Greenpeace Aotearoa says that New Zealand dairy has been linked to deforestation inside the wildlife reserve featured in David Attenborough’s orangutan documentary, Secret Lives of Orangutans.

The organisation says that it is deeply concerned by news that two companies exporting to New Zealand have been sourcing palm kernel from a mill known to be buying products grown illegally inside the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve as recently as September 2024.

The reserve is home to highly endangered species including Sumatran tigers and orangutans.

Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn says, "The Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve is a biodiversity hotspot and the last refuge of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan. It’s a disgrace that New Zealand dairy has any part in its destruction."

"Every year, the New Zealand dairy industry, led by Fonterra spends millions of dollars on palm kernel that comes from the destruction of once thriving rainforests."

New Zealand is the world’s biggest importer of palm kernel, importing nearly 2 million tonnes every year from Southeast Asia. Palm kernel is used as a supplementary feed for dairy cattle.

A 2024 investigation by Rainforest Action Network found that there are 653 hectares of illegal oil palm plantations operating in the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve, 453 hectares of which are productive, meaning that illegal palm oil and palm kernel from these plantations is already being sold.

Between 2023-2024, Apical and Musim Mas, two major palm kernel expeller (PKE) exporters to New Zealand, purchased palm kernel from PT. Global Sawit Semesta, a mill known to have traded palm products grown within the wildlife reserve.

"New Zealand dairy is marketed as clean, green and grass-fed, but this is just simply not true. Fonterra’s own grass-fed standard allows for its cows’ diets to be made up of 20% palm kernel," says Deighton-O’Flynn.

"Fonterra’s butter and milk powder is contaminated with this blood-soaked animal feed and its executives are ignoring the severity of the issue."

Two weeks ago, Greenpeace released evidence that all five palm kernel suppliers exporting to New Zealand were complicit in illegally operating palm mills in Indonesia. The organisation says this latest revelation is yet more evidence that the use of palm kernel as animal feed must be banned.

"Fonterra has tried to avoid accountability on illegal palm kernel in its supply chain, by claiming that its suppliers have "no deforestation, no peat and no exploitation" policies, but it is abundantly clear that these policies aren’t working. The rainforest is still being destroyed at an alarming rate," says Deighton-O’Flynn.

"Palm kernel supply chains are incredibly murky. It is virtually impossible for Fonterra to guarantee that its supply chains are not linked to rainforest destruction, so Greenpeace is calling on Fonterra to completely phase out the use of palm kernel on all of its farms."

"New Zealanders should not have to worry about whether the butter they’re spreading on their toast is tainted by the killing of orangutans in Southeast Asia."

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