Find out more about the palm oil crisis and its impacts.

Supply and demand pressures are driving the production of palm oil up to an all-time high. Found in cookies, crackers, shampoo, skin care and beauty products, pet food, and many other products, palm oil is now the second most widely produced edible oil. It is also found in a wide array of products sold in natural food stores. And it is being investigated as a possible fuel alternative. 

The increased demand for palm oil, which is obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree and can be grown only in tropical environments, is fueling destruction of the rainforest habitat of Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, pushing those endangered species even closer to extinction. Estimates show that if something isn't done soon to stop the spread of palm oil plantations into the forests that harbor these orangutans, they will be extinct in ten years.

Get the details on what palm oil is, where it's grown, and more.

• Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the African oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis).
• African oil palms originated in West Africa, but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant. The majority of all palm oil is grown and produced in Borneo and Sumatra. It is an introduced agricultural crop (not gathered from the rain forests).
• Palm oil is the second-most widely produced edible oil, behind soybean oil.
• In addition to being used in the food industry, palm oil is also used in many cosmetics and bath products.
• Demand for this commodity is rapidly increasing because of recent trans-fat health concerns and bio-fuel development.

Learn what's happening to the orangutans' habitat.

The majority of the world's palm oil is grown and produced in the rainforests of two large islands in Southeastern Asia—Borneo and Sumatra. Both are part of Indonesia, which is facing the highest rate of tropical rain forest loss in the world.

• The deforestation rate is about 4.9 million acres of rainforest each year. That acreage equals 40 times the size of the 2002 Colorado Hayman fire, or slightly larger than the size of the state of New Jersey—each year.
• There are millions of hectares of degraded land available that could be used for palm oil plantations. Instead, many companies choose to use high conservation value rainforest land in order to gain the additional timber profits.
• After logging rainforest habitat, palm oil companies often use uncontrolled burning to clear the land. In 1997-98, a devastating fire killed almost 8,000 orangutans in Borneo.  

Examine the plight of the Indonesian orangutans.

• Borneo is home to 13 primate species, 350 bird species, 150 reptiles and amphibians, and 15,000 plant species.
• Sumatra is home to Sumatran rhinos, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, Asian tapirs, Sumatran elephants, and thousands of other species.
• The wild population of Bornean orangutans is estimated at 45,000-50,000. There are 15 times more deer in the state of Colorado alone than there are orangutans on Earth!
• There are about 7,300 Sumatran orangutans in the wild; they are on the list of top 25 most endangered primates in the world. 
• Orangutans give birth once every 6 -10 years, the longest interbirth interval of any mammal.
• Orangutans are the only Asian great ape; they are the largest arboreal mammal on Earth.
• Orangutans will be extinct in the wild in the next 10 years if the palm oil industry, deforestation and burning of peat forests does not change.

Discover why we shouldn't use palm oil for biofuel.

Some have proposed that palm oil be used as a source of biofuel to decrease greenhouse gasses and mitigate global warming. This strategy would further increase the demand for palm oil—and cause further destruction of the orangutan habitat.

In addition, using palm oil for biofuel could produce the opposite effect on green house gasses and global warming. That's because:

• Rainforests remove massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 
• When palm oil is produced through deforestation, the burning peat soil and loss of rainforest causes an increase in greenhouse gasses.
• Other types of vegetable oil may offer more sustainable solutions for Biofuel.

View a short video clip about palm oil, biofuel and global warming.

Understand how palm oil farming affects indigenous people

The increase in demand for palm oil has far-reaching implications for the indigenous people of Borneo and Sumatra.

• Millions of people rely on the palm oil industry for their livelihoods. A boycott of palm oil to preserve orangutan habitat could be devastating for these people. (That is one reason Cheyenne Mountain Zoo does not support a boycott of all palm oil.)
• The land for new plantations is often forcibly taken from the indigenous people who traditionally owned the land, resulting in violent conflicts.
• Local people can and should be trained in environmentally sustainable agriculture (including palm oil and other food sources) and other sustainable trades, crafts and professions. 

