In Our Backyard Podcast Jenn Galler

Hi everyone, we’re back with Debbie Clemens who is with the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. In this episode we talk all about palm oil and its effects. The sourcing of palm oil causes conflict because it has been produced illegally or under conditions associated with labor or human rights violations, ongoing destruction of rainforests, or expansion on carbon-rich peatlands.  



One of the most pressing concerns associated with Palm Oil is its environmental impact. The expansion of palm oil plantations has been linked to deforestation, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. In many cases, pristine rainforests are cleared to make way for these plantations, leading to the loss of critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans, tigers, and rhinoceroses. Deforestation also contributes to climate change by releasing stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.



With Debbie we talk about what palm oil is, where you can commonly find it, the ethics around it, and more.

Contact and connect with Debbie: deb@redapes.org 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/ 

In this episode I continue my conversation with Debbie Clemens who is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. We talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Tune in for the last episode of the series in two weeks.

Contact and connect with Debbie: deb@redapes.org 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/ 

Debbie Clemens is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. They are a US based charity that focuses on raising awareness and raising funds for their partners in Indonesia. They are personally not doing the orangutan rescue and rehabilitation work themselves, but are supporting those who are. 



Mankind may be one of the orangutans' closest relatives but humans are also the greatest threat to the orangutans' survival. Clear cutting, forest fires and hunting are reducing orangutan numbers to alarmingly low levels. Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely.

Orangutans used to live in many different parts of Southeast Asia, but the places where they can thrive and find food are quickly vanishing. In Borneo and Sumatra, their last remaining homes, large parts of the old growth rainforest are gone, ripped up for farmland, palm oil plantations and urban development. And the precious little forest that is left is disappearing rapidly as palm oil companies continue to illegally clearcut enormous areas of forest.

With Debbie we talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Although we ultimately talk about how saving  orangutans is actually saving ourselves. This is a three part series so - look out for the next episodes in the coming weeks.

Contact and connect with Debbie: deb@redapes.org 

https://redapes.org/ 

 https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/

Leif Cocks is the Founder of The Orangutan Project. They are a passionate group of people based in Australia and are dedicated to saving the orangutan. They are led by an experienced set of wildlife experts that have been working for over 20 years to protect this species and their environment. And together they are working to protect orangutans from extinction. 



Orangutans are the most intelligent beings on the planet after human beings, and they adapt to the environment by passing on culture through each generation. They are a self-aware being and as intelligent as a six year old child. Also being the slowest reproducing species in the world, they are highly prone to extinction, so if we do not act now we could lose them in our lifetime.

Contact and connect with Leif: leif.cocks@orangutan.org.au 

The Orangutan Project: https://www.theorangutanproject.org/

Ben Frition is the Founder of The REED Center which is a Maryland-based nonprofit that seeks to repair the holistic connection of humans and their environment through research, engaging communities in farm programming, developing self-perpetuating ecosystems, and designing natural landscapes on residential and commercial scales. They strive to inspire and empower humanity to reconnect with Nature and co-create a more resilient, equitable, and abundant future for all communities on the planet.

They also have a Food Forest, that seeks to develop scalable diversified agro-ecosystems to produce both the maximized productively of land in both volume of food, as well as the more important bionutrient density of said food. Ben's work spawned from seeing the failures of reforestation projects that get cut down as the needs of people are unmet. He's been developing agricultural models that meet both the environmental imperative of biodiversity & resilience AND the acute needs of humans.Transitioning from almost three centuries of conventional agriculture into a diverse nature mimicking polyculture, the food forest offers a unique opportunity to study, document, and record the rejuvenation of this land over time. They intend to use this relatively standard agricultural canvas to collect key data, iterate on best practices, and pioneer novel methodologies for regenerative land management.



Contact and connect with Ben: ben@thereedcenter.org 



REED Center: https://thereedcenter.org/

Elizabeth Gillispie is Soil Scientist and Soil Health Vineyard Manager at Washington State University as well as a member of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). 

Soil is the loose surface material that covers most land. It consists of inorganic particles and organic matter. Soils are not only the resource for food production, but they are the support for our structures, the medium for waste disposal, they maintain our playgrounds, distribute and store water and nutrients, and support our environment. They support more life beneath their surface than what exists above. With Elizabeth, we talk about the many different ways soil supports our life and is key in functioning our society. 

Contact and connect: elizabeth.gillispie@wsu.edu 

Soil Science of America: https://www.soils.org/