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Rainforests are being destroyed and around 50 Orangutans each week are being slaughtered... ..all in the name of Palm Oil.
Copyright
© Helen Buckland
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A note from the founder...
Over the last few years I have been a concerned follower of the plight of the Orangutan.
I started to find out as much information as possible about these amazing animals and with the more I learned the greater I felt compelled to try and help raise the awareness of this endangered species. In April 2007 I made the trip across to Borneo to visit the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre. This was a very special trip for two reasons, not only was it my Honeymoon, but I was also about to see first hand the great work that the Centre does. I was also keen to find out how my adopted baby Orangutan `Naru´ was progressing - Details of this trip can be found in the Blog entry Visit to Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre, Borneo. Since my return I have been concentrating on ways in which to help my family and friends understand the dangers that Orangutans are facing. It was here that I first discovered the devastation that is occurring in Borneo and Sumatra. Rainforests are being destroyed and around 50 Orangutans each week are being slaughtered... all in the name of Palm Oil. I have decided to put this website together to help try and educate people on these wonderful animals, the problems that they are facing and what we can do to help.
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Background
Within the next 12 years we may witness the disappearance of Orangutans from the wild.
We may have to explain to our children that Orangutans became extinct not because of a lack of knowledge but because of corporate greed and a lack of political will. (As stated by Ian Redmond the Chairman of the Ape Alliance) Palm Oil is a form of edible vegetable oil that is taken from the fruit of the oil palm tree. It was the second most widely produced edible oil after soyabean oil, but reports now suggest that it may have surpassed soybean oil to be the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world. In Malaysia and Indonesia over 28 million tons of Palm Oil are produced annually for the food trade. It is found in 1 in 10 products that we buy from Supermarkets & Retailers, including Chocolate, Bread, Crisps, Detergents, Make Up and Toiletries. Unfortunately the majority of retailers do not specify individually which oils have been used in the ingredients of their products - they instead prefer to publish various oils collectively under the term `Vegetable Oils´. Friends of the Earth did a survey that showed that 84% of UK companies do not even know where their Palm Oil comes from. It is estimated that we are losing around 50 Orangutans a week due to the destruction of Rainforests to make way for more Palm Oil Plantations. It is known that there are millions of hectares of cleared land where new plantations could be grown but because Oil Palms take 5 years to begin producing a crop, companies prefer to log intact Rainforests to make way for new plantations. This is so they may use the profits from the timer to subsidise the first few years of plantation operation - Multi National Palm Oil Companies using the `Get Rich(er) Quicker´ method with no thought to the cost to the environment! No thought to the environment and no thought to the thousands of Orangutans that are dying every year because they are losing their habitat, or being shot down from trees, attacked with machetes or set on fire... because they are in the way of the logging. Key Objectives
It is not a ban on Palm Oil that is being sought after, what we are demanding is that Retailers join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and insist that their suppliers meet the criteria laid down by the RSPO.
If manufacturers and retailers were to source Palm Oil from only those suppliers who independently adhere to the RSPO criteria - to determine sustainability - it would be one step closer to stopping the mass slaughtering of our close cousins. Please sign my petition today and help in the quest for `Orangutan Friendly´ Palm Oil. |
