Palm oil - choose responsible sources

The big money spinner for the local economy is the destruction of hundreds of thousands of sq kms of rainforest and the planting of massive plantations of thousands and thousands of oil palms.


Clark, our ponytailed, friendly Filipino heritage taxi driver told us a bit about the palm oil business. The tree starts fruiting at between 5 - 15 years old and gives up to three crops of fruits a year until around 30 years old.

Recognised as damaging to valuable habitat and wildlife for many reasons, the push by environmental groups now is not to boycott, but to retarget sites to choose better techniques and utilise already degraded areas. Palm oil is used in so many ways, foodstuffs, cosmetics, cooking oil, that it cannot realistically be cut out of our consumption. They way forward is to choose responsible sources.