Orang-utans under threat as palm oil plantations spread

David Adam, environment correspondent

Demand for a common vegetable oil found in one in 10 products on UK supermarket shelves is driving orang-utan populations towards extinction, environmental campaigners warn today.

Groups working to save the remaining orang-utans in south-east Asia predict the uncontrolled trade in palm oil could cause the extinction of the continent's only great ape in little over a decade. They want to raise awareness of the threat among shoppers and are calling on the big supermarkets and the government to act.

Ian Redmond, the chairman of the conservation group Ape Alliance, said: "To the average shopper in Britain, the problem seems a world away. However, anyone who buys chocolate, crisps, bread, cakes, detergents, toothpaste, shampoo, lipstick or a host of other products may be an unwitting partner in causing the extinction of the orang-utan."

Orang-utan numbers in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia - the only place they are found in the world - have crashed in the last 15 years and are now below 60,000. Experts say an estimated 5,000 die each year as the remaining forest is chopped down to establish profitable palm oil plantations.

Palm oil is a major ingredient in many processed foods, although it is often labelled as vegetable oil. Imports doubled between 1995 and 2004 to 914,000 tonnes, making Britain the second biggest European importer after the Netherlands.

Sir David Attenborough, who visited Borneo earlier this year, said: "I was in areas where five years ago there was a wonderful rainforest and there's now a palm oil plantation. It's being chopped down all the time."

Ed Matthew, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said most palm oil entering the UK came from destructive plantations. This year the group asked 96 UK companies about their palm oil suppliers. Of 18 that responded, the majority did not know where their palm oil came from.

Mr Matthew said: "We've focused on the supermarkets because of the power they hold in the food market. We know from past experience that when a supermarket says they want a prawn that is one-and-a-half inches long with 80% water content and a curve of 30 degrees, it will be supplied. If the major retailers said they wanted palm oil from sustainable sources they would get it."

A spokesperson for Tesco said: "We are engaging on the issue of palm oil. We have arranged a meeting with other retailers through the British Retail Consortium to consider the evidence."

Source : www.guardian.co.uk