Greenpeace finds palm oil industry still threatens Indonesia’s forests

A new report by Greenpeace International suggests that suppliers to the world’s biggest consumer brands still cannot guarantee their palm oil is free from forest destruction. Three years after the world’s biggest palm oil traders adopted “no deforestation” policies, Greenpeace International examined 11 traders to see how much progress they had made.

The organization found that none of the companies surveyed were able to say with any certainty that there is no deforestation in their palm oil supply chain. In addition, although 10 of the 11 traders had a no deforestation policy, only two of them had set an implementation deadline. The others were unable to say by when they will clean up their palm oil supply.

Much of the world’s palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the situation is critical for Indonesia’s forests. The country has lost 31 million hectares of forest—an area almost the size of Germany—since 1990. Deforestation is also a major threat to the endangered animals who live there, such as orangutans.

Most household brands that use palm oil—including the 400 companies in the Consumer Goods Forum—have committed to clean up their palm oil supply by 2020 and yet only two of the traders Greenpeace International assessed were planning to meet that deadline.

“Consumer brands cannot rely upon palm oil traders to deliver them deforestation-free palm oil,” said Bagus Kusuma, forest campaigner with Greenpeace Indonesia. “Instead, brands need to step up and make traders cut off growers that won’t change their dirty practices.”

Report