palm oil

Cooking the Climate

Last edited 8 November 2007 at 9:42am
Publication date: 
8 November, 2007
Every year, 1.8 billion tonnes (Gt) of climate changing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are released by the degradation and burning of Indonesia’s peatlands – 4% of global GHG emissions from less than 0.1% of the land on earth. This report shows how, through growing demand for palm oil, the world’s largest food, cosmetic and biofuel industries are driving the wholesale destruction of peatlands and rainforests. These companies include Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, who between them account for a significant volume of global palm oil use, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia.
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Household brands accused of "cooking the climate" as British government prepares for climate summit

Last edited 8 November 2007 at 9:36am
8 November, 2007

KitKat, Pringles and Flora all implicated; palm oil industry "out of control"

A month before a major UN climate summit in Bali, new research reveals how a handful of the UK's best known brands are complicit in the destruction of Indonesia's peat swamp forests. These peatlands now account for a massive 4% of the world's total annual greenhouse gas emissions. (1)

SOS Sumatra: saving the swamp forest from palm oil plantations

Posted by bex — 30 October 2007 at 1:25pm - Comments

Last week, Jamie wrote about our Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra, Indonesia: the frontline of where peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil plantations.

Well, this week our volunteers out there are busy trying to stop the destruction of an area of swamp forest. Working with local communities, they're building dams across the canals that are used in logging and draining peatland.

From our international site:


Thick layers of peat underlie most of Indonesia's swamp forest. Over time, the peat layer has locked up millions of tonnes of carbon. Once forests are cleared, peat swamps are drained and decompose to release the stored carbon as carbon dioxide. Forests are often also burned, prior to the planting of palm oil saplings, further compounding the climate problem.

Last edited 1 January 1970 at 1:00am
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Government introduces UK biofuel obligations without proper safeguards

Last edited 24 October 2007 at 6:11pm -
24 October, 2007

Petrol and diesel industry may be contributing to rainforest destruction

Responding to the introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) last night, Greenpeace forest campaigner Belinda Fletcher said:

Indonesia gets its own climate change camp

Posted by jamie — 24 October 2007 at 1:42pm - Comments

The Forest Defenders Camp in Sumatra, Indonesia

Climate change and deforestation are inextricably linked. Forest destruction contributes around one-fifth of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transport sector, and the problem is so severe that Indonesia and Brazil are ranked third and fourth respectively in the list of top emitting countries, mainly because of deforestation.

It's against this background that our latest Forest Defenders Camp opened a couple of weeks ago on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, located on the frontline where the peatland forest is being cleared for palm oil plantations. Palm oil is used in hundreds of food and cosmetic products, as well as biofuels.

The Paradise Forests of South East Asia

Last edited 2 August 2007 at 11:08am

A traditional landowner from Papua New Guinea

Stretching right across South East Asia, from Sumatra and Borneo to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Paradise Forests form a wonderfully diverse region.

Forests and agriculture

Last edited 19 July 2007 at 1:50pm

An area of the Amazon rainforest cleared for soya planting

Huge areas of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared for soya plantations

As the human population and our consumption of resources grow, more and more land is being turned over to agricultural production. This is at the expense of natural habitats such as mangroves, wetlands and, of course, ancient forests. In particular, it's the growing importance of soya beans and palm oil as global commodities are key drivers of deforestation.

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