Orangutan Sancuturies.

Sorry this is not about kitchens but something close to my heart, Orangutans and the destruction of their natural habitat.

A customer that had recently purchased a kitchen from us, popped into our studio today just to say hello, as most of our previous customers do. To cut a long story short he told us he had just come back from Borneo where they stayed at hotel virtually attached to one of the sanctuaries, during our chat he told me that the locals and the sanctuary rangers had told him that other local residents had sold their land which was part of the rain forest area to a Chinese business man for what would be an absolute fortune to them, he subsequently flattened the land and planted a rubber plantation and a palm oil plantation on them which netted him a fortune, because he made these plantations it destroyed the natural habitat of some of the Orangutans, they were then pushed out, when the alpha male came back to what was once his and his families home they shot him. This then left the Orangutan family without their provider, it then meant his family had been rescued and put into one of the sanctuaries.

One of the main sanctuaries in the area is funded by guess who? The Chinese businessman that had caused the issue in the first place. You can ask why he would do this? Did he have a feeling of remorse and needed to redress the balance in some way? Of course not, he is now seen as a local hero for funding a sanctuary to help the homeless Orangutans that he made homeless. The reason he has funded the sanctuary is tourism, he has seen another pot of gold in the people who want to see these rescued creatures and he willingly plays on the heart strings of human beings. People now pay thousands of pounds to visit the area and stay in hotels that charge a small fortune, all the time lining the pockets of the unscrupulous businessmen. If the people who pay a fortune to go on holiday to these places really thought hard about the Orangutans plight then instead of spending thousands on a holiday they could donate the money to help fight the causes of the deforestation.

Big international businesses play a huge roll in buying palm oil from the companies that destroy the rain forests when in actual fact man made palm oil is available and is less expensive than the real stuff. Next time you purchase products from a supermarket or anywhere really look at the ingredients, most of them use palm oil, our thirst for wanting things never diminishes so we turn a blind eye and pretend it is not going on. So next time you eat a chocolate bar look at the ingredients you will be surprised at how many Orangutans you are making homeless.

Thanks
Russell. (I am not a Greenpeace activist or any other kind of activist)