The coastal peat swamp forests of Tripa are being relentlessly logged and converted for palm oil plantations despite the fact that they’re home to some of the highest densities of critically endangered orangutans in Sumatra.
Palm oil is the world’s most widely produced vegetable oil. It can be found in approximately 50% of the packaged foods we eat as well as in body lotions, soaps and shampoos, cleaning products, laundry detergents and cosmetics.
Forest clearing to make way for oil palm plantations often destroys valuable habitat, displaces wildlife and negatively impacts local communities. Even more far reaching are the carbon emissions released when forests and peatlands are cleared and burned.
Today, the rapid increase in this type of non-sustainable palm oil production across Borneo and Sumatra is one of the greatest threats to orangutans and a significant contributor to global climate change.
The “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)"—a not-for-profit association that unites palm oil industry stakeholders such as palm oil producers, processors and traders; consumer goods manufacturers; retailers; and environmental and nature conservation organizations—is working to develop and implement global standards for “certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).” In other words, palm oil that’s grown in ways that don’t destroy habitat and threaten wildlife and local communities.
But there is still much work to be done. The UNLESS Project is building a growing community of advocates for orangutans who are working to ensure that the “Principles and Criteria” used to guide the RSPO’s certification process are as rigorous as possible; and that manufacturers that have joined the RSPO and committed to source sustainable palm oil by 2015 follow through on this important commitment.