hershey’s. Tropical forests and orangutans now had power of both the outside pressure from consumers and a voice that could speak enter into direct negotiations with the corporate executives who had the power to make the policy. After more than 11 months of direct negotiations with UCS and receiving nearly 10,000 petitions from the unless campaign, The Hershey Company announced a strengthened zero deforestation palm oil policy. The policy that The Hershey Company announced puts it among the leaders in the industry in terms of eliminating deforestation, peat clearing and other kinds of climate damage from its supply chain. It applies to all its products in all its markets worldwide. It includes a commitment to tracing its raw materials back to their sources. It uses the High Carbon Stock (HCS) terminology, which clearly differentiates degraded land from forests that need to be preserved. And it has specific target dates, in the relatively short term, for achieving these goals. The policy provides for monitoring of its progress by TFT, an independent third-party verifier. but more about TFT and a little bit.

Recent commitments to RSPO+ from Dunkin' Brands (owners of Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins) and Krispy Kreme demonstrate the power that consumers have to move companies. Thousands of UCS supporters weighed in to let Dunkin’ Brands know that they expect more out of their favorite donut company. This summer, activists held a demonstration outside of the Dunkin’ Brands annual shareholding meeting demanding that it adopt a strong palm purchasing policy. In addition, over a hundred thousand e-mails and letters have been sent to Dunkin’ leadership and management. just 12 hours after the release of Duncan’s policy, Krispy Kreme announced their commitment to buying only RSPO+ oil.

© Rhett Butler, Mongabay.com

A thrilling result of this movement is that five palm oil growers just pledged a one-year moratorium on expanding onto potentially “High Carbon Stock” forests when establishing new plantations. What we are seeing is that leadership and movement from consumer goods brands to purge deforestation from supply chains is leading to real change on the ground in terms of how and where palm oil will be produced in the coming years.

clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) ©Wikimedia Commons- Frank Wouters

© CIFOR

The bad news is that these forward-looking companies are still in the minority. Many more are relying on the inadequate standards set by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), while some companies have yet to commit to any palm oil standards. Questions still remain about how companies will implement their agreements and how long the moratorium will last.

Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) ©Wikimedia- Tambako the Jaguar

©Flickr/Rainforest Action Network

Palm oil is an important commodity for the global markets and for developing economies. A 2009 report estimated that the oil palm plantation sector contributed around 0.85% of Indonesian’s gross domestic product and 3 million jobs. when grown in appropriate places and in appropriate ways it is an ideal crop because it is high yielding and lands sparing. I get asked a lot whether you should stop buying products with palm oil altogether. The answer is “no,” for three major reasons. Oil palm plantations are more productive and store more carbon than any other vegetable oil crop, but when they replace forests and peatland there are serious climate and biodiversity implications. First, different vegetable oils can be easily substituted in many applications. Most of us have experienced this firsthand. If you’re cooking dinner and realized you’re out of olive oil, rather than head to the store and buy some, you just reach for the canola oil instead. Second, because of this substitutability, a decrease in demand for palm oil from one company or country won’t mean an overall decrease in palm oil demand. If customers in the U.S. stop buying palm oil, then to meet its vegetable oil demand the U.S. has to import more of another oil to meet its current demand. If the U.S. is buying more, say, canola oil then it means that another country somewhere else is buying less. The other country needs to find something to meet its demand and is likely to buy the cheapest vegetable oil on the market: palm oil. Finally, the oil palm is a great crop. It’s a tree that doesn’t have to be replanted every year and the typical rotation for a palm plantation is 25 years. It also stores a lot of carbon. Not as much as a forest, but more than grasslands and other agricultural crops. And above all else, it’s highly productive. To replace all palm oil on the global market with another oil would take between 5-8 times as much land. So the problem isn’t with palm oil, but arises when forests and peatlands are converted to plantations. This leads to loss of habitat and millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. The solution isn’t to boycott palm oil, but rather to demand that companies use and produce palm that is deforestation- and peat-free.

