palm oil

Potentially good news for orang-utans - Unilever announced this morning that they're now supporting our calls for a moratorium to protect Indonesia's rainforests from destruction at the hands of the expanding palm oil industry.

When we sent in our own 'orang-utans' to Unilever HQ last week to tell them that they needed to do more to stop rainforest and peatlands being cleared to make way for palm oil plantations, company executives told us that they wouldn't be forced into a quick decision on the matter.

Just some of the men, women and things who have told Dove to stop trashing rainforests

Our Dove campaign is rolling along and at the weekend it broke out into town centres up and down the country. Groups of Greenpeace volunteers were asking members of the public to pose for photos which are now part of our growing Flickr gallery full of people who think it's a bit mad to chop down rainforests just to make soap. We've had young 'uns, old 'uns and even a Cyberman - if you've had your picture taken, see if you can find it and send it to the people behind Dove (details below).

The orang-utans may have retreated from Unilever's premises for the time being, but our campaign to protect Indonesia's rainforests from the expanding palm oil industry has only just started. As well as an advert appearing in today's edition of the Times, commuters at Blackfriars tube station in London this morning saw some of our special 'Dove' adverts alongside the escalators. Blackfriars is the nearest station to Unilever's London headquarters, so a large number of their staff should have seen them on their way into work. Watch the video below for a taste of what they saw.

A couple of videos that throw our new Dove campaign into sharp relief. The first is a rather stonking effort from our international office, taking Dove's own Onslaught film as it's inspiration (you can see the original here). The second, some highlights from the fun and games in London and Merseyside earlier today. Enjoy.

As of 2pm, orang-utans are still gracing Unilever premises in London and Port Sunlight and are showing no signs of swinging down. They've also appeared on the continent, popping up in Italy and the Netherlands. Unilever's Rome HQ has been paid a visit and employees were blocked from entering the building by a large box placed in front of the entrance, with the slogan 'Stop Dove destroying rainforests' emblazoned upon it. In Rotterdam, six volunteers were trying to scale Unilever's waterfront offices to hang a banner with a similar message, but unfortunately strong winds forced them down.

Today, we're launching the next stage in our campaign to protect the rainforests of Indonesia from the expansion of the palm oil industry. Our volunteers, dressed as orang-utans, are currently climbing over the London headquarters of the company behind Dove, which uses palm oil as one of its ingredients. Our latest research shows that Unilever, the makers of Dove, is buying palm oil from companies that are destroying valuable rainforest and peatland areas, which is bad news not only for the millions of people who depend on them for their way of life and endangered species such as the orang-utan, but also for the global climate.