 Is the extinction of one of our closest relatives really a fair price to pay for a vegetable oil?
Imagine
you’re sitting quietly in your home one morning, peacefully nursing
your young child and basically minding your own business, when suddenly
a group of aggressive strangers storm in and start tearing the place
apart! Using monster-sized bulldozers they literally begin demolishing
your home with you still in it, and you barely manage to get out alive.
With your screaming child in your arms you run for safety, but soon
realise there’s nowhere to run to. The same thing is happening to the
entire neighbourhood! Everywhere you look, you see other families
running for their lives and shouting for help as their homes tumble to
the ground.
You keep running, further than you’ve ever been
before, until you come to an area that stops you in your tracks. It’s
like nothing you’ve ever seen. There’s no life here, just deadly
silence and piles of rubble and debris for as far as you can see. The
noise at your back reminds you that you must keep moving so you
reluctantly begin making your way through this eerie and frightening
place. Suddenly you smell smoke ahead and realise you are heading
towards an enormous fire! You know what that means. Other
neighbourhoods are being destroyed and innumerable families are losing
their homes and their lives.
Heavy-hearted you change
direction and soon come to another landscape you’ve never encountered
before. It looks like some kind of new neighbourhood, but all the homes
are identical, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone living here. You get
the sense that it’s not safe here either but you’re tired and need to
rest, so you search for a place to hide. Finding a cool dark spot you
sit down and try to comfort your child. Seeing the fear and pleading in
their eyes tears you apart, but you have no explanation, nothing with
which to reassure them.
You’ve barely gotten your breath back
when suddenly you hear the sound of more strangers, and realise they’re
coming at you from every side. You pull your child close and
frantically look for an escape. But it’s no use. They beat you with
huge clubs and swing their sharp rusty machetes at you wildly,
literally slicing you away from your child. You try to fight back but
are far too weak now and the strangers easily knock you down for the
last time. You are bleeding profusely and the physical pain is beyond
anything you could have ever imagined. Nothing however, can prepare you
for the pain of watching the strangers carry away your screaming child.
This is the last thing you see before everything goes black.
Sounds
like something out of a horror movie, doesn’t it? Yet this and other
stories like it are an actual daily reality on our planet right now. In
this horrific way we, modern humans, are hurtling one of our closest
relatives towards imminent extinction. The Southeast Asian orangutan,
with whom we share 97% of our DNA, and whose name literally translated
means ‘person of the forest’, could be completely non-existent in the
wild in less than 10 years. Countless other species, many also on the
endangered list such as the Sumatran tiger, also face decimation and
possible extinction in the coming years. The traditional human
residents of the forest are also being displaced and disconnected from
their ancestral home and lifestyle. This is the price of palm oil.
The
tropical rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra are the only places on Earth
that the magnificent and intelligent orangutan exists. Unfortunately,
these same forests have become the chosen location for wide-scale
production of the world’s latest wonder ingredient – palm oil. To this
end, the orangutan’s ancestral home is being torn down at the alarming
rate of around 6 acres – that’s the area of 3 football fields – every
minute of every day. In its place, endless acres of oil palm
plantations are popping up to support the growing global demand for a
product most people have probably never even heard of, despite the high
probability that they are consuming it on a daily basis.
Palm Oil
The
oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is originally from West Africa where its
oil has been used in cooking for thousands of years. Today, 90% of the
world’s palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, with the vast
majority of their plantations in Borneo and Sumatra. Palm oil has
become a huge industry for these countries, bringing in around US$20
billion a year, and demand for it is only getting greater. Palm oil has
already made its way into approximately 1 in 10 supermarket products.
It’s in everything from foodstuffs such as margarine and chocolate to
cleaning and beauty products such as detergents, soaps and cosmetics.
One of the major problems for the conscientious consumer however, is
that lax labelling laws mean that in most cases, it is simply listed as
‘vegetable oil’ making it impossible to distinguish.
