I have written to the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, to raise my concerns about the destructive palm oil industry.
The palm oil industry has a massively damaging effect on wildlife, the environment, and human rights. Every 25 seconds, an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is destroyed in Indonesia to make way for palm oil plantations. These rainforests are home to a range of critically endangered species: including orangutans, tigers, rhinos, and elephants.
All of these extraordinary species are being driven to extinction through the disintegration of the habitats on which they rely. Indonesia now has more threatened and endangered species than any other country on earth. Bornean orangutan populations have more than halved between 1999 and 2015: with the loss of approximately 150,000 individuals. We lose 25 orangutans every day.
Beyond this tragic damage to biodiversity, the production of palm oil also unlocks a major carbon sink – with catastrophic impacts on greenhouse gas emissions.
Healthy tropical rainforests store massive amounts of carbon: all of which is released into the atmosphere by deforestation. Tropical deforestation produces more greenhouse gases than global car, truck, plane, boat, and train travel combined. Deforestation is thus contributing to global climate disintegration – with attendant impacts on other vital ecosystems, such as our polar regions and coral reefs.
I have asked the Foreign Secretary to write to the governments of India, China, and Indonesia (which account for 40% of global palm oil consumption): to ask them to take action on this dangerous issue.
I would like to see environmentalism and respect for biodiversity put at the heart of Britain’s relations with our global partners. I hope Jeremy Hunt will agree with this sentiment.