Did you know that most of us are fueling one of the world’s
biggest ecological disasters and acts of primate genocide in history?
Borneo and Sumatra are two of the most bio-diverse regions
of the world, yet they have the longest list of endangered species. This list
includes the magnificent orangutan. These two South-East Asian islands are
extremely rich in life, containing around 20,000 flowering plant species, 3,000
tree species, 300,000 animal species and thousands more being discovered each
year. Despite this amazing biodiversity and delicate web of species, an area
the size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour in Indonesia
and Malaysia to make way for the production of one vegetable oil. That’s 6
football fields destroyed each minute. This vegetable oil is called palm oil,
and is found in hundreds of everyday products, from baked goods and
confectionery to cosmetics and cleaning agents… many of which you buy in your
weekly shopping.
Due to the massive international demand for palm oil, palm
oil plantations are rapidly replacing the rainforest habitat of the critically
endangered orangutan; with over 90% of their habitat already destroyed in the
last 20 years.
Orangutans are some of our closest relatives, sharing approximately 97% of their DNA with humans. Orangutan means ‘Person of the jungle’ in the Indonesian language. It is estimated that 6 to 12 of these ‘jungle people’ are killed each day for palm oil. These gentle creatures are either killed in the deforestation process, when they wander into a palm oil plantation looking for food, or in the illegal pet trade after they’ve been captured and kept as pets in extremely poor conditions and provided with extremely poor nutrition.
Orangutans are considered as pests by the palm oil industry.
In the deforestation process, workers are told that if wildlife gets in the
way, they are to do whatever is necessary in order to dispose of them, no matter
how inhumane. Often orangutans are run over by logging machinery, beat to
death, buried alive or set on fire… all in the name of palm oil.
Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have
already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two
decades. Experts say that if this pattern of destruction and exploitation
continues, these intelligent acrobats of the jungle will be extinct in the wild
within 3 to 12 years (as early as 2015). It is also thought that their jungle
habitat will be completely gone within 20 years (approximately 2033).
Around 50 million tons of palm oil is produced annually;
with almost all of that being non-sustainable palm oil, that replaces 12
million hectares of dense, bio-diverse rainforest. That’s the equivalent
landmass of North Korea deforested each year for palm oil alone!
Palm oil is also having a shocking impact on our planet. The
production of this one vegetable oil is not only responsible for polluting
rivers and causing land erosion, but when the plantation workers set fire to
the remaining trees, shrubs, and debris to make way for the oil palms, it
produces an immense amount of smoke pollution that is toxic to planet earth. This
has been found to be the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas in the
world.
By purchasing products that contain crude palm oil, you are
helping destroy the ancient, pristine rainforest, wipe out species like the
orangutan, and create a large-scale ecological disaster. Think of the
consequences next time you do your weekly shopping; the consequences not only
for orangutans and other animals but for us as the human race; for we cannot
survive without the rainforests either. We have a choice, orangutans do not.
Source: Seenox