Archived News

10/09/2009 (The Jakarta Post), Jakarta - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank, has decided to suspend funding in the palm oil sector, affecting the world's top producer, Wilmar International, pending a review of internal procedures on environmental and social standards.

11/09/2009 (Electric.co.uk) - The operators of Britain’s first biofuel power plants are now considering using palm oil. However, many are upset with this choice since palm oil was blamed for causing rain forest destruction in south east Asia.

10/09/2009 (Friends of the Earth Europe), Brussels – Friends of the Earth has welcomed a ruling yesterday, by the UK advertising watchdog, that describing palm oil as “sustainably produced” is false advertising.

10/09/2009 (BusinessWire) – The World Bank has frozen new funding for Fonterra Cooperative Group’s Indonesian palm kernel supplier pending a review into environmental and social sustainability practices of the sector.

10/09/2009 (The Malay Mail) - SEVERAL local oil palm plantation companies have come under fire in Indonesia for violating human rights and the environment, Indonesian online news portal VIVAnews reported on Sept 8.

09/09/2009 (Guardian.co.uk) - A press campaign making environmental claims about the controversial product Malaysian Palm Oil, including that it is "sustainable", has been banned as misleading by the advertising regulator.

09/09/2009 (Reuters) - The International Finance Corp (IFC), the World Bank's private sector lender, said on Wednesday it had suspended investments in palm oil businesses until after a review of its practices in the sector.

09/09/2009 (Sumatran Orangutan Society) - The World Bank has agreed to suspend International Finance Corporation (IFC) funding of the oil palm sector pending the development of safeguards to ensure that lending doesn't cause social or environmental harm, according to a letter by World Bank President Robert Zoellick to NGOs. A recent internal audit found that IFC funding of the Wilmar Group, a plantation developer, violated the IFC's own procedures, allowing commercial concerns to trump environmental and social standards. The audit's findings were championed by environmental and indigenous rights' groups who have criticized World Bank support for industrial oil palm development which they say has driven large-scale destruction of forests in Indonesia, boosting greenhouse gas emissions, endangering rare and charismatic species of wildlife, including the orangutan, and displacing forest communities.

09/09/2009 (Jakarta Post) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private arm of the World Bank, has decided to suspend funding in the palm oil sector, affecting the world's top producer, Wilmar International, pending a review of internal procedures on environmental and social standards.

09/09/2009 (Environmental Finance) - The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) has stopped investing in palm oil projects pending the development of a new strategy to address environmental and social practices associated with the material.

09/09/2009 (The Independent) - The palm oil industry misled the public by claiming production of the vegetable fat was sustainable and socially useful, according to an official investigation.

09/09/2009 (The Economic Times), Melbourne - Indian conglomerate Bhoruka Group will invest AUD 63 million ($54 million) in an edible oils and biodiesel facility in Australia.