{"id":10423,"date":"2022-01-30T17:51:31","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T17:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forestwildlife.org\/?page_id=10423"},"modified":"2022-07-31T02:20:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T07:20:41","slug":"in-your-palm-campaign","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.forestwildlife.org\/in-your-palm-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"In Your Palm: Why We Should Care About Palm Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Palm oil is one of the most widely used vegetable oils in the world\u2013about 50 billion tons of it is produced and consumed every year. If you haven’t heard about the InYourPalm.org campaign, you might be surprised to learn that the production of palm oil has a number of negative effects. So, why is palm oil bad for the environment? What problems does it cause? And what does it have to do with declining numbers of orangutans?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Does the Growing of Palm Oil Lead to Deforestation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The ideal environment for palm oil growth is in tropical forested areas especially in the countries of Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Papua, and New Guinea. The problem is that, for palm oil trees to be planted, the existing forests have to be cleared out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New palm plantations are rapidly taking over these natural rainforest areas, leading to massive amounts of natural forest being destroyed. Cutting down the existing trees allows more carbon into the environment, as the trees are no longer there to absorb the carbon dioxide in the environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deforestation has other negative effects as well. Removing the original forest flora leads to a decrease in soil quality and an increase in erosion, and it also leaves many and diverse animal species without a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Does the Production of Palm Oil Endanger the Orangutans?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Certain species of orangutan<\/a> have seen a frightening decline in their numbers in a relatively short amount of time, and the cause of this decline<\/a> appears to be directly linked to palm oil production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Indonesia and Malaysia alone, up to 5,000 orangutans are killed each year. As their homes are destroyed, many of them are killed during the deforestation process; others are left homeless, making them more vulnerable to illegal poaching activities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two endangered species in particular have been drastically affected by palm oil production: the Bornean and Sumatran orangutans. The Bornean orangutans saw their numbers decrease by nearly 50 percent between 1999 and 2015, while the critically endangered Sumatran orangutans were reduced to just 7,500 total animals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, orangutans are not the only animals endangered by palm oil production. Anytime a forested area is cleared, many other animal and bird species are also killed and left homeless.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Is Palm Oil Bad For The Environment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Deforestation and animal endangerment are not the only problems with palm oil production. Some of the other negative effects include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n