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Greenpeace activists across Europe have been busy, many of whom have been dressing up as orangutans to draw attention to Unilever's "monkey business". We're launching the next stage in our campaign to protect the rainforests of Indonesia from the expansion of the palm oil industry.
Our research shows that Unilever, maker of Dove and many other well-known brands, is buying palm oil from companies that are destroying valuable rainforest and peatland areas; bad news not only for the millions of people who depend on these for their way of life and endangered species such as the orangutan, but also for the global climate.
Monkey Business
In the United Kingdom, at the Unilever factory at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, sixty Greenpeace activists occupied the production lines, while in London employees at Unilever's HQ were greeted on their way to work by screeching mating calls and orangutans clambering all over the building. At Unilever's Rotterdam HQ, in the Netherlands, six activists scaled the waterfront building and hung a banner reading, "Unilever, Don't Destroy the Forests." In Rome, another ten orangutans stopped Unilever employees entering their Italian HQ. Jumping out of a huge box marked, "Stop Dove from Destroying Rainforests," the orangutans handed out flyers outlining the palm oil situation and demanding a moratium.
Palm oil and forest destruction
Why Unilever? For a start, Unilever is one of the largest users of palm oil in the world, funnelling up to 1 in every 20 litres produced from Indonesia into some of its many products. This means Unilever has a huge influence on the way palm oil is made.
Further, as chair of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Unilever has even more clout. The RSPO is a group of retailers, manufacturers and suppliers whose aim is to create standards for the production of sustainable palm oil. As things stand, however, it's little more than a greenwashing operation, as card-carrying members of the RSPO continue to be involved in the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests.
Following its creation in 2002, the RSPO set up a certification scheme, but six years later not a drop of certified oil is yet available. Even when certified palm oil does become available later this year, there's nothing to prevent it being blended with non-certified palm oil. This will make it impossible for RSPO members to guarantee that their palm oil does not come from recently deforested areas. All this was documented in our 'Cooking the Climate' report, produced last November, in which Unilever featured prominently. Since then, we've collected fresh evidence of Unilever's role in deforestation.
The proof
Today's actions coincide with the release of our new report, 'How Unilever's suppliers are Burning Up Borneo'. The report details how some of Unilever's key palm oil suppliers - Sinar Mas, Wilmar, Sime Darby and IOI among them - are devastating forest and peatland areas in Central Kalimantan. Not only are millions of people who live in or rely on the forests for their survival being put at risk, but as these areas are destroyed many endangered species are at even greater risk of extinction, including Sumatran tigers, Javan rhinoceroses and orangutans.
There are also devastating consequences for the climate. As the forests and tropical peatlands of Indonesia are destroyed and converted into oil palm plantations, huge volumes of greenhouse gases are released, accelerating climate change. Indonesia is the third largest emitter of these gases in the world, in large part due to the destruction of its forests at the hands of the palm oil industry.
This is not great going for a company that paints itself green and responsible: take a look at Unilever's website, where it makes a big deal of its efforts to be both environmentally and socially responsible. As our report shows, when it comes to palm oil the reality is very different!
What's next
We want Unilever to clean up its act, not just with the palm oil it uses in Dove but in all its products. To start the ball rolling, we've devised a three-point action plan for Unilever:
- support an immediate moratorium on the destruction of rainforest and peatland areas in Indonesia to grow palm oil;
- stop trading with palm oil suppliers who are involved in this destruction; and
- pressure the RSPO to also support a moratorium.
UPDATE
Despite insisting a week ago that they wouldn’t
be bounced into taking action, Unilever boss, Patrick Cescau performed
a swift about turn today and announced that his company is supporting
our call for a moratorium – a complete halt – on rainforest destruction
in Indonesia.
A moratorium would buy time, and allow proper regulations to be put in
place that protect the rainforest in years to come. Unilever’s
announcement is potentially good news for orang-utans and for the
climate.
Speaking at the May Day Climate Change Summit attended by Prince
Charles and the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he also promised that
all of Unilever’s palm oil would be sustainably sourced by 2015.
Although we’ve already warned him that promises of sustainable palm oil
will amount to nothing unless Unilever’s suppliers stop trashing
Indonesia’s rainforests. Now we want to see some of the other big palm
oil buyers, like Nestle and Procter & Gamble, join with Unilever to
create change on the ground.
