Tell Vanguard and BNY Mellon to protect the world’s rarest great ape!

The Tapanuli orangutan has been making headlines as the most endangered new species of orangutan. Palm oil plantations and a planned hydropower dam could destroy the Tapanuli orangutan's habitat. This destruction puts the last remaining 800 Tapanuli orangutans at risk of extinction.

The Batang Toro dam is being financed by investment giants Vanguard and BNY Mellon. If these companies cut off the money for the project, it would go a long way toward preventing it from going forward and preserving the Tapanuli’s habitat. We need your help to urge them to save the Tapanuli.

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Dear Vanguard and BNY Mellon,

Both of your firms hold shares in a proposed hydroelectric dam in Sumatra that, if built, will decimate the core habitat of a newly recognized species, the Tapanuli orangutan. The Batang Toro dam project severely threatens the survival prospects of the rarest Great Ape species in the world.

As the only two financial firms in the United States with shares in this project, Vanguard and BNY Mellon have a unique opportunity to do the right thing. The Batang Toru project is in pre-construction phase (although an access road is already being built to the site). Local organizations seeking a solution to the threat have asked us to ask you to call on the project developer, North Sumatra Hydro Energy, to cancel this project.

We also ask that you divest from the company behind the project -- Zhejiang Fu Holding Group -- due to the material risk you can anticipate from the project. The dam threatens the survival of several IUCN red-listed species, including the newly discovered Tapanuli orangutan. There is simply no way this project can go forward without raising the ire of the entire world. You would do best to get out as soon as you can.

We believe that your fiduciary responsibility includes an ethical responsibility to keep the planet and all of its species intact. Please do the right thing, and pull your money from the Batang Toro dam.

Sincerely,

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