The plantations needed to produce the palm oil cover an area of 700,000 hectares – land that until recently was still rainforest and the habitat of 5,000 endangered orangutans.
In some regions, oil palm cultivation causes deforestation. This means that land, which was once predominantly covered by primary rainforest (forest that has never been touched by man) or which housed protected species and biodiversity is cleared in order to be converted into palm oil plantations.
Likewise, some palm oil plantations were developed without consulting local communities over the use of their land. Some have even been responsible for forcibly displacing people from their land. Violations of workers’ rights to fair payment and safe working conditions and other malpractices have also occurred.
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