Press releases

Indonesian President Joko Widodo and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Indonesia

Hannover Messe: NO to investments at the expense of the environment and human rights

Indonesia is the partner country of Hannover Messe, one of the world’s largest industrial trade fairs. Environmental and human rights organizations emphasize the responsibility of companies not to invest in projects that violate human rights and destroy nature.

Presenting the petition to EU Commissioner Věra Jourová
Feb 2, 2022

Civil society organizations and SLAPP lawsuit victims deliver 213,432-strong petition to EU Commission Vice-President Vĕra Jourová

Strong EU anti-SLAPP law necessary to protect free expression and right to protest

Aerial view: clearing forest for Korindo oil palm plantations in Papua
Jan 22, 2021

Palm oil and timber group Korindo sues to silence environmentalists

Hamburg-based NGO Rettet den Regenwald (Rainforest Rescue) and the Center for International Policy (CIP) from the United States are defending themselves against a defamation lawsuit before the Hamburg Regional Court.

Gorilla in Ebo Forest, Cameroon
Aug 13, 2020

Cameroon suspends logging plans in Ebo Forest

Cameroon puts decision to open Ebo Forest for logging on ice – local communities and wildlife can breathe easier – Rainforest Rescue’s petition remains active

Red-eared guenon (Cercopithecus erythrotis) in Cameroon
Cameroon

Petition to prevent logging in Cameroon's Ebo Forest launched

Rainforest Rescue calls on Cameroon to take responsibility for the conservation of Ebo Forest, a unique and irreplaceable natural treasure.

Portrait of Reinhard Behrend
Jun 8, 2020

Rainforest Rescue founder Reinhard Behrend passes away at 71

Reinhard Behrend, founder of the Hamburg-based NGO Rainforest Rescue (Rettet den Regenwald e.V.), passed away on Friday, June 5, 2020.

An African pangolin
China, Vietnam

Petition with more than 265,000 signatures calling for pangolin conservation to be delivered to CITES CoP17 in South Africa

Rainforest Rescue has collected more than 265,000 signatures calling for strict pangolin protection and will deliver the petition to the CITES conference in South Africa.

A pangolin in the forest
Feb 16, 2016

Rainforest Rescue calls for tough pangolin protection measures

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world – demand for its meat and scales could wipe it out in a few short years. Rainforest Rescue is promoting a petition addressed to the Chinese and Vietnamese governments calling for robust measures to ensure their protection – more than 200,000 supporters have signed it to date.

Feb 10, 2016

Destructive biofuels and wood-based biomass out of next Renewable Energy Directive say 120 organisations to EU renewables consultation

Campaigners say: False solutions to climate change do not cut emissions but damage land and livelihoods in other countries

Two farmers look toward a clearing to be planted with oil palms.
Jul 13, 2014

Hands off the rainforest, Mr. “Climate President”!

Peru’s President Ollanta Humala Tasso is preparing to leave a legacy of deforestation and environmental destruction. He is planning to sign a law that would let commercial interests run roughshod over the country’s rainforest. “Humala pontificates about climate protection while opening the floodgates to wholesale clear-cutting and resource exploitation,” notes Reinhard Behrend of Rainforest Rescue

Sep 2, 2013

Palm oil? No thanks! We scrub away the palm oil lobby's greenwashing

Today and tomorrow, activists from Rainforest Rescue, the Society for Threatened Peoples, Robin Wood, Urgewald and Watch Indonsia! will be using buckets, brushes and green soap to scrub the pavements outside two conferences of palm oil lobbyists in Berlin.

Aug 6, 2013

Expanding palm oil empires in the name of ‘green energy’ and 'sustainable development'

Press release by Rights Action, Rainforest Rescue, Biofuelwatch and Food First 6th August 2013 – International environmental and human rights campaigners condemn the 4th Latin American Palm Oil Conference to be held by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Honduras on 6th-8th August

World Bank dollars in front of a palm oil plantation
Mar 19, 2013

World Bank must end support for Honduran palm oil company implicated in dozens of murders

Joint press release by Friends of the Earth International, Global Forest Coalition, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Urgewald, Rights Action, Rettet den Regenwald/Rainforest Rescue, Global Justice Ecology Project, Biofuelwatch

Ikea is making old-growth forest a home
Dec 10, 2012

Worldwide protest against the destruction of primeval forests by IKEA

180,000 people demand: stop the clearing of old-growth forests – Press release jointly issued by Rainforest Rescue and Protect the Forest, 10 December 2012

Oct 31, 2012

Mr. President Yudhoyono: Protect Indonesia's rainforest and its inhabitants!

