DeforestAction: Project Borneo

Tara I forwarded you everything you should need to know via your gmail account. Please respond there, and thanks again for your efforts! {:(|)

Hey folks just an update regarding the petition (10:00PM EST). Everything is set and ready to go. Rich and I are just working on getting an anonymous tipline cell # based in Indonesia. As soon as that is locked in - I'll pop it in and blast it out to each of you to do your social media magic. Stay tuned - you all rock!

Hey Steve - I made sure to talk about the Senate review during my live interview on Friday - made sure people knew how to have their voice heard

I've collectively pieced many of the comments below together to put instructions and a pre-form letter on my blog regarding palm oil labeling in Aus. So Aussies if you haven't already contacted your local MP - this should make it easier.
http://southernarticle.blogspot.com/

Oorah! Great energy everyone!

Ok, some updates and notes.

TIG is awesome but yes it's registration requirement for sign ups limits too much. It does make the community of action agents more sustainable though, as it allows us to be a community. Despite this, time is of the essence and we have goals to meet to find Luna safe fast.

Steve, you seem to be doing a fantastic job keeping in touch with Rich and keeping him informed of our effort and desire to help. So, I vote you as TIG Action Agent Liaison to Rich. You gate-keep and synthesise the information about our efforts for his reference. An initiative you showed straightaway but I want to support you on that and help let others know to make things easier for Rich--our overall leader in this effort. Happy for that charge Big Fella?

BTW, great photo work, and the wanted pic is perfect for the petition image!

Dan, Terrific. Even better that Rich has consented to our effort and the wording. How about, if we don't want to add it like most missing persons profile posters do, then making plain that on the OO site at the link provided people can read Rich's report on how, when and where she went missing. You're right to have picked up that I dramatised my draft because we are going to mass run this obviously and people need to care enough to read through, sign then share the petition. Loads of folks won't have heard hide nor hair of Luna's plight yet, and we will inform them and make them invest in the rescue effort.

The effort we are putting in and the swiftness of our action is great. Let's make sure it doesn't dilute in effectiveness by keeping our effort together. Private emailing keeps others Action Agents out of the loop, and we already established that we only want one petition for this, so, let's keep our com's together. I agree to use the strongest petition site but which one is it now? I know I've signed Greenpeace and Oxfam ones and they look really well organised and run.

Sounds like the draft is finalised, is that right Dan? I'm guessing we are putting that into a petition site and going that way rather than copy pasting what you have drafted in the link and emailing it around, yeah?

I'm in Sydney, am happy to do a Skype or MSN chat that we can later post a link to on here, so everyone can read. In fact, time zones aside it's a great way to collaborate speedily. What do you say? Skype me: gareth.turtle.oconnor

Gareth O'Connor, Action Agent.

Gareth - I have the final draft and am speaking with Rich at this moment to make final tweaks. Language is very important given the sensitivity of this situation. Will post momentarily for everyone's review.

Phew! OK! Long talk, lots of edits. Thank you for your patience guys and gals! I know we all desperately want to help Luna, but I hope everyone can appreciate that this is a very sensitive situation for OO and the DeforestAction partners - by that I mean above and beyond what happened/is happening to our dear Luna. Lots to consider and I really appreciate the community's trust in me to speak with Rich to ensure these matters are weighed carefully. Thankfully, we have a unified letter that Rich has already helped closely edit and is doing a final review on with project partners. We should all be able to collectively work our social media magic on it starting tomorrow! I'd respectfully urge everyone to please wait for Rich's final go ahead. I trust we will be hearing from him and/or others on this matter shortly. In the meantime, by all means we can work on a strategy in terms of what sites to post to, what images to use, etc! What does everyone think? Here is the much-edited draft for everyone's review (please wait to disseminate): http://tinyurl.com/4y7dwyo

@tara88 Not sure what you mean exactly? Rewards? If you're referring to my comments on Taroona High etc. I am not affiliated with them, but they're a local school in Hobart (Crown Princess Mary went there, incidentally) and that makes me happy. @Gareth We're still waiting for a go-ahead. || With regard to the proposed bill, I called my local (Independent) MP Andrew Wilkie's office. Had a good chat with his aide. I think Andrew himself has a real concern for the issue and I feel positive that he for one will do what he can. I have been promised a return call at some point in the near future.

@tara Ah sorry, I see what you mean. I made no mention of rewards in my version of the draft. It all depends upon Rich and the team as to what exactly makes it into the final version.

Dan and Tara, please, both of you, check your email. Very important.

