Are the foods and cosmetics you buy harming orangutans and the forests they live in?
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Young orangutan (Photo: Michaël Catanzarit)
Palm oil is an ingredient in around half of packaged food and a wide range of cosmetic products (see some examples below), many of which you may be using daily! The U.S. market for palm oil is growing steadily, due to the influx of products containing palm and the use of palm oil as a trans fat-free oil for cooking and confectionary production. The increasing demand for palm oil could lead to further loss of the tropical forests where orangutans and many other animals live, if expansion is not managed sustainably.
NWF’s new report warns that the increased demand for palm oil may lead to significant increases in tropical deforestation, social conflict, and emissions of greenhouse gases that result from the clearing and draining of tropical forests and peatlands. While the majority of plantations are currently in Southeast Asia, the palm oil industry is aggressively branching out into Latin America and Africa. This report sets out the steps U.S. companies can take to play an active role in improving the environmental and social standards of the palm oil industry.
To read more about this report and to download the full report, please visit the National Wildlife Federation’s deforestation page.
I am wondering how many of those products actually “need” palm oil.
Surely there is a more eco-friendly alternative.
Is there a list that we could have of products containing palm oil and what is the justification for using it?
Couldnt agree more with that, very attractive article
[...] and the clearing of these forests for agriculture (mostly to grow palm oil—check out our big palm oil report if you want to understand how palm oil is responsible for rainforest destruction in Southeast [...]