This Halloween, turn your attention to a real-life horror story: the candy that you’re buying is manufactured from the ashes of rainforest. When candy companies source unsustainable palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, rainforests are destroyed in order to make room for palm oil plantations, fueling the ever-growing appetites of consumers across the globe. But you don’t have to contribute to the destruction- you can actually help save the rainforest this Halloween, using the Orangutan Gang’s helpful guide:

On October 27, Orangutan Gang founder Pangaea Finn presented at the monthly meeting of the Golden Eagle Audubon Society. If you’d like to learn more about impacted birds and how you can make an impact, watch the recording at the link below.

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This year’s Orangutan Caring Week will be from November 8-14. Orangutan Caring Week is an annual event held to recognize and take action against threats to orangutans and their rainforest habitat. In previous years, the Orangutan Gang has visited Zoo Boise to educate zoo-goers. This year, to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll be hosting an educational webinar on November 9 at 5:30 pm Pacific to educate attendees about orangutans, palm oil, and simple steps that you can take to help save the rainforest. Your support starts right now- simply share this post with a few friends and ask them to register for our webinar.

You can sign up for the webinar at this registration link. After you sign up, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to the webinar.

Remember to share this link with your friends and to make sure that your Halloween choices are sustainable. Happy Orangutan Caring Week, and thank you for saving the rainforest today!

~Pangaea Finn, Founder and Director

We are proud to announce the release of our sixth newsletter, Issue 2020.3! This issue’s theme is educating others, and includes information about exciting upcoming events, an online palm oil lesson plan, and the Orangutan Gang’s new Etsy page. You can also take on a rainforest challenge, learn about the new Intersectional Environmentalism movement, and check out an interview with Michelle Desilets, the Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust. Sign up today to receive our newsletter via email.

Thank you for saving the rainforest today!

~Pangaea Finn, Founder and Director

Over the course of this summer, The Orangutan Gang released a series of videos on Instagram TV with detailed information about orangutans, palm oil, and conservation. These Conservation Clips provide an excellent ten-minute crash course about palm oil and how you can become a changemaker, and they’re now available to watch on YouTube!

After you finish watching these Conservation Clips, you’re prepared to become a changemaker and Orangutan Supporter. Take our pledge to join The Orangutan Gang and help save orangutans!

Thank you for saving the rainforest today.

~Pangaea Finn, Founder and Director

Intersectional Environmentalism is a growing movement calling on conservationists to commit to addressing environmental and social justice issues within the framework of sustainability. Intersectional environmentalism operates on the following tenets:

• No environmental organization should minimize or silence social and environmental justice concerns.
• Social and environmental justice are a fundamental part of sustainability.
• Working to promote environmental and social justice does not mean that environmentalists are unable to focus on “other issues” like conservation of wildlife or habitat.

After reading Leah Thomas’s article on why environmentalists need to be actively anti-racist, I was inspired to amplify The Orangutan Gang’s response to both the Black Lives Matter and the Intersectional Environmentalism movements. Social justice as well as environmental stability are pillars of sustainability, and as conservationists we need to look beyond our narrowed viewpoints to promote a more holistic view of sustainability activism. This includes within the framework of the palm oil issue.

The fight for palm oil sustainability is also a fight for social and environmental justice, both for workers on palm oil plantations who experience human rights abuses and are not provided adequate worker protections and for Indigenous communities whose homes are disrupted by plantations. Aiming for sustainable palm oil means that we are aiming not only for palm oil produced without threat to rainforest and endangered species, but also for palm oil produced equitably for everyone involved.

You can learn more about Intersectional Environmentalism and why conservationists should support social justice and Black Lives Matter on the Intersectional Environmentalist website.

Thank you for saving the rainforest and pressing for environmental justice today.

Pangaea Finn, Founder and Director