Interestingly,
it is a change in labelling laws that could contribute to pushing the
drive for palm oil ever forward. Thanks to recent bad press for trans
fats (hydrogenated vegetable oil), linking it to heart disease, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA has recently made it
compulsory that the amount of trans fat contained in a product be
listed on the label. The UK, European Union and Australia are all
currently discussing similar moves. Other countries have taken the
approach one step further. In Denmark for example, there is now a ban
on all foods that contain more than 2% trans fats. Despite palm oil
being high in saturated fats (which have also been linked to raised
blood cholesterol and cardiovascular disease) it contains no trans fats
at all and so is fast becoming a popular alternative.
Biofuel
The
popularity of this versatile oil has boomed in the past decade and it
is soon expected to become the world’s most produced vegetable oil.
Ironically, one of the key reasons for this expectant increase is that
palm oil is now being touted as an environmentally-friendly solution to
the problem of carbon emissions. It is already being used to produce
millions of litres of biodiesel, the ‘carbon-neutral’ fuel that is
being promoted as a sustainable alternative to fossil-fuels. The EU has
recently set a target of 5.75% of all vehicles to be ‘renewable’ (i.e.
run on renewable fuel) by 2010. Although some companies may willingly
choose to use sources not produced on deforested land, the EU cannot
enforce any kind of regulations to ensure this is always the case. In
fact, world trade rules prevent any steps to restrict the import of a
product on environmental grounds. Free trade comes first!
So
in order to divert one environmental catastrophe (namely global
warming) a series of other environmental catastrophes are taking place.
As if the utter devastation to wilderness and wildlife caused by
deforestation wasn’t enough in itself, the method in which much of the
forest is being cleared is creating the exact problem that the
plantations are supposedly going to help alleviate – carbon emissions.
Clearing the rainforests
With
many palm oil companies using uncontrolled burning to clear their land,
usually after removing the valuable hardwood (see below), major forest
fires have become an annual summer event in Borneo and Sumatra.
Enormous tracts of land are devastated in this way every year and
billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere
as a result. In 1997 alone, Borneo’s worst year for forest fires, 2.67
billion tonnes of carbon dioxide was released by the fires – equal to
40% of the world’s total emissions from fossil fuels that year – and
contributed greatly to the largest annual increase in atmospheric CO2
detected since records began in 1957. Even in a relatively ‘good’ year
the fires emit around 1 billion tonnes of carbon, making a mockery of
the suggestion that biofuels produced in this way are helping to reduce
global warming.
An excuse for logging
Considering
the vast areas of forest that have been ‘accidentally’ cleared by out
of control fires or cleared and abandoned by disreputable companies,
and the fact that oil palms will grow perfectly well in already
degraded land, it is reprehensible that palm oil companies are still
being allowed to clear further rainforest for their plantations. The
ulterior motive for companies choosing to do this is obvious.
The
old growth rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra contain some of the
world’s most valuable hardwood, and illegal logging has become rampant
even in national parks and reserves. Obtaining a permit to clear forest
areas for conversion to oil palm plantations is one of the best ways to
be granted legitimate access to this lucrative market. Many palm oil
companies are taking full advantage of this situation, and can make
substantial immediate profits from logging before they even plant their
first palm tree. Others use the permit simply as an excuse to log the
forest. Once they have cleared the area of its valuable timber, they
disappear without ever planting a single palm, leaving huge areas of
dry branches and wood litter that need only the smallest spark to
ignite.
Which brings us back to the plight of the orangutan,
and all the other creatures that depend on the rainforest for survival.
Today in both Borneo and Sumatra, less than half of the original
rainforest remains, and with Indonesia aiming to triple the size of its
palm plantations within the next 15 years, what’s left of the forest
and it’s inhabitants are in grave danger.
The plight of the orangutan
In
the past 20 years, orangutan habitat has declined by 80%. Borneo’s
devastating fires of 1997-98 alone destroyed 5 million hectares of
forest and with it, one third of the orangutan population. Today, of
the roughly 40,000 orangutans left in the world, it is estimated that
as many as 5,000 are killed every year, many of them dying at the hands
of humans in some of the most abusive and horrific ways imaginable.
