Greenpeace witnesses Fonterra’s continued implication in rainforest destruction

Auckland, 21 September 2010 – Following new evidence, Greenpeace demands that Fonterra and the Government put an end to New Zealand’s importation of palm kernel grown on areas of destroyed rainforest.

Deforestation in Indonesia is driving climate change and pushing endangered species like the orang-utan to the brink of extinction.

Twelve months after Fonterra’s connection to the palm industry was exposed by the ‘Sunday Star Times’ and Greenpeace, the dairy giant has strengthened its association with the clearing of Indonesia’s rainforests by increasing imports of palm kernel to feed its dairy herd.

Greenpeace New Zealand returned to Indonesia in September 2010, this time to what was once a rainforest in East Kalimantan, cleared by a palm products company. Photos and video of the newly cleared rainforest were shot by the Greenpeace New Zealand team over the weekend and can be viewed at http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/fonterra .(1)

The Greenpeace documentation team of seven, including New Zealand citizen and Greenpeace New Zealand Communications Manager Suzette Jackson, was arrested at 3.30pm on Sunday local time. They were held and interrogated by police in the nearby town of Sangatta and released 23 hours later without charge.

“Fonterra has implicated New Zealand in this shocking aspect of the palm industry through its unnecessary use of palm kernel,” says Jackson. “I’ve worked for Greenpeace for nine years, but I've never seen anything quite like this … the landscape’s been razed. It’s heartbreaking.

“The fact that we were arrested for simply documenting the destruction of rainforests to grow palm products shows just how much the currently unsustainable industry has to hide.”

This site, or concession, is typical of the currently unsustainable practices of the palm industry. Now being cleared by Sinar Mas, this area of rainforest is thought to be part of one of the last refuges for the critically endangered orang-utan. A High Conservation Value Assessment is required to meet Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards. Yet despite Sinar Mas’, subsidiary PT SMART (which own the concession the Greenpeace team visited last weekend), being a member of the RSPO, there is no sign of any such assessment having been performed for this concession. The recent audit showed that eight of 11 Sinar Mas concessions examined were operating illegally without the required Environmental Impact Assessments.

“As the palm industry opens up new frontiers across Indonesia, companies like Fonterra, which is expected to spend NZ$230 million this year buying up a quarter of the world’s palm kernel, is helping to fuel this destruction,” Jackson says.

According to recent estimates, Indonesia is the third largest greenhouse gas polluter of any nation on the planet, largely due to the destruction of its rainforest and peatlands. (2) Clearing massive tracts of forest also has a major impact on wildlife diversity, and creates social conflict with indigenous communities.

“It’s a scandal that Fonterra continues to feed its dairy cows a palm industry product that is often sourced from companies that are destroying rainforests and peatlands thereby increasing climate change - and that this Government has done nothing to stop that, ” Jackson says.

The rapid industrialisation of dairying in New Zealand, driven by Fonterra, is driving the increased use of palm kernel as a supplementary feed. Greenpeace New Zealand maintains that relying on pasture and local alternatives for emergency drought relief, such as maize silage, which is grown by New Zealand farmers, are the best options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

This year it is expected New Zealand will import well over one million tonnes of palm kernel for Fonterra’s farms. (3)

This flies in the face of the actions taken by other companies. For example, a number of international corporations, including Nestlé, Kraft, and Unilever have recently dropped contracts with Sinar Mas due to its environmentally destructive practices, and Burger King has committed to removing Sinar Mas products from its supply chain in response to a recent auditor’s report into Sinar Mas’ activities. (4) Meanwhile, Cadbury New Zealand has publicly stated that it stopped using palm oil in its Dairy Milk products after a consumer campaign led by Auckland Zoo to withdraw the confectionary giant's products from sale. (5)

“Fonterra is becoming increasingly isolated on the world stage as companies like these respond to public concerns over the worst environmental impacts of the palm products industry,” says Jackson.

Fonterra’s half-owned subsidiary, RD1, has a joint venture with international palm oil and palm kernel producer and trader Wilmar – the company International Nutritionals Limited. It is estimated that Wilmar buys over half its palm products from third parties. (6) Wilmar has no systems in place to ensure that suppliers involved in rainforest destruction, like Sinar Mas, are excluded from its supply chain. Palm kernel expeller is then supplied by companies in New Zealand, such as RD1, to Fonterra farms here in New Zealand. (7)

“New Zealanders should be alarmed that for short-term financial gain Fonterra is risking New Zealand’s clean green reputation by being associated with some of the world’s most notorious rainforest destroyers,” she says.

Greenpeace is calling upon the Indonesian Government to expand its recently announced moratorium on the granting of new concessions for conversion to cover vast areas of rainforest that have already been slated for destruction under existing concessions. Greenpeace is also calling for all the country’s peatlands to immediately be protected.

Notes to Editor:

(1) The first dramatic images from the Greenpeace team in East Kalimantan were released this morning on an electronic billboard in Wellington. A teaser campaign for the previous two weeks posed the question ‘Which company is putting NZ in this picture?’ along with images of pristine rainforest, and local wildlife. Today the slogan reads ‘Fonterra - fuelling the climate crisis.’ (2) Indonesia and Climate Charge: Current Status and Policies. The World Bank. 2007 (3) Based on trends from Statistics New Zealand, August 2010. (4) Verifying Greenpeace Claims, Case: PT SMART Tbk, by BSI and Control Union, supported by Professors from Bogor University, 10 August, 2010, http://www.goldenagri.com.sg/pdfs/News%20Releases/2010/IVEX%20Report%20by% 20CUC%20and%20BSI%2010%20Aug%2010.pdf (5) http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2758975/Cadbury-stops-using-palm-oil-in-ch ocolate (6) OCBC Investment Report: Wilmar International Ltd. 23 June 2009. http://www.ocbcresearch.com/pdf_reports/company/Wilmar-090623-OIR.pdf (7) Letter to Greenpeace from John Lea, CEO RD1 2nd September 2010.

Last year Greenpeace stopped a ship carrying palm kernel from entering the Port of Tauranga for one day to highlight the issue, and called for all palm kernel imports to stop. Three weeks later Greenpeace activists painted ‘Fonterra climate crime’ on the side of a palm kernel ship in the Port of Taranaki. http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/greenpeace-stops-palm-kerne l/ http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/press/greenpeace-takes-further-ac tio/

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