the WWF, the major supermarket chains and trading companies in Europe for their palm oil purchasing policy has been criticized. Only ten of 59 companies buy palm oil that are produced according to ecological and social criteria, it said in a study. Palm oil is one of the most important raw material for production many everyday products. The raw material is extracted from the flesh of oil palm fruits, used as frying and Siedefett in food products and is also a laundry detergent and cosmetic ingredient.
for cultivation but are usually large tropical forest areas cleared and destroyed many endangered animal and plant species. The clearing of rainforests and the draining of wetlands also contribute to climate change.
"green" raw material. In recent times the demand for palm oil mainly because of the biofuel in the EU rose exceptionally strong. The demand for a
be so-called "green" material drive the remaining rain forests of Southeast Asia faster and faster up in smoke. Once burned, built on the vacant land palm oil plantations. Since these are trees concerned which carry out photosynthesis and store as carbon dioxide, they are considered carbon neutral and in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol ennobled as carbon sinks. The fact that a forest stores much more CO2 than a plantation, is just as little considered as the huge CO2 emissions in the slash and burn. But the emissions of this harmful gas due to the burning of the Southeast Asian rainforest is estimated at 15 percent of the world's man-made emissions.
speculators. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts a rise in global demand for palm oil 53 percent of 2004-2030 ahead, as the raw material should also be used as alternative energy sources are used. On the stock markets are therefore already Certificates for palm oil (BNP Paribas, ABN AMRO, ...) bet.
It's the WWF not to condemn the use of palm oil in principle, since many countries are dependent on production. The production must be sustainable, but the dealers in Europe have the power and responsibility to influence and thus to stop the destruction of the rainforest.
Clerks sustainable palm oil. Among the companies that buy currently no sustainable palm oil are, according to WWF data Aldi (Hofer) and Metro. That there is another way to show in our immediate neighborhood, Migros and Coop Switzerland, which reach peak levels in both the Palm Oil Buyers' scorecard.
main producing countries of palm oil are Malaysia and Indonesia and Thailand and, increasingly, Colombia, Ecuador and African countries like Ghana. Worldwide, the WWF estimates 45 million tons of palm oil are processed. Only one million of them are certified to environmental and social standards. With the certification is to prevent that for the palm oil production further rain forest cut down and moors drained. Palm oil with such a seal is the end of 2008 on the market.
More:
RANKING Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard PDF., 7 p., 1.5 MB, 27.10.2009