Rainforest Rescue and ROBIN WOOD with 27 supporting organizations have today appealed to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to immediately protect the rainforests and its inhabitants

Jun 27, 2012

FELDA and major financial institutions poised for massive rainforest destruction

Felda Global Ventures Holdings is poised to raise up to $3.2 billion this week in the world’s second-biggest initial public offering (I.P.O.) this year. This is good news for Asian markets, but devastating for rainforests, wildlife, and indigenous people.

Protesters with a banner from Rainforest Rescue in front of Unilever
Jan 19, 2012

Unilever Indifferent to Victims of Palm Oil Business

Company breaks its promise and retains Wilmar, its palm oil supplier in Indonesia, regardless of violence and human rights violations.

Dec 14, 2011

Occupy Unilever – Joint Press Release from Rettet den Regenwald, ROBIN WOOD and Watch Indonesia

In Borneo Unilever's supplier Wilmar is also responsible for turning huge areas of rainforest into palm oil monocultural wastelands. „Those who try to defend themselves and their land are criminalized and imprisoned,“ reports Nordin from the organisation Save our Borneo.

Dec 6, 2011

The rainforest defenders are coming

Aug 18, 2011

People being shot at for palm oil for Rama margarine-producer Unilever

The organizations Watch Indonesia!, Rettet den Regenwald and ROBIN WOOD demand that consumer goods producer Unilever immediately stop the use of palm oil from the supplier Wilmar. The cause: last week Wilmar's security forces used armed violence and heavy machinery to destroy the village Sungai Beruang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This was the method used to crush the resistance of the villagers, who have been defending themselves against land theft by palm oil plantation owners.

Jun 2, 2011

Philippines: Indigenous peoples of Palawan against mining corporations

Indigenous Palawan leaders soon to confront the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Manila. The struggle of the indigenous peoples of Palawan against mining corporations is now being impaired by highly manipulative processes being carried out by both NCIP and MacroAsia Corporation.

Apr 18, 2011

Xayaburi Dam: Delivery of protest signatures to the embassies of Laos in Berlin and Paris

At the 19. of April the governments of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will determine the fate of the Mekong River. As the world’s largest freshwater fisheries and the second biodiverse river in the world, the decision to build a dam on the Lower Mekong River would result in devastating changes to the river’s ecosystem and aquatic habitat. With more than 70% of the region’s population dependent on natural resources, the adverse impacts of the Xayaburi Dam will affect the livelihoods, income and food security of fishers and farmers throughout the region.

Jan 26, 2011

Philippines-Palawan: environmental advocate and journalist shot dead

Dr. Gerry Ortega, an environmental advocate and broadcast journalist was shot dead yesterday 24.1.2001 in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. The wildlife veterinarian was killed by a gunman in San Pedro Village after finishing his daily radio program on DWAR Palawan. According to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Ortega is the 142nd journalist killed since 1986. He was the third journalist slain under the Aquino administration. Rainforest Rescue deeply condemn this murder.

Nov 10, 2010

The Sustainability Lie – A film about the dirty palm oil business

From 8th to 11th November, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is holding its Annual General Assembly in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Europe wants to import ever more cheap palm oil and RSPO-certificates are buying producers and customers a good conscience. However, sustainable palm oil production is a myth, not a reality. Today, the NGO Rainforest Rescue is releasing a film about deforestation and evictions in Indonesia at the hands of the world's largest palm oil company.

Aug 31, 2010

Environmental group call on World Bank to drop plans for resumed palm oil funding

Press release by World Rainforest Movement, Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations RECOMA, Rettet den Regenwald, Salva la Selva, Ecologistas en Accion and Biofuelwatch

Jun 6, 2009

RELEASE: Police Violently Attack Peaceful Indigenous Blockade in Peruvian Amazon, Killing Many

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