The greatest threat to the survival of this magnificent species is the conversion of their habitat to oil palm plantations.

Orangutans are left starving, and in desperation venture into newly planted plantations where they are considered agricultural pests. Out in the open they are easy targets; many are killed, and infants are taken to enter the illegal wildlife trade.

The Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation operates the largest primate rescue project in the world, and is the only organization actively rescuing wild orangutans from oil palm plantations where they face certain death.

Approaching 1,000 orangutans in its care, the BOS Foundation desperately seek out safe forests to which to return these orangutans. However, unless the Indonesian government enforces a moratorium on the conversion of forest for palm oil, there is little hope for the orangutan.

Is Indonesia ready to be held responsible for the genocide of one of man’s nearest cousins? Please, Indonesia, protect the orangutan, a national symbol of your remarkable country, and the rainforest in which it lives.

MICHELLE DESILETS
London

Source: The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Climate change will hurt Indonesia’s orangutan population, already under threat from the rapid rate of deforestation, by reducing their food stock, a leading conservation group said on Wednesday.

Dubbed as the last of Asia’s great apes, orangutans once ranged the region but a recent UN environment program estimate said only between 45,000 and 69,000 orangutans remained in Borneo and 7,300 in Sumatra. The WWF said climate change would add to the pressure already caused by human-induced activities such as rampant illegal logging and massive conversion of forests into plantations.

“A longer dry season will reduce the abundance of fruits and will negatively impact orangutan populations because females are more likely to conceive during periods when food resources are not limited,” the WWF report said.

“Climate-change induced fire will also negatively impact orangutan populations by fragmenting their habitat and reducing the number of fruit bearing trees, which can take many years to mature and fruit.” Environmentalists say rampant illegal logging, lethal annual forest fires and the massive conversion of forests into plantations for palm oil and pulp wood have helped place orangutans on the world’s list of endangered species.

“We have seen an example in East Kalimantan, where there was once an abundance of fruits at the beginning of the year followed by a long period of massive shortage,” WWF conservationist Chairul Saleh told Reuters at the launch of the report.

“This affected migration patterns and reproduction,” he said, “It has hurt the population of orangutans there.”

A United Nations report in 2002, which raised alarm about the plight of the apes, had projected that most of the habitat suitable for orangutans would be lost by 2032. In February, UNEP had put the date at 2022.

Saleh warned that a combination of rising temperature and deforestation would drive thousands of orangutans out of the forests into villages and plantations to look for food.

“It’s happening. Already orangutans are invading plantations to eat palm oil seedlings and get killed for it,” Saleh said.

“But what should they do? Their living space is shrinking and there is simply no food.”

(Reporting by Adhityani Arga; editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKJAK25824220071128

Nov 29, 2007
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK - European Union (EU) demand for Asian-produced biofuels, particularly palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost, a report released on Tuesday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warns.

The UN agency in its annual “Human Development Report 2007/2008″ cautioned countries in the region against following the lead taken by Indonesia and Malaysia, the main producers of palm oil as a biofuel.

“Expansion of cultivation of [oil palm] in East Asia has been associated with widespread deforestation and violation of human rights of indigenous people,” said the report, entitled “Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world”.

“Since 1999, EU demand for palm oil, primarily from Malaysia and Indonesia, has more than doubled to 4.5 million tons, or almost one-fifth of world imports,” added the 384-page report. “Opportunities for supplying an expanding European Union market have been reflected in a surge of investment in palm oil production in East Asia.”

UNDP climate change advisor Martin Krause said at the launch of the report in Bangkok: “There are a lot of safeguards that have to be built in if you want to make palm oil production environmentally sustainable. The debate on this has just begun.”

The concerns echo a similar red flag raised last week by another report, “Up in Smoke: Asia and the Pacific”, released by a coalition of British development and environmental groups. The rapid growth of palm oil plantations has resulted in massive deforestation in Indonesia, which has led to large amounts of carbon dioxide trapped in the forests being emitted into the atmosphere, stated that report.

“As a result of deforestation, some of which is for palm oil, Indonesia is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after the USA and China,” it said. “Deforestation to make way for large-scale mono-cropping of energy crops obliterates the ‘green credentials’ of the biofuel.”

