Greenpeace released today the results of an investigation into which companies are keeping promises to stop deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil. The biggest forest fires of the century tore through Indonesia just six months ago. They reduced in ashes millions of hectares of rainforest, including the last habitat of Indonesian orangutans.The fires created a smoke and haze crisis affecting the entire South East Asian region. It impacted the health of millions of people in Indonesia and neighboring countries and led to several deaths. The crisis also caused schools to close around the region, shut down air transport, and at times released more greenhouse gases each day than the average daily emissions from all of the USA.
Most of the fires has been linked to pulp and palm oil plantations on peatlands (peat soil that, once drained, is highly inflammable). Greenpeace investigated on how the food industry is still linked to the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests.
Two years ago, a host of massive brands - including Mars, Mondelez and Procter & Gamble committed to stop the destruction of these amazing forests. However, only a few of the fulfilled their promises. Only a few companies are making significant headway towards ensuring that there is no deforestation in their palm oil supply chains, and most are moving far too slowly. It turns out, some companies might think that making a promise is easy - and that no one's going to notice if they don't keep it.
The palm oil industry is still a leading cause of all this destruction. Out of all the companies surveyed by Greenpeace, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo show the poorest performance and are failing to keep the 'no deforestation' promises they made to their customers.
Yet, palm oil can be produced responsibly. Greenpeace worked with a local community in Dosan, Sumatra, that is producing palm oil and protecting and restoring the surrounding rainforest. And there are lots of other schemes like this in Indonesia that need support.