Palm Oil is a seed crop grown in many parts of the world, the majority being in Malaysia and Indonesia. Orangutans are found exclusively on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. It is a form of edible vegetable oil used in many food and non-food industries, including but not limited to, cookies, crackers, popcorn, frozen dinners, low-fat dairy, candy, soap and cosmetics.
The biggest threat to orangutans in the wild is from illegal logging of trees. The demand for palm oil is high and as a result these plantations are destroying the orangutan’s natural habitat, pushing them out of the forest or trapping them into small patches of forest with no where else to go. Many of these plantation workers are also killing and/or torturing these animals that come onto the land that was once theirs.
SUSTAINABLE YIELD palm oil is very important to the livelihood of millions of people in Indonesia. When it is produced NON-SUSTAINABLY, thousands of orangutans perish each year, due to clear cutting of rainforests and uncontrolled burns. Sustainable palm oil is "productive, competitive and efficient, while at the same time protecting and improving the natural environment and conditions of the local communities." As of now, companies who are members of the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are giving their “word” that they are sustainable. Beginning in 2009 there will be a set of strict regulations put out that each company must comply with in order to be an official RSPO member and use the “sustainable yield” labeling on their products. The sustainable yield list on this site will be updated at that time.
I have decided to make this site to educate people about the various products that contain palm oil. I am in the process of putting together a list of brand names that contain palm oil as well as sustainable yield. I have also collected addresses to these companies for you to write to informing them of the issue.
More and more people and organizations are becoming aware of this problem and writing to companies to address this issue. Some people are even beginning to boycotting products that contain palm oil all together. Many of the organizations working on the palm oil project do not want you to necessarily boycott these products, but rather make these companies aware of the dangers palm oil presents.
Please help out by writing to these companies informing them of this very important issue. Feel free to email me with any additional information you might have.
Unfortunately since this is a free site, www.angelfire.com will use keywords from this website and use these as advertisements on this page such as “palm oil“ related products. Please disregard these advertisements. Thank You.