Palm oil production puts tropical regions at risk, warns report

By Karen Carstens

Date: 11/03/04

EUROPEAN consumers are unwittingly destroying rainforests in south-east Asia, green activists have warned in a report.

According to Friends of the Earth Europe, one-in-three food products can be linked to environmental degradation in tropical regions because they contain palm oil, used in products such as chocolate, margarine, shampoo and detergents.

"Large-scale palm oil plantations are replacing the forests in Indonesia and Malaysia at an alarming rate, wiping out 80-100% of wildlife in the area, forcing local communities from their land and destroying their livelihoods," the green group said in a statement. "In Indonesia, the forests are disappearing at a rate of more than two million hectares per year - an area half the size of Belgium."

Palm oil accounts for 21% of the global edible oil market - nearly a quarter of Indonesia's palm oil output goes to Europe, which buys some 87% of the country's exports of palm kernel meal, used in animal feed, and 61% of its exports of palm kernel oil, used in cosmetics, the report finds.

"It is all but impossible to avoid using palm oil," said Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth director for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. "Species are being driven to extinction while governments . . . allow companies to get away with it."

The report looks at the role of companies in several countries, including the UK and Sweden, which are involved in the palm oil trade as investors, retailers and processors. The group is calling on the UK government to introduce legislation to make firms accountable for the damage they cause. It would also like to see such measures at EU level.

A report by Friends of the Earth says that the use of palm oil in many products is resulting in widespread destruction of forests and animal habitats in Indonesia and Malaysia.

• Primary Source

Greasy Palms: European buyers of Indonesian palm oil http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/greasy_palms_summary.pdf

Greasy palms-The social and ecological impacts of large-scale oil palm plantation development in Southeast Asia http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/greasy_palms_buyers.pdf

Greasy palms – palm oil, the environment and big business http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/greasy_palms_impacts.pdf

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