As
their forest homes are destroyed, orangutans are forced out into
plantation areas where they are seen as pests and attacked mercilessly
by plantation workers. Being shot, beaten, cut with machetes, burned
and buried alive are all common methods used to eradicate the ‘problem’
of orangutans. If a mother and infant are found, the mother will
usually be killed and the infant taken to be sold in the illegal pet
trade – most often to international buyers. Another horrendous practice
that international citizens are contributing to is the hunting of
orangutans for trophy parts (usually heads and hands). The selling or
trading of the body parts of endangered species is an illegal practice
that usually takes place in the relatively invisible realm of the black
market. In January 2000 however, a listing was discovered on eBay, the
enormously successful Internet auction company, for an ‘orangutan
trophy skull’. When confronted about it, eBay refused to remove the
listing and said they would only do so if contacted by law enforcement.
Sadly, such blatant heartlessness is indicative of the attitude of many
large businesses when it comes to issues of environmental and
ecological concern.
Caring for the forest people
As
an endangered species, orangutans are protected by international law as
well as by local Indonesian and Malaysian laws. Enforcement of these
laws remains a serious problem and almost all violations go unchecked.
Thankfully, there is a small glimmer of hope for some ‘lucky’
orangutans. Rescue centres (of which there are now a few) do what they
can to help fight the poaching, and regularly seize orphaned baby
orangutans destined for the illegal pet trade. Whilst far from ideal,
the centres do provide the displaced and often injured orangutans with
a haven for recovery and a place to live in safety. After extensive
care, they are released back into protected areas of the forest to live
again as wild orangutans. The centres which care for and rehabilitate
thousands of orangutans each year, are overcrowded and under funded,
but without them the future would look even bleaker for the magnificent
oranguatan.
Looking into the eyes of these beautiful sentient
beings, it’s hard to comprehend how anyone could willingly choose to
harm them. If such atrocities were happening to a human population, the
public outcry would be enormous. Because we choose to place the
orangutan in a separate category to ourselves, we somehow see the
injustice as less severe. Yet just as we would fight to save the lives
of our immediate family, we must also fight for the lives of our
extended family. The orangutan, our cousin from the forest, is one of
the most personable, charismatic beings on the planet and deserves both
our respect and our protection.
How much does your shopping cost?
I’m
sure the majority of people would agree that no product should ever be
worth the decimation of another species. However, as consumers we all
contribute to problems such as this, whether we realise it or not. The
thing we must remember though is that we are also the solution and
should never lose sight of the power each and every one of us has to
instigate change. We buy the products that keep companies in business,
which basically means we are paying for whatever practices that company
employs. As such we have an obligation to ourselves and our planet to
ensure that what we buy does not contribute to the destruction of our
world and those who share it with us.
We must demand that palm
oil only be produced by non-destructive means, and that companies using
the oil in their products be made to prove that it has been sourced
from reputable suppliers. We must also push the government to make it
compulsory that companies label their products accurately and not hide
palm oil under the listing of ‘vegetable oil’. Write to your local
government and let them know that the labeling of palm oil is important
to you, and in the meantime contact the manufacturers of the products
you use that list ‘vegetable oil’ in their ingredients and ask them to
specify if indeed it is palm oil they use, and if so ask for their
assurance that it has come from a non-destructive source.
If
we seriously want to change our world for the better and leave our
children with a planet worth living on we have to be prepared to look
beyond the ‘price tag’ and find the true cost of the products we buy.
And if it means giving up some of our favourite things or paying a few
dollars more for an earth-friendly alternative surely that’s a small
price to pay for the preservation of our world and the wonderful
diversity of life that makes it so special.
References:
- Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (July 2006), ‘Orangutan species
factsheet’ :
www.durrellwildlife.org/upload/MainSite/Documents/pdfs/ Factsheet%20Orangutan.pdf
- Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) Palm Oil Report,
2006:
www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/ BOSPalm_Oil_Reportfinal.pdf
- J. Taylor, The Independent (2/1/06), ‘Palm oil industry blamed
for abuse of orang-utans’:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article336050.ece
- www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4776
- www.newstarget.com/020869.html
- www.newstatesman.com/200608070031
- www.montbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel
- www.nature.com/nature/journal/v420/n6911/abs/nature01131.html
- A. Harding, BBC News (22/4/06), ‘Borneo’s palm oil politics:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/ 4927976.stm
- Femke van den Bos, Jakarta post (17/5/06), ‘Palm oil industry killing orangutans’
- www.orangutan.org/press/news.php?id=35
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