Nature Alert: Waitrose and palm oil

Saturday 25 July 2009

Waitrose and palm oil

For those not based in the UK, Waitrose are a very large and highly regarded chain of 'up-market' supermarkets.

These two emails below were received by a supporter.

You might want to check out Greenpalms web site.

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Thank you for your e-mail response.

GreenPalm allows palm oil grown sustainably and certified as such via the RSPO’s certification scheme to be supported by consumers. It is a book and claim concept whereby the certificates and the actual oil are traded separately. The Greenpalm approach removes the need for a segregated supply chain, while allowing palm oil buyers to support the objectives of the RSPO by buying the certificates via its web-based trading platform.

More information is available on greenpalm http://www.greenpalm.org/site/

Regards,

Waitrose Customer Service.

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reply to first enquiry

Thank you for your e-mail.

We joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Jan '06.

Working with other members of the RSPO, we have been helping to devise systems to trace palm oil back to the plantation. These systems must be in place before palm oil certified as sustainable can be purchased in any quantity, and we are extremely keen for this to be achieved so that we can buy fully certified palm oil for all our food.

In the mean-time, we are trialling 'Greenpalm' with one of our suppliers.

And we continue to implement our own robust sustainable palm oil policy, which includes such measures as ensuring palm oil in our products is labelled as such, rather than 'blended vegetable oils', and working with our suppliers to engage with the RSPO.

I hope that this information will be of assistance.

Regards,

Waitrose Customer Service.

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.