While the effort is co-ordinated to find Luna safe with all the facts at Orangutan Outreach headquarters the petition and TIG's effort is acknowledged but Frozen until we hear back soon. Please hold until we hear back. Slow and steady wins.

Thanks for understanding Gareth. We will be hearing something formal in terms of guidance soon.

Fantastic work to all if you involved with finding Luna, it is very over whelming to see great community spirit

Fantastic job, guys. My fingers are armed and ready to spread the news. Let me know if there's anything else I can do.

Malaysia Nature Society Kuching Branch facebook page and blog are supporting the search for Luna. And don't worry it was cleared by Rich.

I don't know how to make these links)
@Steve - thanks for the links and advice - I've included that in there.
@dan - I took some of the wording and info from your petition as it was well written!

Myself and some other Australian Orangutan Project volunteers rallied on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia today to push for the compulsory labelling of palm oil on products in Australia. It's appalling that we Australians STILL do not have the choice whether we buy products containing palm oil that are associated with the mass destruction of bio-diverse Indonesian and Malaysian rainforest. Check out the Channel 10 segment about today's Parliament hearing that was broadcast a few hours ago: {{PGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL3Rlbi5jb20uYXUvdGVuLW5ld3MtbWVsYm91cm5lLmh0bT9tb3ZpZGVvX3A9NDQyMzkiPmh0dHA6Ly90ZW4uY29tLmF1L3Rlbi1uZXdzLW1lbGJvdXJuZS5odG0/bW92aWRlb19wPTQ0MjM5PC9hPg==}}

Tara and Thomas - perhaps it's just me but I am unable to see the links you both posted. Can other folks see those? In any case...great job Thomas!! The next 1-2 months will be pivotal for that legislation - thanks for making your voice heard bud. For anyone looking to view the article Tara is referencing from Rich (through MNS), it can be viewed at the link below. It's a "note" on Facebook. Please circulate this while we await further direction from Rich and Co.

http://www.tinyurl.com/3gdv7ft

Rhyanna, the credit goes to Action Agent Daniel Carter for the initial wording. Kudos to him, not me! :)

Thanks Steve =) but of course this is very much a collaborative effort, so thankYOU one and all.

@Tara Thanks for letting me know!

Hey Steve, I'm not quite sure why mine nor Tara's links worked, here, I'll try mine again: {{PGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL3Rlbi5jb20uYXUvdGVuLW5ld3MtbWVsYm91cm5lLmh0bT9tb3ZpZGVvX3A9NDQyMzkiPmh0dHA6Ly90ZW4uY29tLmF1L3Rlbi1uZXdzLW1lbGJvdXJuZS5odG0/bW92aWRlb19wPTQ0MjM5PC9hPg==}}

Yes, let's hope they finally in force a law on the compulsory labelling of palm oil on products in Australia! The hearing today in the Parliament of Melbourne seemed successful - so fingers crossed! Palm oil NEEDS to be labelled; so we Australians can make the informed decision as to whether we buy products containing palm oil that is associated with mass deforestation and genocide!

(By the way Steve, I don't know why my links aren't working... do you have any ideas why?)

Thomas, not sure sure why your links aren't working bud. Tara, it seems you were able to resolve it?

If any TIG staff are reading this, could you please look into fixing the URL parsing feature in comments asap? I had the same problem trying to make a post containing links on my video application page. I'm not sure if it's a new problem, but it's happening everywhere. Thanks.

@Steve It says the album is empty for me too

Hey guys! This is such a wonderful community of people. The situation with Luna is very sad, and I really hope that the combined efforts of a global community of people who care will ensure she returns home safely. I would love to be involved in any way I can. Is the petition ready to sign? Is there any other help I can offer? I'm in Sydney, Australia. I don't have any contacts in Asia, but I can put social networking to use to help get the message out there. I also have media and communications experience if you need assistance with the campaign. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Hope you're all well,

Lucy

Hey Lucy (and everyone else). Here's a message from Rich. In the meantime, use social media to spread the link from the Malaysian Nature Society (in my previous post)! Thanks!

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We have an Indonesian cell phone ready to receive messages...
It belongs to a native Indonesian speaker.... with a bit of English

Still waiting to discuss with TIG-- hopefully tomorrow....

Thanks, Rich {:(|}
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PS - the message from Rich was sent late last night. So tomorrow = today.

You know, I'm eventually going to de-code that Orangutan smiley face and add it to my emoticon arsenal. At first I was like :), then :-{}, then (-:[). but then I was like hang on I think its {:-(I). and until a few hours ago I was convinced I had it. But having seen this message from Rich, I have to retry... So, how about...
[:(I} or {:(I} ?

Does this mean we will be able to provide a number soon?