Nature Alert: Response from Unilever

Monday 26 May 2008

Response from Unilever

A supporter received this letter from Unilever.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:07 PM

Hello from Unilever

Dear Consumer,

Thank you for your e-mail in which you express your concerns about the
deforestation caused by the increase in the demand for palm oil. I would
like to reassure you that Unilever shares these concerns.

As you know, we do use palm oil in some of our products but we also have a long history of promoting sustainability; for example, in tea and fish.
We are widely considered to be a leading player in the search for longer-term solutions to achieving sustainable palm oil.

We hold the Presidency of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a wide-ranging coalition of organisations including OXFAM, WWF, plantation owners, and manufacturers and retailers. We believe that the Roundtable is the most effective vehicle for jointly stimulating sustainability in the palm oil sector.

The key issue is that the demand of palm oil has exploded. This is due partly to growing demand from India and China and also due to the use of
palm oil as a feedstock for biofuels in the energy sector.

In November 2007, the RSPO officially launched its Certification Programme for Sustainable Palm Oil. It is essential that all those involved sign up to the agreed certification system to make sustainability work on the ground. This is not an easy process and is taking longer than we would all like. Nevertheless, we remain absolutely committed to finding an
effective and long term solution.

I trust that this has sufficiently reassured you that we are taking every
action we can on this important issue.

Kind Regards,

Colin Tucker
Careline Advisor

Unilever UK Limited
Registered in England & Wales; Company No 334527
Registered Office: Walton Court, Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
KT12 1UP

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.