End Dirty Palm Oil

Screenshot from Greenpeace's Dirty Palm Oil awareness campaign #ProtectParadise

March 5, 2014 by Tigre Pickett

End Dirty Palm Oil

We’ve written about the impacts of palm oil on tropical rainforests before. Prior to palm oil, the Amazon Rainforest’s main threats were cattle ranchers and soy producers in Brazil as well as gold, timber, and oil extraction throughout the Amazon.

The fallout of palm oil plantations have fallen hard on the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Indonesia and Malaysia have seen their tropical habitat leveled for monoculture plantations of palm oil that will generate short-term profits for few while destroying watersheds, flora/fauna habitat, and climate moderation capabilities the forests provide. In the past 20 years, over half of Indonesia’s forest cover has been lost. The air in cities as far away as Singapore have been choked with soot from the uncontrolled burning of forest and peatland.

Greenpeace launches new “dirty palm oil” awareness campaign #ProtectParadise

Greenpeace recently launched a new campaign directed at Proctor and Gamble, a massive multi-national corporation known only as P&G in Perú and other South American countries. Their campaign aims to shed light on the use of dirty palm oil sourced through unsustainable deforestation practices.

Watch Greenpeace’s video now

You can sign their petition calling on an end of using dirty palm oil in cosmetic products.

As international conglomerates seek to destroy the last of Indonesia’s rainforests for short term profit, these rapacious companies and investors are eyeing fertile new ground- the largest rainforest in the world – the Amazon Basin.

In 2013, 1,400 hectares of primary Amazonian forest in Peru was illegally razed for a palm oil plantation without permits.

In the end, companies like Proctor & Gamble marketing products made with dirty palm oil depend on you, the consumers. They assume that when you go to the market to pick up a a container of shampoo or laundry soap, you will not be thinking about the rainforests, orangutans, tigers, or local indigenous peoples. That you will not think to ask where and by what manner it was produced, and for what true cost. By exposing the environmental destructive practices they support and demand they source palm oil from viable sustainable practices, we can slow deforestation in Indonesia and its expansion into the rainforests of Peru!

Acaté Amazon Conservation is a non-profit conservation organization based in the United States and Perú that is an extraordinary partnership of the Matsés indigenous people and dedicated conservationists with decades of experience. The Matsés live in the Amazon Rainforest along remote tributaries of the Javari river in the frontier divide of northeastern Perú and Brazil. The Matsés safeguard a vast and biodiverse corridor of intact primary rainforest as well as shield some of the last remaining uncontacted tribal groups in isolation from unwanted encroachment from the outside world.

All of Acaté’s projects are developed in a close partnership with, led, and implemented by the Matsés indigenous people. We operate through implementing strategic programs and real-on-the-ground initiatives that help them protect their chosen way of life, traditions, their ancestral lands and ecology. The on-the-ground conservation initiatives are capacity-building and designed to support their self-sufficiency and independence. Acaté operates with unparalleled integrity and transparency in its operations, partnerships, and reporting.

You can subscribe to Acaté for the latest updates on our on-the-ground conservation initiatives in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest.

Please consider donating today to support our work. The Matsés and other indigenous peoples in the Amazon struggle with the most limited external resources to protect the future of their people, culture, and their rainforests. Each donation will be applied where it will have the highest impact and with full transparency and accountability. Acaté does not exist for the sake of sitting on the sidelines. We are here to make a true impact and we welcome your support!