These cautionary views about the downside of palm oil are expected to feed into discussions at an international climate change meeting to be held in early December in the Indonesian resort-island of Bali. The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be attended by representatives from more than 180 countries with a mission to craft a blueprint for global action to forestall the emerging environmental catastrophe caused by climate change.

The global cultivation of palm oil had reached 12 million hectares by 2005, according to the UNDP, which was almost double the plantation area in 1997. The agency notes that production is dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia, with the former registering the fastest rate of increase anywhere in terms of forests converted into palm oil.

According to the British report, the Southeast Asian archipelago has nearly 6 million hectares of land under palm oil cultivation and Jakarta has set its sights on further expansion. “In 2007, the Indonesian government signed 58 agreements worth US$12.4 billion in order to produce about 200,000 barrels of oil-equivalent biofuel per day by 2010.”

Environmentalists view the forests of Indonesia and others in Asia, now under severe threat of being converted into palm oil plantations, as essential to absorb global carbon dioxide emissions. As important are peatlands, which are part of the region’s natural forests and are likewise being destroyed at a rapid rate.

“Peatland forests are traditional carbon storehouses. Typically they store up to 30% carbon dioxide,” said Shailendra Yashwant, climate and energy campaigner for global environmental lobby Greenpeace in Jakarta. “A 4-million hectare peatland forest in a province in northern Sumatra stores 14.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide.”

Greenpeace studies reveal that nearly 28 million hectares of forests have been destroyed in places like Sumatra, Suleweisi and Kalimantan in Indonesia since 1990. Currently thousands of hectares of peatland are being cleared for palm oil plantations - all of which are owned by private companies.

The attraction to palm oil plantations, which preceded the emerging demand for biofuels from the EU, stems largely from the relative ease with which they can be grown and the economic returns they generate. Prices for palm oil have held up well over the years and its not a labor-intensive crop like many other tropical commodities.

As such, other Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines are beginning to follow Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s slash-and-burn model of palm oil production. The Thai government has set its sights on having 1.6 million hectares under oil palm cultivation in the next two decades, a nearly five-fold increase from the current 320,000 hectares.

It’s still unclear how much of that earmarked cultivation area will require clear-cutting. The UNDP pointed to some success stories, where environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways of cultivation have taken root in small-scale agro-forestry ventures. However to date, most of that green friendly production has taken place in West Africa, not Asia.

(Inter Press Service)

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IK29Ae01.html

JAKARTA, May 23 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations plan to set up task forces to help fight the illegal animal trade in a region that is home to many endangered species, an Indonesian forestry official said on Wednesday.

Conservation groups welcomed the plan, but said the problem appeared to be getting worse and urgent action was needed.

Police, customs and forestry officials from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in the Indonesian city of Bogor south of Jakarta to discuss the issue.

“There are ongoing talks about joint investigation efforts, information-sharing mechanisms and the possible use of facilities in certain countries for investigation and enforcement,” Agus Joko, an official at the Indonesian foreign ministry, said by telephone.

The meeting was expected to finalise plans to set up inter-agency crime task forces that would eventually be given enforcement powers, he said.

“We are working towards joint enforcement but I think we are still a couple years away from that.”

Authorities in the region, which is home to some of the last untouched rainforests in the world, have uncovered cases of smuggled animals ranging from endangered orangutans to pangolins and cockatoos.

Orangutans have a price tag of $50,000 and mostly end up in the homes of collectors in countries where law enforcement in weak such as Cambodia or the Philippines, according to conservationist Hardi Baktiantoro.

The Middle East is currently the top destination for illegal wildlife trade as rich people like to flaunt their wealth and power by keeping endangered animals as pets.

Asep Purnama of Indonesian conservation group ProFauna said that based on monitoring at entry points for animal smugglers in places such as Sumatra and Bali the problem was getting worse.

“The quantity of illegal species traded has gone up, as well the variety of species traded,” Purnama said, adding that establishing wildlife crime task forces could help overcome squabbles between different agencies working on the issue.

Another conservation official said he thought the scale of the problem was greatly underestimated.

