23 /09/05 (FEA) - UK company demand for palm oil, a vegetable oil found inone in ten products on supermarket shelves, is driving the orang-utantowards extinction, new research reveals. The `Oil for Ape Scandal',published today by Friends of the Earth and the world's leading orang-utanconservation groups, concludes that without urgent intervention the palmoil trade could cause the extinction of Asia's only great ape within 12years [1].

Palm oil is found in a diverse range of products on our supermarketshelves, from bread, crisps, margarine and cereals to lipstick and soap.Despite being warned for years by environmental groups that oil-palmplantations are associated with rainforest destruction as well as humanrights abuse, the report finds that most UK companies do not even knowwhere their palm oil comes from.

The report finds that almost 90 percent of the orang-utan's habitat inIndonesia and Malaysia has now been destroyed. Some experts estimate that5,000 orang-utan perish as a result every year. The researchers found thatoil-palm plantations have now become the primary cause of the orang-utans'decline, wiping out its rainforest home in Borneo and Sumatra.

New evidence shows that orang-utan rescue centres in Indonesia areover-flowing with orphaned baby orang-utans rescued from forests beingcleared to make way for oil-palm plantations. The Indonesian Government isnow planning to convert a significant area of Tanjung Puting NationalPark, the world's most famous protected area for orang-utan, into anoil-palm plantation.

Research by Friends of the Earth found that at least 84 per cent of UKcompanies are failing to take effective action to ensure they do not buypalm oil from destructive sources and that not one single UK supermarketknows where the palm oil originates in the products it sells.

Friends of the Earth and orang-utan conservation groups say that thefailure of UK companies to take action shows that they cannot be trustedto act responsibly. They are calling on the UK Government to give companydirectors a legal duty to minimise their environmental impacts through theCompany Law Reform Bill, which will have its first reading in Parliamentlater this year.

Two weeks ago the United Nations published the Kinshasa Declaration, anaction plan backed by the UK Government to protect crucial forest areasand save the world's great apes from extinction [2]. The IndonesianGovernment signed on to this agreement but so far Malaysia has failed todo so. Friends of the Earth and the orang-utan conservation groups urgeboth Governments to implement the declaration and end the conversion oforang-utan habitat into oil-palm plantations.

Friends of the Earth Palm Oil Campaigner Ed Matthew said:

"While the UK Government is prepared to fund international apeconservation it is failing to clean up its own back yard. Over 100 UKcompanies and every single British supermarket is helping fuel theobliteration of orang-utan habitat. The Government must amend the CompanyLaw Reform Bill to stop UK companies acting so destructively."

Ian Redmond, Chairman of the Ape Alliance, said:

"Governments in countries like the UK that provide a market for palm oilmust legislate to make their corporations responsible and accountable fortheir impacts. If not, it is we who will have to explain to our childrenthat the orang-utan became extinct, not because of a lack of knowledge,but because of corporate greed and a lack of political will."

Research by Friends of the Earth shows that the forest fires which ravagedthe island of Sumatra in August, and continue to burn today, were mostlyset by palm oil companies clearing land to set up their plantations. It isestimated that one third of the orang-utan population on Borneo was killedby the forest fires of 1998.

Dr Willie Smits, Founder of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation,said:

"The rate of loss of orang-utan has never been greater than in the lastthree years, and oil- palm plantations are mostly to blame."

Professor Biruté Galdikas, founder of the Orangutan FoundationInternational, said:

"The orang-utan is endangered because of habitat loss. Today the greatestthreat to orang-utan habitat is the continued expansion of oil-palmplantations. Palm oil is the greatest enemy of orang-utan and theircontinued survival in the wild."

Dr Ian Singleton, Scientific Director for the Sumatran OrangutanConservation Programme, said:

"We have already lost huge areas of orang-utan habitat and tens ofthousands of orang-utan to the palm oil industry. Now there are reports ofan "oil-palm fence" which will stretch 845 kilometres along the borderwith Malaysia in Borneo, crossing through orang-utan habitat. The problemis truly immense."

Pictures of orang-utan can be downloaded fromhttp://www.foe.co.uk/resource/images/orangutan_report/

Broadcast quality footage of orang-utans and oil palm plantations isavailable from the press office at Friends of the Earth with thanks to theOrangutan Foundation.

Interviews with leading orang-utan scientists and campaigners areavailable.

Notes:[1] The embargoed report, The Oil for Ape Scandal - How palm oil isthreatening the orang-utan, is published by Friends of the Earth togetherwith the Orangutan Foundation, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundationand the Sumatran Orangutan Society as members of the Ape Alliance. For acopy of the summary or full report please go to:

Summary: www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/oil_for_ape_summary.pdf

Full report: www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/oil_for_ape_full.pdf

[2] The Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes was signed on 9th September2005. The signatories included range states for great apes as well as theEuropean Commission and the following donor countries: Belgium, France,Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

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