©Flickr/Rainforest Action Network

the presentation I’ve used the terms “deforestation free palm oil” and RSPO+ palm oil interchangeably. The Roundtable on sustainable Palm oil has been a key leader in addressing the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production. The new standard that has emerged builds on current RSPO standards while ensuring protections for • secondary forests • peat and use best management practices • And worker or local land owners

• Print this page: http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/deforestation-free-palm-oil-scorecard.pdf

©Flickr/Wakx

In addition to funding international conservation efforts and being leaders in the husbandry movement, zoos have the ability, nay the obligation, to create the next generation of the engaged citizens. Zoos have the power to connecting your visitors to real-world actions. There are many ways you can be part of preserving the homes of the remaining Sumatran Tigers (estimated to be less than 300), orangutans (estimates of between 6000 and 8000 left), pygmy elephants, and Sumatran rhinos. And UCS is here to in help. Whether we're sharing tools like the Palm oil scorecard and infographic, or sharing strategic insight and connections to corporate decision-makers, UCS is your ally.

©Rhett Butler, Mongabay.com

Together we are changing this paradigm of commodity fueled deforestation. Today I’ve mentioned just a few of the resources we’d love to share with you. To recap and expand: - Infographic

- Union of concerned scientists palm oil scorecard, a copy of which you can pick up on the back table

- Factsheet on global warming and palm oil, a copy of which you can pick up on the back table

- website as resources to you

- in the coming year, UCS will coordinate a scientists signed a letter on the importance of conserving Peat soils. We’d love your help in locating signers as well

as sharing the complete letter far and wide. - This fall, the Science Network at the Union of Concerned Scientists is offering 2 free opportunities. These are skills-based workshops tailored for experts and

students in the sciences who want to use their expertise to advance the role of science in our communities. - Communicating in Your Own Words: How to talk to the media and the public about science.

Wednesday, October 29, 3pm ET. Join us for a webinar to learn about publishing op-eds, talking with reporters, and writing for an online audience. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of when to use different types of written communication to make the biggest impact, and science communication stories from experts who have mastered the media interview.

- Social Media for Scientists: Science Communication for the Web. Wednesday, November 5, 3pm ET. What’s the point of using social media? Actually, for scientists there are many benefits to be gained from using social media, including sharing your research with new audiences, building relationships with others who share your interests, and creating a network of others you can reach out to with questions or to bounce ideas off of. Join us to hear more from scientists who have found social media to be a benefit, not a burden, for their work.

©Flickr/Rainforest Action Network

Getting in Contact

• Sign up at the UCS table

• ucsusa.org

• Contact Miriam:

– @MiriamUCS

– Mswaffer@ucsusa.org

American consumers

Oil palm growers

Palm oil traders

Consumer companies

Cross commodity commitments is the future? In its coverage of the UN Climate Summit, the New York Times paid special attention to the watershed announcements and pledges to stop the destruction of forests. The article, running on front page of the Business section in the New York edition of today's Times, quotes directly from Forest Heroes campaign chair Glenn Hurowitz's statement on the Kadin pledge, which was delivered to the UN Climate Summit. Here are a few paragraphs from the Times: Tuesday’s declaration on forests was also endorsed by 32 governments, by numerous advocacy groups and by organizations representing indigenous people. Among corporations, it also included consumer goods companies that have pledged to impose tough standards on their suppliers of the oil, an ingredient in thousands of everyday products. Cargill, the huge American commodity processor, went even further,extending a previous no-deforestation pledge that it had made on palm oil and soybeans to cover every commodity the company handles — one of the most sweeping environmental pledges ever made by a large agricultural company. “We want to make sure we are treating the environment with respect,” David W. MacLennan, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview. “It’s the right thing to do for the planet, for indigenous peoples, for our customers and for our employees.” The major Indonesian palm oil processors, including Cargill, issued a separate declaration on Tuesday pledging a crackdown on deforestation, and asking the Indonesian government to adopt stronger laws. Forest Heroes, an environmental group, called the declaration “a watershed moment in the history of both Indonesia and global agriculture. We should not underestimate the significance of what is happening.”