“Any numbers would only show the tip of the iceberg,” Khairul Saleh of WWF Indonesia said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSJAK252664

Source:
Understory: the Official Rainforest Action Network Blog

I missed Thanksgiving this year. Instead of feasting on turkey, I joined oil palm producers, exporters, processors, small farmers, and NGO reps at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

The RSPO bills itself as a “multi-stakeholder initiative” with the goal of bringing everyone on the oil palm supply chain—from smallholders in Indonesia, to Cargill, to KitKat—together with the goal of creating a certification standard for “sustainable” palm oil. The process was initiated by WWF, Unilever, and others in 2001, and since has grown astronomically—there are now 198 official RSPO members.

RAN is not an RSPO member—I was there with our Indonesian partners SawitWatch (www.sawitwatch.or.id). SawitWatch is one of the few organizations that is committed to making sure that the RSPO respects the voices of smallholders (who produce 40% of Indonesia’s palm oil)—making sure that they both are able to reap profits when “sustainable” palm oil goes on the market, and that the conflicts community members have with companies are addressed. SawitWatch brought 23 smallholders and 2 people who had rejected oil palm to the RSPO this year.

The smallholders brought some difficult stories with them:

* In Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan, a student was thrown into jail for a month for exercising his right to Free Prior and Informed Consent and rejecting oil palm on his family’s land.
* In Sanggau, West Kalimantan, companies seized community-owned land without legal permits and without consulting the community for oil palm development.
* In Jambi, Sumatra, the members of the indigenous Suku Anak Dalam community were kicked off their land without compensation when the government failed to recognize any of their traditional land rights—instead claiming that oil palm would develop them and pull them out of poverty.

For many, the RSPO was the first time that they had been in the same room with the leaders—or at least Corporate Social Responsibly reps—of the companies that were destroying their livelihoods and ignoring their rights.

But, the problem is, there wasn’t really a chance to talk.

Although smallholders are a vital part of the supply chain, there was no formal and accessible mechanism for them to sit down—round table style—at the RSPO.

Throughout the RSPO meeting, there were few other opportunities for smallholders to address the companies directly—only group discussions and summary reports backs—no direct testimony. Oxfam showed a video on the effects of indigenous peoples—which was then publicly based by oil palm producers. The official grievance procedure of the RSPO is not accessible to poor smallholders who live in villages far away from email and fax machine.

To give credit where it is due, the smallholders do get represented by the Smallholder Taskforce– a useful committee spearheaded by NGOs to ensure that smallholders’ voices were heard in the RSPO. Unfortunately, the focus here is on making sure that smallholders can reap the benefits of sustainable palm oil if it makes its way onto the market, not on solving currently conflicts—although an accessible conflict resolution mechanism was discussed in this year’s smallholder meeting.

Here’s my take on all of this: The RSPO can be an important tool, both for communities and for our work against the US Agribusiness giants. But the RSPO’s success and credibility depends on the work of organizations like SawitWatch, the Forest People’s Program, and other local NGOs who work to ensure that the RSPO is a real multi-stakeholder initiative, and works actively to ensure that community-level conflict is solved before oil palm companies are certified “sustainable”. As part of the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign, I am looking forward to working more with these organizations representing frontline communities, and pressuring the palm oil industry to live up to its RSPO promises.

And, of course, holding them responsible when they fail…

Source: http://understory.ran.org/2007/11/26/tales-from-the-rspo/

Though the importance of wetlands and peatlands has been recognized and mitigation measures identified, Wetlands International has grave concerns that key areas in the protection of fragile peatlands have not been met in the recently adopted Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principle & Criteria (P&C). Wetlands International also urges that further measures need to be addressed in the RSPO P&C on the issue of
greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil plantations on peatlands.

Adopted at the recent 5th Roundtable on Sustainable Development (RT5), the RSPO P&C is a significant milestone for the multi-national and multi-stakeholder group. Established in 2003 to develop certified sustainable palm oil, the recently adopted RSPO P&C has established clear guidelines on best management practices for the industry that minimizes negative impact to the environment. In addition the RSPO P&C ensures protection of high conservation value forests, and rights to land tenure are protected.

However, according to Wetlands International,the adopted RSPO P&C does not adequately address the issues of
greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands, or commit to prohibit any further expansion of new plantations on peatlands. Without addressing these key issues, Wetlands International continues to raise concerns of sustainability for palm oil as a product for the biofuel industry.

