20 August 2010

 Is it important to have the right to choose a sustainable shopping choice? The Orangutan is on the very verge of extinction because of  our dependancy on the production of illegal palm oil but UK companies are doing very little.

Palm oil arrived on the scene in 2005, relegating the previous most important threat to the rainforests; logging, into position number two, it is shown to be used in 43 out of 100 of the UK's best selling grocery products. The problem was recently publicised in BBC's Panorama in an episode entitled "Dying for a biscuit". The main problems with Palm oil are the destruction of the rain forest (and the associated implications on biodiversity and local people) and planting on deep peatland therefore releasing huge amounts of previously stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

What we buy in Britain directly affects what happens to these jungels wild life and people in Indonesia and Malaysia.

 The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) have been aware of the problem and launched in 2007 a document called the Last Stand of the Orangutan, and estimates claim that by 2022 up to 98% of Indonesian forest will be destroyed.

Last stand orangutan (986.94 kB)

An organisation called Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has been established to try and distinguish between illegal and legal production and ensuring the protection of native people, plantation workers, local farmers and wild life; 40% of palm oil suppliers have joined this organization however only 4% of palm oil in supply has been certified as sustainable.

Grocery manufacturers and supermarkets are not obliged by law to label this product on the packaging, it normally is labelled under the  ambiguous title "vegetable oil" regardless of sustainability or not.

So how are we able to maintain the right to choose a sustainable shopping choice if even the greenest consumer cannot avoid products with palm oil in them, as Friends of the Earth say, a boycott would be near enough impossible and would be detrimental to communities struggling to survive.

British businesses are invovled in the entire chain of production and it is the rules for the companies that need to be changed to have any effect on the way this system works.

For more information about what you can do see Green Palm

For more information from the Independent click  here.

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