Greenpeace just announced a big win in its anti-palm oil campaign: just five days after launching a campaign to pressure food and cosmetics giant Unilever to stop purchasing palm oil from rainforest destroyers, Unilever met Greenpeace halfway. Apparently nervous about the prospect of orangutan-suited activists continuing to scale their corporate headquarters (see picture), the company agreed to support a legal moratorium on rainforest destruction. Given that Unilever uses five percent of the world's palm oil and chairs the so-called Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, that's big news!
Greenpeace recently released this report about Unilever's link to the frightening level of rainforest destruction in Indonesia, which not only destroys orangutan and other wildlife habitat but has also earned Indonesia its status as the world's third biggest greenhouse gas polluter.
And check out this video, which just about sums it all up:
Greenpeace calls on world leaders to stop rainforest destruction
Gucci Group commits to saving Indonesia’s rainforests
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rflowers Posted 2:14 am
07 May 2008
Esmeraldas is home to various indigenous cultures and the home of the Afro-Ecuadoreans. Both of these groups are routinely vicitimized by oil palm companies which illegally clear forest, cultivate oil palm in the years it takes to litigate rightful ownership, then move on when the courts finally return an unfavorable (to them) verdict.
I have no idea how much of this palm oil ends up in Unilever products, but hopefully Greenpeace can trace this oil as well and apply similar pressure.
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javaearth Posted 3:41 am
07 May 2008
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Biodiversivist Posted 5:21 am
07 May 2008
The problem is that we have found yet another use for palm oil that could potentially consume every drop produced (biodiesel). Soap makers can turn to other vegetable oils, but that just opens up the supply of palm oil for other users. The heart of the problem isn't with existing users of vegetable oil, it's with new uses creating new demand.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Jonas Posted 5:36 am
07 May 2008
And Unilever, which made its colonial fortune by creating gigantic palm oil plantations in the colonies, is easy going: now that the billions in profit have been made, it's easy to call for a ban.
Now that palm oil producers no longer do so for their colonial masters, but for themselves, they are facing a boycott by their former colonial occupiers.
How perverse. How racist. How cruel.
But then, most of these pseudo-green organisations are the new imperialists of our time. Killing many poor people, the natives, the blacks.
By the way, scientists disagree with Greenpeace's racist, anti-social approach:
Boycotting palm oil produced in Southeast Asia in an "unrealistic" and "ineffective" approach to conserving the region's fast-disappearing rainforests, said a Princeton University researcher speaking at a conference on the sustainability of palm oil. Instead, NGOs should focus on engaging and working with the palm oil industry to reduce its impact on the environment.
Addressing the first International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Princeton biologist Dr. David S. Wilcove said that the palm oil industry is too important to the economies of Indonesia and Malaysia to justify blanket import bans on the edible oil used in food, cosmetics, industrial products, and biodiesel. The palm oil industry contributes to health, education, and infrastructure in rural areas.
Mongabay
And, in Nature:
NGOs should use palm oil to drive conservation
Koh and Wilcove say the scheme would require collaboration between "large conservation donor groups to fund the initial investments and with local oil-palm companies for their expertise in running the plantations," but that the relationship could be a "win-win partnership... because NGOs would be able to protect forests using the oil palm revenue and the companies would be able to enhance their corporate image to satisfy environmentally-conscious consumers."
"We think NGOs can participate in such joint ventures without losing their integrity if they go into it with the appropriate level of caution. Afterall, there have been many examples of successful collaborations between environmental groups and industry leaders in the USA and elsewhere," Koh told mongabay.com via email. "Having said that, we certainly do not want all of the NGOs to embrace our idea, because we feel that some should remain well outside the partnership, serving as much-needed critical voices to pressure governments and oil palm companies to avoid further losses of pristine habitats.â€
Koh and Wilcove believe that the development of a premium market could help entice producers into working with conservationists.
"Because such oil-palm plantations would be motivated mainly by conservation objectives, they could provide the industry with leadership for the sustainable production of palm oil through environmentally-friendly management practices," they write. "This could also drive the development of a premium market for sustainable oil-palm products and thereby generate economic incentives for more palm-oil producers to adopt sustainable practices."
Koh and Wilcove appear to be optimistic that this price premium, as well as the "green" marketing benefits, can overcome the inherent conflict of interest between the two groups. After all, why would producers want to help set up direct competitors and fund opposition to oil palm expansion unless they were sure to get something tangible in return?
CITATION: Lian Pin Koh and David S. Wilcove (2007). Cashing in palm oil for conservation. Nature Vol 448|30 August 2007
Source: Mongabay
Reason will rule.
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David Roberts Posted 6:08 am
07 May 2008
grist.org
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