Studies have shown that palm oil grown on mineral soil covered in grassland or annual crops used in the production of biofuel can emit significantly less greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuel if appropriate mitigating measures are taken in the production process. However, greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil grown on drained peatlands or former forest land are always higher than fossil fuel, and thus negate their potential positive contribution as a biofuel.

Peatlands are one of the most efficient ecosystems in the storage of carbon. Though covering on 3% of the global land mass, peatlands contain as much as all terrestrial biomass, and twice as much as all forest biomass. It is estimated that peatlands store as much as 550 billion tonnes of carbon. Drainage causes peat to decompose rapidly and releases
carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gasses the global community is trying to reduce. Studies by Delft Hydraulics, Wetlands International and Alterra estimate that over two thousand million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year are emitted from degraded peatlands in Southeast Asia.

Wetlands International welcomes the recent vote by members of RSPO to adopt a revision of the Principles & Criteria for sustainable palm oil.

The revised criteria included a recommendation from the RSPO Criteria Working Group that the Executive Board of the RSPO urgently establish a working group to consider all issues relating to Greenhouse Gas emissions, in terms of their relevance to the oil palm sector. As a member of the RSPO, Wetlands International will actively participate in discussions and facilitation of information, in particular on greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands, should such a committee be established.

Wetlands International is actively working towards conservation and wise use of tropical peatlands. In the spirit of the RSPO, Wetlands International urges plantation companies to work together to protect peatlands and wetlands on estates as a sign of its commitment to producing certified sustainable palm oil and feedstock for the biofuel industry.

Source: Wetlands International

By Nancy-Amelia Collins
Jakarta
26 November 2007

Listen to Collins report audio clip at VOA

Indonesia’s rapidly disappearing forests are one of the examples of environmental damage to be dealt with at the United Nations climate change conference next month on the island of Bali. It poses a threat to plant and animal life - including the endangered orangutan. Once found throughout Asia, the red ape is now only found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the island of Borneo, which is shared by Malaysia and Brunei. VOA’s Nancy-Amelia Collins reports.

Greenpeace, other environmental groups and U.N. statistics say Indonesia rivals Brazil for the world’s highest rate of deforestation. They estimate Indonesia loses 300 football fields of forest every hour.

In Riau, on Sumatra island, large swathes of forest are being cleared to make way for palm oil plantations.

Hosporo is with Greenpeace. He talks here from their protest camp in Riau.

“Greenpeace is here in Riau to show the destruction to Indonesian forests for palm oil plantations,” he explained. “The damage done not only destroys the forest but also animal habitats and causes greenhouse gas emissions which trigger climate change.”

Demand is soaring for palm oil-derived biofuel, partly because it has been marketed as an environmentally friendly source of power.

But environmentalists say not enough thought has been given to how it is made.

They say the burning of carbon-rich peat lands to make way for palm oil plantations causes huge amounts of carbon dioxide to be released into the air, which they believe contributes to global climate change.

The destruction also impacts the vast variety of Indonesia’s wildlife such as the orangutan - once prevalent in Asia, and now only found on Sumatra island and Borneo.

The Schmutzer Primate Center in Jakarta takes up 13 hectares in the city’s Ragunan Zoo. It rescues and houses dozens of critically endangered orangutans and aims to release the apes back into their natural habitat.

Mimi Utami is the acting head of the Schmutzer Primate Center.

“Maybe this year we will be able to send back five orangutans and next year 10 orangutans to the forests of Sumatra and Borneo,” she said.

Mimi believes Schmutzer is the first in the world to have captured orangutans build nests in trees, the same as they do in the wild - a big achievement in orangutan rehabilitation.

The Schmutzer Primate Center also works to raise awareness of the plight of the orangutans by educating the public. Less than 60 thousand remain in the wild and they are disappearing at a rate of more than five thousand a year.

Although three baby orangutans have been born at the center in the last year, experts are not certain how long they can survive as a species unless the destruction of their rain forest habitat is stopped.

Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace forest solution campaigner, says deforestation also hurts local communities severely.

“The local people still have a relationship with the forest,” explained Bustar. “So when the palm oil plantation comes, it destroys their way of life.”

Indonesia and Malaysia together produce more than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil, widely used in consumer products.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/bkg-collins-indonesia-climate-change.cfm?rss=environment

Greenpeace activists are currently demonstrating against the transport of palm oil to a Neste Oil refinery near Porvoo. According to Jarmo Honkavaara, executive vice-president of Neste Oil, protestors aboard a few rubber boats are trying to block a ship carrying 9,000 tonnes of palm oil from reaching the company’s Kilpilahti refinery.

