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Analysis of the Greenpeace / Nestle spat about rainforest deforestation in Indonesia by Nestle's palm oil suppliers

nestle greenpeace palm oil indonesia deforestation sinar mas

Unilever today announced that it has decided to suspend all future purchases of palm oil from the Indonesian company PT SMART, part of the Sinar Mas group, until such time as they can provide verifiable proof that none of their plantations are contributing to the destruction of high conservation value forests and expanding onto peat lands.

unilever palm oil PT SMART Sinar Mas deforestation

"Multinational companies should be “named and shamed” into sourcing sustainable palm oil to protect the world’s tropical rainforests, says Britain’s Energy Minister, Joan Ruddock"

rspo wwf palm oil

"United Biscuits, has joined the list of big food corporations that, after years of fruitless lobbying by green groups, is beginning to take notice of the palm oil problem."

united biscuits hula hoops palm oil deforestation rspo greenmonktv

Efforts to slow the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations at the expense of natural forests across Southeast Asia are being hindered by industry-sponsored disinformation campaigns, argue scientists writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. The authors, Lian Pin Koh and David S. Wilcove, say that palm oil may constitute the "single most immediate threat to the greatest number of species" by driving the conversion of biologically rich ecosystems — including lowland rainforests and peatlands.

palm oil biodiversity

The link between the supermarket shelf, climate change and shrinking rainforests is palm oil, a controversial ingredient that may now be the most widely-traded vegetable oil in the world.

Here's the problem: Demand for palm oil, which is found in soaps and cosmetics as well as food, has more than doubled in the last decade as worldwide food consumption has soared. Farmers, in turn, are expanding their plantations, burning forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, where nearly all of the palm oil imported to the United States originates. Deforestation is the primary reason that Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions are the third-highest in the world.

palm oil deforestation greenhouse gas emissions