“GAR followed Wilmar’s lead and has commited to removing forest destruction from all the palm oil it trades. With additional commitments from consumer companies like Nestlé, Unilever, L’Oréal, Ferrero and Delhaize, the pressure is on for other palm oil producers and consumers to clean up their act and commit to forest protection,” said Annisa Rahmawati, forest campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
Greenpeace recently released findings from a 12 month investigation into deforestation and orangutan habitat clearance in Procter & Gamble’s supply chain, which implicated operations within Musim Mas, KLK and BW Plantation in widespread forest destruction and orangutan habitat clearance. Greenpeace urges all palm oil traders to map their supply chain, identify risks and ensure that problematic suppliers are dealt with.
“GAR’s announcement to implement an ambitious Forest Conservation Policy for its downstream operations is a sign that the company takes its commitment seriously and is trying to minimize the impact it has on forests. The next step means putting this commitment into practice: GAR must now ensure that all the palm oil it refines and trades is not contributing to deforestation, climate change and social conflicts,” said Rahmawati.
“Greenpeace believes palm oil must make a genuine contribution to Indonesia’s development. Progressive palm oil producers in the Palm Oil Innovation Group, along with ambitious commitments from big palm oil players GAR and Wilmar, prove there is a business case for responsible palm oil.”
GAR committed to a Forest Conservation Policy in 2009 following global campaigning by Greenpeace. Indonesia loses 620,000 hectares of forest each year, with palm oil the biggest driver, contributing to wildlife habitat loss, social conflict and climate change.
Notes to editors:
1. A summary of the research findings into P&G’s supply chains: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/dirty-palm-oil/blog/48308/
2. GAR’s announcement is in its presentation to the Singapore Stock Exchange: http://infopub.sgx.com/Apps?A=COW_CorporateAnnouncement_Content&B=AnnouncementTodayByCompanyNameAndCategory&F=1063750
3. Greenpeace has ranked consumer companies in the Tiger Challenge, which measures efforts made to ensure palm oil in their supply chains is free from forest destruction: www.greenpeace.org/tigerchallenge
Media contact:
Kat Clark, Greenpeace Communications based San Francisco, phone: 415 529 0941, email: [email protected]
