| The Netherlands is the third largest importer of palm oil in the world, and Dutch companies are the front-runners in the financing and processing of this product. The wide applicability of palm oil products and the favourable price have led to an exponential increase of the areas planted with oil palms in production countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Unfortunately this increase has also a shady side. For the construction of plantations tropical forest is converted into plantations. The conversion into plantations leads to an enormous loss of species and biodiversity: wiping out 80-100% of mammals, birds and reptiles. Furthermore local communities are put under pressure: their land, and with that their living conditions and local culture, are taken away from them.
For more information:
Milieudefensie - Palmolie (in dutch but also with extensive links to english language information about palm oil)
Sawit Watch
An Indonesian NGO that supports local communities who have lost their forests and livelihoods because of large-scale oil palm expansion and for those in forestlands who continue to resist this development.
Friend of the Earth UK - Palm oil, rainforest in your shopping
Resources on Palm Oil:
Factsheet on Palm Oil (en_pdf pp 2)
Lowland Forest Loss in Protected Areas of Indonesian Borneo
SCIENCE Vol 303 - 13 February 2004 (en_pdf pp 4).
WWF's newsletter on forest conversion focusing on the expansion of palm oil and soy
Forest Conversion News No. 3 - February 2004 (en_pdf pp 4).
'Greasy palms' – palm oil, the environment and big business,
FOE UK Report (pdf-en)
Draft - Responding to Global Demands for Sustainable Palm Oil: Industry-WWF Collaboration
(International Planters Conference, 16-17 June 2003) (en_pdf pp 18).
Oil Palm, Soybeans & Critical Habitat Loss
A Review Prepared for the WWF Forest Conversion Initiative
August 2003 - Anne Casson (en_pdf pp 21).
Both ENDS is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
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Strategic Cooperation