Nature Alert: FACTBOX-"Green" palm oil in high street shops

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

FACTBOX-"Green" palm oil in high street shops

21 Apr 2009 11

Source: Reuters

April 21 (Reuters) - A drive to improve the green credentials of palm oil, used in foods and cosmetics but tainted for some by links to deforestation, could make it too expensive for shoppers and may anyway be of limited environmental benefit.

The Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is trying to boost trade by asking some of its 266 members to publicly state their commitment to converting to sustainable palm oil.

But many firms are shying away from discussing their palm oil use, as the issue of "green" palm remains contentious.

Following are details of some major companies' public commitments to 'sustainable' palm oil:

* Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever, maker of Flora margarine and Dove soap, has pledged to use only certified sustainable palm oil by 2015. The firm, which says it buys about 1.6 million tonnes of palm oil and its derivatives each year, about 4 percent of world supplies, has also said it will have fully traceable supply chains in place for the palm oil it uses in Europe by 2012.

* British supermarket group J Sainsbury has pledged to convert all its own brand products to using only sustainable palm oil by December 2014.So far, it says it has converted its frozen fish category, its basic fish fingers, and its solid soaps. It is also changing its labelling to name palm oil specifically.

* Dutch supermarket group Ahold plans to convert all own brand products in its Dutch chains Albert Heijn and Etos to using only sustainable palm oil by 2015.

* Cosmetics retailer The Body Shop, owned by beauty products group L'Oreal, says the palm oil in its soaps is sourced from a sustainable plantation in Colombia. It also pledged to use RSPO certified palm oil when it is available.

* Swiss supermarket group Migros has publicly stated that it plans to buy sustainable palm oil through the RSPO certification scheme and will aim to ensure that its suppliers are also buying through the system.

(Sources: RSPO, Unilever, J Sainsbury, Ahold, L'Oreal, Migros)

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby, editing by William Hardy)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LL003511.htm

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.