Nature Alert: Free of palm oil

Sunday, 12 July 2009

Free of palm oil

PALM OIL AND HOW YOU CAN
HELP TO HELP SAVE ORANGUTANS

People often ask me, quite understandably, if their is a list of products which do not contain palm oil or, palm oil associated with rainforest destruction and the killing of wildlife.

The short answer is. There are no such lists. One for the UK, alone, would run to thousands of products and be impossible to keep up to date.

Some people have had letters from suppliers/supermarkets stating in their defence they are members of the RSPO. Being a member is good, but this is all it is - membership. Membership itself does not mean the company concerned uses palm oil approved by the RSPO.based in Malaysia which seeks to set standards for palm oil suppliers to meet before their palm oil can be deemed 'sustainable'. The The RSPO (Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil) is an industry led and controlled organisationRSPO has its critics, but the fact remains, it is the only body capable of monitoring the industry. The majority of palm oil growers, suppliers, etc are not even members of the RSPO.

What can you do to avoid consuming/using palm oil tainted by the deaths of orangutans etc?
It is very difficult. Labelling on many everyday products is still unclear and 'vegetable oil' as an ingredient can mean so many things.

For the time being the best help you can be without you worrying every time you go shopping, is to write to the Chief Executive of the supermarket you regularly use and ask him/her -
sources from products on your shelves? You could always refer them to this Blog for information, photos, etc. By doing this you are reminding busy executives that you, the consumer, do want to only buy products with palm oil in them that does come from a fully sustainable and Please can you tell me what your company is doing to remove palm oil from unsustainableRSPO approved source.

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.