Palm Oil Causes Deforestation

Palm oil is heavily in demand these days and the palm oil industry is certainly booming, ensuring good income for many years to come. Palm oil is a major component to common necessities such as shampoos, soaps and candles. And because palm oil is edible oil, it can also be used in foods like chocolates and margarine making it a very lucrative business to many farmers experiencing difficulties in farming.

Due to these ever increasing demands, huge palm oil plantations are replacing large portions of forests in Asian countries particularly in Malaysia, the leading palm oil exporter in the world. These land conversions are certainly taking their toll to the biodiversity within the area, threatening many animals living in these forests to extinction.

For one, orangutans are expected to become extinct if deforestation will continue to go on within these areas. Environmentalists are now seeking ways to prevent these unduly practices and make the good oil a sustainable one. They are calling for palm oil production companies to insist on buying only from sustainable palm farms instead from the ones practicing unsustainable palm farm practices.

Apparently, deforestation is only one of the immediate problems the palm industry is posing us today. There is the issue of toxic waste products polluting our rivers and affecting the safety levels of our water as well.

To date, several power stations in the US are planning to use vegetable oils instead of the conventional crude oil in hopes of lessening the pollution. Unfortunately, their main candidate for this project is also the palm oil which, if the eco project pushes through, will only increase the demand for such. Environmentalists say that this will only produce catastrophic results to our worsening deforestation situation.

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One Response to “Palm Oil Causes Deforestation”

1. Richard Zimmerman says:

   May 28, 2009 at 8:26 am

   Hello– Thank you for giving so much attention to the palm oil issue on your blog! One important detail is that the problem is most severe in Indonesia. Malaysia already destroyed most of its forests…

   The palm oil industry is guilty of the most heinous ecological atrocities imaginable, including the systematic genocide of orangutans. The forests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only place where these gentle, intelligent creatures live, and the cultivation of palm oil has directly led to the brutal deaths of thousands of individuals as the industry has expanded into previously undisturbed areas of rainforest.

   When the forest is cleared, adult orangutans are typically shot on sight. These peaceful, sentient beings are beaten, burned, mutilated, tortured and often eaten. Babies are torn off their dying mothers so they can be sold on the black market as illegal pets to wealthy families who see them as status symbols of their own power and prestige. Please understand that I am not trying to be overly dramatic. This actually happens. It has been documented time and again.

   Some of the luckier orangutans are confiscated and brought to sanctuaries such as the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center, which is now home to nearly 650 orphaned and displaced orangutans in Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Many of these orangutans are only several weeks old when they arrive, and all of them are psychologically traumatized and desperate for their mothers– who were slaughtered right before their eyes.

   Nyaru Menteng is managed by a remarkable woman named Lone Droscher Nielsen. It has been featured on Animal Planet’s series ‘Orangutan Island’ as well as on the BBC’s ‘Orangutan Diary’.

   To learn more about the crisis facing wild orangutans because of palm oil and see how you can help protect them, please visit the Orangutan Outreach website: http://redapes.org

   Thank you for taking the time to read my long comment!

   Best wishes, Rich

   Richard Zimmerman
   Director, Orangutan Outreach
   http://redapes.org
   Reach out and save the orangutans!