........This report exposes the continuing failure of successive UKGovernments and companies to address the issue. Today areas of forestsgreater than the size of Wales are being lost every year in many countriesnot just in Latin America but also in South East Asia and Africa. The rateof loss in Indonesia, for example, is actually accelerating. Theinternational trade in palm oil is driving forest clearance as well asbeing a cause of human rights abuses on a massive scale.UK consumers will be shocked to learn that they are playing an unwittingpart in the continuing destruction of the tropical rainforest not justthrough purchasing timber and paper products but through a wide variety ofeveryday items in their shopping bag. Chocolate, crisps, detergents,toothpastes and shampoo all are tainted with the damaging environmentaland social impacts of palm oil. This hidden ingredient imported frommonoculture plantations of South East Asia is found in more than 10 percent of all products on the supermarket shelves.

.......In central Africa where the oil palm originated, its cultivation iscentral to the livelihoods of millions of smallscalefarmers as a staple crop. But elsewhere in the world it is now bigbusiness, grown mainly on large-scale plantations. Commercial oil palmplantations have spread throughout the tropics – the Congo, Kenya,Nigeria, Liberia, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, to name a few of thecountries where the oil palm is now produced for export.Its expansion has been most significant in South East Asia, particularlyMalaysia and Indonesia, where it is a major driver of the destruction oftropical forests. The lowland evergreen tropical forest, which supportsthe highest biodiversity on Earth, is also the most suitable habitat foroil palm plantations. their land. A serious imbalance of power existsbetween these communities, who have no formal right to their traditionalland, and the companies that are granted leave by the Government toconvert the forest to plantations. Despite their efforts, the voice of thecommunities opposing oil palm development is rarely heard.

Greasy palms - Palm Oil, The Environment and Big Business

Palm oil, the hidden ingredient in thousands of everyday products, isdriving rainforest destruction. This report summarises the connectionbetween palm oil, the environment and big business.Greasy palms - European buyers of Indonesian palm oil

This report covers a research project undertaken for Friends of the Earthin 2003 into the palm oil industry in South East Asia, its links to theEuropean market and the involvement of European companies in the palm oiltrade.Greasy Palms - The social and ecological impacts of large-scale oil palmplantation development

This report covers a research project undertaken for Friends of the Earthin 2003 into the social and environmental impacts of the palm oil industryin South East Asia.

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/case_studies/palm_oil/index.html