Corporate Giant Blocking Deforestation for Palm Oil

Unilever, the world's largest buyer of palm oil, would publicly call for a moratorium on deforestation by Indonesian growers of the coveted oil used in food, soaps, detergents, cosmetics and biofuel.

The expansion of oil palm plantations is slowly destroying Kalimantan, the Indonesian side of Borneo and the habitat of the endangered Bornean orangutan, environmental activists say.
See http://redapes.org/learn-about-the-palm-oil-threat/

During the past two decades, an estimated TWO MILLION ACRES have been felled ANNUALLY in Borneo, which Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei, according to the environmental group, Friends of the Earth.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090324101755.htm

But with Jakarta planning to more than double the acreage of oil palm trees by 2011, activists are scrambling to form new alliances with the palm oil industry to stave off more destruction. They say the potential deforestation in Borneo - which has one of the world's largest standing rain forests - amounts to a "climate bomb" in global warming from increased carbon levels released into the atmosphere by fallen trees.

"It's become obvious that climate change is a much bigger and urgent problem than we thought," said Jan-Kees Vis, head of Unilever's sustainable agriculture program.

Greenpeace and Unilever hope their new coalition will eventually limit the expansion of palm oil plantations to already degraded and abandoned agricultural lands, forestalling the need to clear additional forest. "Even the most optimistic forecasts of global demand could be met from existing land under cultivation," said Vis.

Although many conservationists have applauded Unilever's pledge to purchase 100%sustainable palm oil by 2015, some question the company's motives in an industry rife with competition. Is it a ploy to deflect attention from a damaging Greenpeace report last April linking Unilever to continued deforestation in Borneo?

Environmental groups say degraded forest lands in Indonesia and Malaysia have caused illegal hunting, release of carbon emissions, forest fires and habitat destruction of such endangered species as orangutans in Borneo, the Sumatran tiger and Asian rhinoceros.

Anton Apriyantono, Indonesia's minister of agriculture, says his government "has its own program of preserving our forests."

Nevertheless, many consumers, retailers and companies fail to see palm oil's negative effect on the environment, said Adam Harrison, a senior policy officer for World Wildlife Fund.

"The most obvious (problem) is that palm oil is used in small quantities among many others in a huge range of products," said Harrison. "It does not appear - other than in some margarines - as a pure substance, and so it does not have the same profile as timber."

To date, 30 members have followed Unilever's lead, but only 3 - the cosmetic chain, The Body Shop, and supermarket chains Sainsbury of Great Britain and Albert Heijin of the Netherlands - have pledged to begin buying only 100% sustainable palm oil.

Will Unilever use its position as head of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, an association of 250 palm oil companies from the United States, Europe and Asia that represents about 1/2 the world market, to encourage other members to follow suit?

Oil Palm Plantations Are No Substitute For Tropical Rainforests, New Study Shows -
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915121221.htm