Greenpeace communications director, Juha Aromaa, said about 20 environmental activists are demonstrating against the transport of palm oil to Neste Oil’s refinery.

Police and the coastguard are at the scene. Neste Oil says no protesters are at the refinery itself.

Greenpeace is calling for Neste Oil to stop using palm oil in diesel production. The organisation says palm oil use destroys rainforests in Asia and results in greenhouse gas emissions.

Honkavaara said the company has discussed the issue of palm oil with Greenpeace for quite some time. He said that both sides agree that measures should be taken to protect the environment. He added that Neste Oil has acted in the most responsible manner possible.

The tanker is currently anchored and waiting near the Emäsalo pilot station. It was on its way from Rotterdam.

Source: http://www.yle.fi/news/left/id75884.html

By Jaswinder Kaur
25 November, 2007

KOTA KINABALU: Holding on tightly to their mother, orang utan twins were spotted at least twice at the Lower Kinabatangan region in eastern Sabah, in what is believed to be the first ever documented sighting of twins in the wild. Cardiff University wildlife geneticist Dr Benoit Goossens saw the twins clinging to their mother at the banks of the Kinabatangan river on Oct 23.

Several days later, Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project (KOCP) field assistant Mohd Daisah Kapar, who was out on assignment to monitor primates, saw the mother and her twins at the Resang river, a tributary of the Kinabatangan.

Goossens, who has been studying wildlife in Sabah for the past few years, said the babies were probably not more than 6 months old.

“They were of the same size, so that is why I believe that they were twins. The twins looked healthy based on my observation, and their mother was busy eating fruits. They were clinging on to both sides of her chest.

“The interesting thing was that there was another juvenile orang utan with them, maybe about 7 years old. The orang utan actually had three children with her, including her twins. I observed them for about half-an-hour,” Goossens told the New Sunday Times.

Daisah said he saw a group of tourists in boats admiring what he guessed to be a primate and decided to have a look.

“I looked up and saw the orang utan eating ficus fruit and with two babies of the same size holding on tightly to each side of her and suckling.

“I observed them for about 30 minutes before the sun set. I regret that I did not have a camera to take pictures of what I saw but I am sure that they were twins. I had a good look and the babies were of equal size.

“We tried to track the orang utan again the following days but so far we have not succeeded in finding them.”

French primatologist Dr Marc Ancrenaz, who is also KOCP co-director, said he conducted a search and found that there were no records of orang utan twins in the wild.

“This could be the first sighting. However, not having any records of orang utan twins in the wild does not mean that it has not happened before.

“It may be that orang utans in the wild have had miscarriages when carrying twins, as recorded among three in captivity in zoos and wildlife centres in other parts of the world. It may also be that one twin died after birth. It is rare to see orang utans giving birth in the wild, so we do not know whether there are twins among them in the wild,” he said.

“Another issue is that an orang utan would have problem holding on to two babies. The mother needs to move from tree to tree, and she also needs to focus on looking for extra food because she has to produce twice as much milk.

“In a set of twins observed in captivity, one twin died four weeks after it was born because the mother did not have enough milk, and this was an orang utan that had access to food.

“Unlike other primates, orang utans are solitary animals. They don’t have other orang utans to help them take care of an extra baby. If one of the twins has problems holding on to their mother, it could fall, killing it. The mother definitely has a physical problem of holding on to two babies,” said Ancrenaz, who has studied orang utans in Sabah with his wife, Dr Isabelle Lackman Ancranaz, for the last decade.

He said based on observations of other primates that had more than one baby, it was safe to assume that an orang utan with twins would not abandon her children.

He said of the 626 recorded orang utan pregnancies in captivity, there were only 11 with twins, and these include three pairs that miscarried.

Ancrenaz said orang utans were slow breeders with between seven and eight years passing before it could have another child. Pregnancies last eight-and-a-half months.

“We estimate that the life span for a female orang utan in the wild is 40 years, and it usually starts producing when it is about 10 to 12 years old. That means in her lifetime, an orang utan can only produce between four and five children,” he said.

