Greetings Ape Allies,

We have huge news! The groundswell of public support pouring in has been tremendous--we are thrilled to share that Bank of China has officially agreed to negotiate! In light of our concerns, they are seriously reviewing whether or not to fund the Batang Toru dam--a project which, as you know, would be a near-certain death sentence for the Tapanuli orangutan species.

To everyone who signed our 120,000-person petition, shared our content online, wrote a letter and RSVPed to our International Day of Protest--credit goes to you.

Earlier this morning, Bank of China sent the CEO of their London branch to Stroud, UK (a 210-mile round-trip!) to meet with Ian Redmond OBE, Chairman of Ape Alliance. They have agreed that they will send executives from their Indonesia branch to a formal roundtable with all relevant NGOs, a meeting which will take place later this month in London, and hold similar meetings with stakeholders in Indonesia.

Here’s our thinking: we have concluded that it would counterproductive to hold protests at Bank of China while in the midsts of these ongoing discussions. So we’re pulling the plug on that--for now. The Bank of China knows that we are only postponing the protests and that they will resume if the funding for the Batang Toru dam goes ahead.

However, Bank of China is not the only threat to the last remaining 800 Tapanuli orangutans. As we write this, the multinational corporation Jardine Matheson--owner of the internationally-acclaimed, 5-star, Mandarin Oriental Hotel--is complicit in the destruction of critical Tapanuli habitat. Because Jardines also owns one of Indonesia's largest companies they have the influence needed to help stop the dam.  

Therefore, our International Day of Action this Thursday will now take place at Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We are calling on Jardine Matheson to use their influence for good.  They know that travellers don’t want to stay at hotels responsible for harm to orangutans, and by highlighting their ties to the dam, we can urge them to take a stand.

We have identified Mandarin Orientals in London and NYC that are suitable for protests--so we will converge there-- same day and time. For folks elsewhere who can’t make it to those cities, we ask that you meet up at the nearest coffee shop, and write tweets and facebook posts tagging Mandarin Oriental. We’ll send out more details city by city.