Slow sales of sustainable palm oil

Multinational companies have bought just one percent of sustainable palm oil available on the market, raising concerns that “one of the major solutions to halting deforestation of tropical forests is not catching on fast enough,” the World Wildlife Federation yesterday confirmed. (1)

The rapid production of the vegetable oil, which can be found in anything from cosmetics to ice-cream, has caused extensive land clearing in Borneo and Sumatra, resulting in the displacement of native people, destruction of unique eco-systems and devastation to the habitats of endangered species like tigers and orang-utans.

Certified sustainable palm oil, available since November 2008, provides assurance that valuable tropical forests have not been cleared and that environmental and social safeguards have been met during production.

However, the vice president of agriculture for WWF, David McLaughlin, has said that “around 1.3 million tons of certified sustainable palm oil has been produced, but less than 15,000 tons has been sold.”(1)

“This sluggish demand from palm oil buyers, such as supermarkets, food and cosmetic manufacturers, could undermine the success of sustainability efforts and threatens the remaining natural tropical forests of Southeast Asia, as well as other forests where oil palm is set to expand, such as the Amazon,” he claimed. (1)

43 out of 100 of the UK’s most popular brand names contain the substance native to West Africa, far exceeding the “one in ten estimation” made by Friends of the Earth four years ago. (2)

Palm oil is present in products produced by Kellogg’s, Cadbury, Mars, Heinz, Nestle, Kraft and Premier Food to name but a few.

“Hovis and Kingsmill bread, the country's best-selling margarine Flora, KitKat and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars, as well as Dove soap, Comfort fabric conditioner and Persil washing powder,” all contain the bulking ingredient. (2)

WWF has asked all companies buying palm oil to make public commitments to buy 100 per cent certified sustainable oil by 2015.

They have also urged them to make public their plans with deadlines to achieve this goal and begin purchasing sustainable oil immediately.

Presently, only 4 per cent of palm oil production is certified sustainable by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Rspo), meaning that the majority of global supply can be linked to the awesome scale of rainforest destruction.

If the current rate of deforestation continues, the UN Environment Program has estimated that 98 per cent of Indonesian forest will have disappeared by 2020.

ENDS.

By Jamie Skey

Sources:

(1) Slow Sales Of Sustainable Palm Oil Threaten Tropical Forests; WWF To Grade Palm Oil Buyers: http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2009/WWFPresitem12330.html

(2) How Britons fuel destruction of the rainforest: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/how-britons-fuel-destruction-of-the-rainforest-1677096.html.