Surveys have shown that there are about 11,000 orang utans in Sabah. The primate is totally protected under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/Sunday/National/2092969/Article/index_html

… I wish we could say the same in the US! All four of Britain’s biggest supermarkets are now striving to use sustainable palm oil in their products. When will the US catch up and do what’s right for the orangutans and the planet???

Threatened species: it is estimated that up to 5,000 orang-utans a year could be dying as new palm groves replace their habitat. Picture: Getty Images

25 Nov 2007

JENNY PERCIVAL - WESTMINSTER EDITOR

THE humble Scottish oatcake is at the heart of an international campaign to save the world’s rainforests from destruction.

The traditional staple is often made with palm oil, a product more usually found many thousands of miles away in the plantations of Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo.

But because palm oil is used in so many foods and cosmetics - up to one in 10 of all mass-produced products sold in Britain - its production has led to the destruction of vast swathes of primary forest, home of animals such as the orang-utan.

Now Britain’s four main supermarkets - Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons - and Marks & Spencer have said they will strive to use sustainable palm oil in their products.

The move comes after growers, traders, manufacturers, retailers, banks, green groups and charities agreed to a new system which should mean that, from spring 2008, retailers will be able to buy palm oil which has been certified as coming from sustainable sources.

At a meeting in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) also pledged that non-governmental organisations will help to police the operation.

A statement by the RSPO said: “With the certification system in place, we expect to see the availability of RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil in the first quarter of 2008.”

With some of Scotland’s best known oatcake producers now committing to either not using palm oil, or ensuring it is from sustainable sources, the famous biscuit is now a major weapon in the fight to save orang-utans from extinction.

Nairn’s oakcakes said: “We believe it is vital that palm oil is produced on a sustainable basis. As such, we ensure our suppliers are committed to this cause.

“We do not approve of the destruction of forests for the growing of palm oil. Nairn’s believes that palm oil can and should be produced on a sustainable basis which in no way threatens the existence of forests and orang-utans.”

The company said its main supplier, Aarhus United UK, was a founder member of RSPO. It is also trying to reduce the amount of palm oil it uses in its oakcakes but said a small amount was needed to stop them turning rancid.

Livingston-based Paterson’s, which has been producing oatcakes since 1895, said it had stopped using palm oil and now used olive oil instead, for environmental as well as health reasons.

The company said: “There has been growing publicity regarding the rainforests of Asia being cleared to make way for palm oil plantations. This is having a major impact on humans’ oldest relative, the orang-utan, and the demand for palm oil is predicted to rise substantially in the next five years.

“We removed palm oil from our oatcake recipe four years ago and replaced it with the more sustainable and less saturated olive oil.

“Although we realise that it’s difficult to stop the growth of palm oil plantations, we see our switch to olive oil as our small contribution to helping to protect the loveable orang-utan.”

Oatcakes are thought to date back centuries and are even said to have been baked by the Romans in Scotland. On his tour of the Highlands, Dr Samuel Johnson was said to have remarked to James Boswell that in England the oat was given to horses and not to men. To which Boswell responded: “Which is why England is noted for its horses and Scotland for its men.”

Palm oil is now used in oatcakes, as in many other products, because it acts as a preservative. But this, combined with its versatility, has led to massive demand from countries such as the UK, the second highest importer in the EU after the Netherlands.

Friends of the Earth warned last year that orang-utan habitats were being destroyed because of demand for the oil and said the apes could be extinct in 12 years. It claimed up to 5,000 orang-utans were dying every year as new palm groves replace their habitat.

WWF said building roads to the plantations had made the situation worse, by opening up the jungle to poachers who kill orang-utan mothers and sell their babies as pets. The charity estimates that 80% of orang-utan habitat has been lost in the past 20 years.

Asda is asking suppliers to source their palm oil from plantations which meet RSPO standards. It is also reviewing the use of palm oil across all its own-label food lines in its 330 UK food stores.

Morrisons’ corporate affairs director Chris Blundell said: “We are working with our suppliers to achieve our objective of being able to guarantee that only palm oil from sustainable sources is used in our own-brand products.”

The company, he added, had signed up to RSPO and it supported the need for collective action.

Tesco and M&S said they had representatives at last week’s RSPO meeting in Malaysia and were committed to using sustainable palm oil.

This article can be found at: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1849612007