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Help Save the Orangutan
Photo Copyright Orangutan
Ordinary food shoppers are unwittingly
causing the extinction of rain forest animals such as the
One in ten of supermarket products contain palm oil; from
foods like bread, crisps and chocolate to cosmetics, soaps,
shampoos and toothpaste.
Most mass-produced palm oil is responsible for the accelerated
destruction of precious rain forests in Malaysia and Indonesia,
home to the Orangutan, and around 5,000 of these intelligent
apes are being driven from their unique habitats in Borneo
and Sumatra each year, as loggers make way for palm oil plantations.
Orangutans and other animals wander dazed and confused across
the tree-flattened areas, while plantation workers butcher
the frightened apes with machetes or even burn and bury them
alive. Hundreds of orphaned babies are also left alone to
die or sold in the illegal pet trade. At the current rate
of destruction, it's expected that Orangutans could be extinct
in ten years, along with their forest habitat.
Friends of the Earth have recently reported on the current
state of corruption and political greed existing in Borneo.
Researchers say that forest fires, deliberately set by palm
oil companies since 1998, have now killed around one third
of the orangutan population. Friends of the Earth also say
that the Indonesian Government is planning to convert a significant
area of Tanjung Puting National Park, the world's most famous
protected area for orangutan, into an oil-palm plantation.
Animal Welfare group, Ape Alliance,
represent organisations such as the Borneo Survival Foundation and
Safe Palm Oil.
They have websites that are appealing to the public to write to
supermarket CEO's, asking them to stop palm oil sourced from environmentally
destructive plantations being used in the products they sell. Safe
Palm Oil also has a sample letter for consumers to download and
post or hand in to shops, supermarkets and manufacturers.
Palm oil is used in most savoury snack
foods and chocolate, which should give the consumer an idea of how
serious the problem is, since millions of packets of crisp type
snacks and sweets are eaten daily.
It's now time to think twice before buying foods or cosmetics containing
palm oil, which could be destroying entire forests and all the animals
In the end, it's the consumer who carries the responsibility as
well as the power to stop such atrocities. If you ignore an ethical
issue as important as this, it means that unscrupulous plantation
growers will continue to provide manufacturers with ingredients
that destroy habitats on a global scale.
So ask questions when you go shopping. When the ingredients on a
product include vegetable oil, it may be that that this includes
palm oil, so find out where it comes from. A shop manager will probably
have no idea, but persist and make sure your question is logged.
And if you don't get a satisfactory answer, don't buy the product.
Like the Brazilian rain forest destruction, where areas the size
of Portugal are unnecessarily lost each year to soy plantations,
it's the consumer who can help stop this devastation by buying soy
products from ethically sustainable sources. The rich growers couldn't
care less about the environmental damage, and the paradox is that
ecologically sustainable farm land is available to produce palm
oil and soy beans. It's purely a question of high yield profits,
because growers pay much less for felled forest land, or in many
cases the forest is illegally logged and claimed for plantation.
Countries like Indonesia and Brazil clearly need to provide strong
incentives to steer growers towards non-destructive means. In the
meantime, these despicable practices will continue as long as manufacturers
and consumers create the demand for unethically sourced ingredients.
To help and act on this crisis please
visit these action organisations:
Safe Palm Oil (to send a letter)
Save the Orangutan (to send a letter)
Orangutan Foundation UK and USA
Sumatran Orangutan Society
UK Friends of the Earth archive report
worth reading at... http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/one_in_ten_supermarket_pro_22092005.html
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