The Eco Committee wanted to do something about the palm oil issue as part of our work on Sustainability goal 12- Responsible production and consumption. The Iceland advert at Christmas although banned on television was circulated on social media and our pupils saw it there. It made them very sad to see how the little orang- utan in the cartoon had no home left because the rainforest where he lived had been destroyed for palm oil production.

They did some more research online and found that other creatures are affected too like clouded leopards and pygmy elephants. Palm oil is  added to many of the foods we eat. Palm oil plantations, the most important tropical vegetable oil in the global oils and fats industry, is the main driver of deforestation in Borneo. In Indonesia alone, palm oil production expanded from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to over 6 million hectares by 2007. Habitat conversion from natural forests to palm oil plantations has been shown to have a devastating impact on tropical forests, along with plants and animals that depend on them. So they wanted to do something about this.

They decided to write letters to the headquarters of some of the biggest supermarkets in Britain, asking them if they would take the palm oil out of their own brand products.

Below you can see the letter to the ASDA head office that our pupils wrote and the reply we received. ASDA, sadly, was the only supermarket who replied to our letters.

However, we have found out that scientists think that there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil. A study over 15 years of fact finding missions as well as data from satellites, governments, charities and palm oil companies own reports, revealed that plantations that are certified as sustainable have lost more forest cover than those without eco-friendly certification. In fact, sustainability labels according to scientists, have resulted in more plantation expansions which is driving the orang-utan to extinction.

What is needed to make a difference is for more people to demand change in letters and petitions to governments and businesses if we are to prevent extinction of some of the world’s most precious habitats and the creatures that depend on them for survival.