Learn what the United States is contributing through USAID.

Get to know the RSPO and the certified sustainable palm oil process.

The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a multi-stakeholder group with many members from businesses, social organizations and government institutions, was formed to combat the effects of increased palm oil production.

In November 2007, the RSPO launched a certification system, establishing a definition and criteria for certified sustainable palm oil (SPO). The RSPO projects that evidence of certified SPO on the market could be seen as early as the first quarter of 2008.

This is encouraging news, and we ask you to work with us in this critical conservation effort.

Letter from RSPO Executive Board Member:

In brief, the Principles and Criteria that define what sustainable palm oil is were launched in November 2005. Since then the RSPO has been working hard to develop a certification process that is both practical and robust. That process was launched in November 2007. What needs to happen now is:

• Certification bodies need to be accredited. This means that companies that want to do the audits of the plantations have to apply to RSPO to prove that they have the capabilities required to truly judge whether a plantation meets RSPO criteria.
• Plantation companies need to be audited against the RSPO Principles and Criteria by one of the above mentioned certification bodies. If they pass, then they can start to sell the palm oil they produce as "Certified Sustainable Palm Oil". It will take a little while before the first companies will be certified because the audits take time and there has to be public consultation in order to ensure the audit is rigorous.
• Once certified, plantation companies can sell their sustainable palm oil through a few different routes. Either it can be kept separate from other palm oil all the way from the plantation to the food company (segregated), or it can be mixed with non-certified palm oil and sold as "this tanker contains 50% certified palm oil and 50% uncertified" (mass balance), or certificates representing the sustainable palm oil can be sold directly to the end user, who buys actual palm oil from another source (book and claim). I realize that the latter two options can be hard to understand so for more details, please visit the RSPO web site at www.rspo.org

It will take time for companies to go through the certification process, for that palm oil to make it to market and then for that palm oil to make it into products that you see on supermarket shelves. It will take even more time for a significant amount of palm oil to make it to market so that a company can say "all of our products contain sustainable palm oil". However, this does not mean that there is not a lot of work going on in the background. In fact, now is the time when the most work is happening because so many companies are working toward becoming certified.

It is also really important to realize, though, that because some companies will never agree to buying sustainable palm oil, rainforest destruction is likely to continue unless we can persuade the governments of the countries where palm oil is grown to protect their forests.  RSPO is trying to work with these governments but we cannot control their policies.

Dr. Samantha Lacey
Executive Board RSPO Member 

Remarks from the RSPO President about the November 2007 roundtable:

Dear participants,
Over 500 of you registered for this event, a clear sign that the market is urgently awaiting the arrival of RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil. On behalf of the entire Executive Board of RSPO, I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for coming to Kuala Lumpur for this event, but above all for all the hard work many of you have put in over the last two years.

During the conference, we will hear about the results of implementation trials, the outcome of the National Interpretation processes, the certification system that is being put in place, the outlook on the communication strategy that is in development and much, much more. We are taking 2.5 days, but we could have filled a whole week with presentations and discussions.

Palm oil is a versatile product which finds its way in many forms into many different products. This means that palm oil is a part of many different supply chains. We are all used to trading palm oil as a commodity and this market mechanism has served us well in the past. We now enter a new era, in which control over the chain of custody is required in order to ensure that the palm oil received in consumer markets is actually the same as the certified palm oil the buyer wants to have. This is new territory, uncharted territory for a commodity.

We have worked hard to offer the right framework for facilitating the trade in RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil. I am certain that we will have to revise many details as we move along, and I count on your help in doing this. RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil is about to come to market. For me, that is a reason to celebrate. Congratulations.

Jan Kees Vis
RSPO President
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

For more information about the RSPO, visit:

RSPO Web Site
RSPO Principles and Criteria Document
RSPO Certification System
RSPO Member Profiles