When I first started making soap in 2008, I bought palm oil without knowing much about it’s source.
Palm oil has desirable qualities which include producing a mild and hard bar that lathers well. From my own experience, I’ve found other good substitutes such as olive oil, rice bran, and coconut oil to be just as nice.
It wasn’t until recently that I knew about the environmental and social implications of using palm oil.
As for the social impact, forests are usually cleared in large tracts of land through burning and clear cutting. This has alienated communities and created tension between locals and the company executing the project.
For the environmental impact, large areas of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforest have been cleared to make way for palm plantations. The spaces used to expand palm plantations are often created by draining and burning peatland, which sends carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
The removing of rainforest is also effecting the orangutan population that dwell in the forest. It is estimated by Borneo Orang Utan Survival Foundation UK that orangutans can disappear in five years. But there is still hope.
Indonesia’s Center for Orang Utan Protection has rescued many baby orangutan orphaned by palm oil companies. As many of the orangutans are seen as pest and are killed off. The center to protect orangutan ask that we use orangutan friendly palm oil (from sustainable palm oil farm) in our food and household products.
This baby orangutan (photo above) seem to be having fun. Image source.
