We are working together with Chester Zoo, launching an initiative to help other local businesses and
restaurants to join the fight! Click on the links below to find out more about this global issue.
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. It is cheap and efficient and so is the world’s most widely used vegetable oil and global consumption is rising. It is used in the production of many foods, cosmetics and cosmetics.
Up to 50% of products in an average UK supermarket now contain palm oil!
The demand for palm oil has resulted in the rapid and unregulated expansion of oil palm plantations, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia, where around 85% of the world’s palm oil is now produced.
Vast areas of rainforest – once home to orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos – have been cleared to make way for oil palm trees. The new plantations contain just a fraction of the flora and fauna of rainforests and cannot sustain the native wildlife. As a result, animal numbers are falling fast.
In recent years a number of organisations have started to produce and source palm oil more sustainably following the standards of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
The RSPO has developed sustainability standards for palm oil produced with minimal impact on wildlife, local people and the environment. Some companies are even taking further steps to become ‘deforestation-free’.
Many companies are now labelling their products as containing certified sustainable palm oil. Buying only products that contain certified sustainable palm oil is an important step in helping to protect animals like orangutans and others that share its rainforest habitat.
