glam de luxe argan oil

The following ingredient is produced using oil palm components: STEARYL STEARATE. The following ingredients may be produced using oil palm components: STEARIC ACID, palmitic acid, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycerin.

Global demand for palm oil has risen sharply. However, palm oil production results in massive destruction to the rainforests and peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia as well as South America and Africa. This has devastating consequences for the biodiversity, the climate, local populations and numerous species of animals under threat of extinction.

Problem

In order to make room for palm oil plantations, large areas of the rainforest are being cleared. Already more than three-quarters of the rainforests have been destroyed in Indonesia and countless living creatures such as orangutans or the Sumatra tiger are threatened with extinction. The orangutan in particular, which lives only in the rainforest of Sumatra and Borneo, is in acute danger. The number of Sumatra orangutans has fallen by 91% since the year 1900. Since 2016 is also critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). But many palm oil producers are still cutting down forests without governmental permission and are also destroying them with high conservation values.

Paneco: orangutan conservation programme

So much carbon dioxide has been released as a result of deforestation that Indonesia is now the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world – after the USA and China. A large percentage of the CO2 emissions here come from the destruction of peatlands. These store enormous amounts of carbon. To plant oil palms they are drained of water, which releases carbon dioxide and methane gas. On top of this, the slash-and-burn farming practices also release a lot of CO2. In 2015 the forest fires in Indonesia are releasing more climate harmful CO2 than the United States. A moratorium on the deforestation of rainforests and peatlands has now become a necessity to stop climate change.

The expansion of palm oil plantations is increasingly causing social conflicts. Indigenous populations are losing land that has served as their basis of existence to the palm oil industry. In addition, the palm oil companies often do not fulfil their promises of compensation to the rural populations. As plantation workers, the people often have a lower income than they previously had as land owners. Moreover, they are then in a dependent relationship with the palm oil companies. Child labor and slavery-like working conditions are not uncommon.

bruno manser fonds for the peoples of the rainforest

Palm oil can be found in approximately every second supermarket product such as margarine, pizza, chips or chocolate, cakes and cookies as well as in cosmetics and washing detergents. Furthermore, around 140,000 tons end up in feed troughs of conventional factory farming (source: WWF). And desire for the cheap fat is growing: According to the WWF, Indonesia alone plans to expand their plantations to 20 million hectares by 2025 – half of these will be located in Borneo.

Since 2016, all groceries in the EU that contain palm oil must be correspondingly labelled. However, up to now there is no duty of declaration for cosmetics. For creams, shower gels, etc., there are a multitude of terms behind which the oil palm ingredients can hide; such as sodium palmate or elaeis guineensis, for example. Moreover, many chemical raw materials such as fatty acids can be manufactured both from oil palms as well as other plants. This makes it almost impossible to completely avoid purchasing palm products. Therefore, even CodeCheck cannot know for every product whether palm oils is an ingredient.

In theory, palm oil can be termed sustainable if its production does not lead to the destruction of rainforests and peatlands and/or to social conflicts. Unfortunately, the percentage of really sustainable palm oil on the market is still very low. Although the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is moving in the right direction with its certification criteria, regrettably it is also being misused by many companies as a green fig leaf. Moreover, the RSPO criteria are in part still too weak. This minimum standard should therefore continue to be developed.

Keine Produkte aus Regenwaldzerstörung

Bio-Suisse certified palm oil* follows guidelines that prohibit the deforestation of areas with high conservation values. This also includes virgin forests and primary forests. Areas that were deforested prior to 1994 are excluded. According to this, the production of organic palm oil does not lead to the destruction of rainforests.