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Palm oil
The Rainforest Information Centre convened the Australia Palm Oil Campaign Group in October 2006. Together with Australian Conservation Foundation, Grasp Australasia, Friends of the Earth Australia, Borneo Orangutan Society Australia, Australian Orangutan Project and Humane Society International we are working together to address the impacts that palm oil plantations are having in the Asia Pacific region.
In brief, the palm oil industry is devastating the unique flora and fauna in the Asia Pacific region as well as exploiting local communities who are being forced off their land. If palm oil concessions continue to replace forest at the current rate, a viable future for the Orangutan in the wild will be impossible as well as for the Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhino, Asian elephant and other species that are on the brink of extinction (World Bank 2001).
Moreover, the Australian Heart Foundation and the World Health Organisation have both stated quite categorically that consumption of palm oil promotes heart disease and should be avoided.
It is clear that palm oil is largely produced using unsustainable destructive practices that involve the devastation of rainforests and wildlife, local communities and waterways.
Within a global context, with climate change now threatening all ecosystems on the planet, the palm oil industry is making a significant contribution to global warming (See Agence France-Presse article at (au.news.yahoo.com/061026/19/1129i). The standard practice of palm oil plantations is to log the valuable trees, and use fire to clear the remaining forest. This releases massive quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane into the atmosphere adding significantly to the problem of global warming.
Something urgently needs to be done. We are now beginning to contact food companies to discuss a transition from palm oil to non-genetically modified ecologically friendly and socially responsible oils.
The campaign is just getting started. If you would like to help out, please send us an email rainforestinfo@ozemail.com.au and we'll let you know how you, as a consumer, can be actively involved.
For further background information please see:
www.safepalmoil.org
www.eng.walhi.or.id/kampanye/hutan/konversi/060412_palmoilplantation_/
www.orangutans.com.au
www.orangutan.org.au
www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-71102
www.grasp.org.au
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