16/14/2010 (Media-Newswire.com), Lausanne, Switzerland — 30 Greenpeace activists ( 1 ) dressed as orang-utans today called on Nestlé shareholders to ‘give orang-utans a break’ and stop profiting from destroying the rainforest and accelerating climate change as they arrived at Nestlé’s Annual General Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Inside the AGM, Greenpeace activists hung a banner demanding Nestlé stop using palm oil from rainforest destruction, while the organisation’s International Head of Forest Campaigns, Pat Venditti, called on Nestlé to ensure its suppliers cut all ties with Sinar Mas:

“We are here today to tell Nestlé to change its KitKatastrophic policies. By purchasing products from rainforest destruction, the company is not only driving climate change and biodiversity loss, but it is also damaging its corporate reputation. We are urging shareholders to use their influence to ensure Nestlé’s products are completely free from Sinar Mas palm oil and paper products,” said Venditti.

In Germany, Greenpeace activists climbed Nestlé’s headquarters this morning and hung a giant banner showing an orang-utan being threatened. Greenpeace is calling on the public to join the protest and send messages calling on shareholders to take action, already hundreds have sent messages online direct to Nestlé and its shareholders, see www.greenpeace.org/kitkat

Greenpeace launched a public campaign to expose Nestlé’s role in driving the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands on 17 March ( 2 ). In response Nestlé terminated its direct contract with the largest palm oil producer in Indonesia, Sinar Mas, which has a history of environmental abuse.

But the confectionary giant has continued to buy palm oil indirectly from Sinar Mas, through suppliers like Cargill. This is despite receiving more than 200,000 emails and faxes from concerned citizens calling on it to stop. Paper from Asia Pulp & Paper – Sinar Mas’ pulp and paper arm – is also used in some packaging for Nestlé products.

Today, Greenpeace also published satellite and photographic evidence ( 3 ) showing that Sinar Mas continued to destroy peatlands and High Conservation Value ( HCV ) areas, despite a commitment in February this year to stop. ( 4 )

Greenpeace has repeatedly highlighted Sinar Mas’s unacceptable environmental practises to Nestlé, including evidence that it has destroyed rainforest, peatlands and orang-utan habitat and has broken Indonesian law to make way for oil palm and pulp and paper plantations. The company has also been ignoring its commitments as a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil ( RSPO ), the body that claims to be making the industry more sustainable. ( 5 )

“Every day that Nestlé fails to take concrete action to remove Sinar Mas from its supply chain, it pushes orang-utans closer to the brink of extinction,” said Venditti. “Nestlé must clean up its act now.”

Indonesia has one of the fastest rates of forest destruction on the planet, with palm oil and pulp and paper plantations being major causes. As a result, it is now the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China and the United States.