Greenpeace criticises food company Mondelez over palm oil
On the third largest island in the world, Borneo, the habitat for orangutans is becoming smaller and smaller due to the palm oil industry. The environmental organization Greenpeace published a study on Tuesday according to which 70,000 hectares of rainforest on the island were cleared within two years for the food company Mondelez alone to produce palm oil. The orangutans are at home in the forests of Borneo and the neighbouring island of Sumatra.
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In a statement, the company pointed out that it had been striving for sustainable use of palm oil for years. But the industry must do even more. The goals are "100 percent sustainability and 100 percent transparency". Twelve suppliers had been divested due to violations of their own guidelines.
It is estimated that there are still between 70,000 and 100,000 orangutans today. At the turn of the millennium in 1999/2000, according to a recently published survey, there were approximately 150,000 more. In the past decade, according to other studies, more than seven million hectares of rainforest have been cleared throughout Indonesia - an area the size of Bavaria.
Mondelez - which emerged from the US company Kraft - uses palm oil in numerous products such as chocolate bars or biscuits (Oreo). The group's brands also include Milka and Toblerone. According to Greenpeace, the
From 2015 to 2017, the area cleared is about twice as large as Bremen, where Mondelez has its headquarters in Germany. Palm oil is also widely used in cosmetics./cs/DP/jha (dpa)
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