Unilever factory invasion was a success claim Greenpeace

May 5 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

GREENPEACE has claimed success following an invasion of a soap factory on Wirral to raise awareness of the threat against south east Asian rainforests.

The environmental organisation welcomed Unilever’s call for a moratorium on rainforest destruction in Indonesia that is wiping out orang-utans and devastating the climate.

Around 60 Greenpeace activists – many dressed as orang-utans – stormed into the Port Sunlight factory last month and some chained themselves to production lines of the soap and detergent factory.

It coincided with a similar protest in London when campaigners scaled ladders on to a balcony at Unilever House, on Victoria Embankment.

The group had been highlighting the company’s use of palm oil and the protests coincided with a report called Burning Up Borneo.

Greenpeace said the report showed how companies that supplied Unilever with palm oil were destroying the rainforest in Indonesia – depriving the orang-utans of their natural habitat.

At Prince Charles’s May Day Business Summit, which aims to encourage company executives to take steps towards a low-carbon economy by taking action within their own firms – Unilever chief Patrick Cescau said they would be taking action on the supply of palm oil.

Mr Cescau told the conference his company had set a target to obtain all of its palm oil from certified sustainable sources by 2015.

Patrick Cescau said his company uses a substantial amount of palm oil and “want to be an agent for positive change” and they would require their suppliers to show the palm oil came from sustainable sources.

He said: “We also intend to support the call for an immediate moratorium on any further deforestation for palm oil in Indonesia.”

Mr Cescau said: “It is the right thing to do for the people who use our products, for the environment and communities in and around which palm oil is grown and for our business and our brands”. Afterwards, Prince Charles described the announcement as a “groundbreaking development which could make the whole difference to the future of the rainforests”.

Greenpeace has continued to insist other big palm oil users such as Procter & Gamble and Nestlé need to join forces with Unilever.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: “Unilever’s commitment to sourcing sustainable palm oil will be meaningless unless its suppliers stop trashing Indonesia’s rainforests – this is why the moratorium is so important.

“Every day Unilever buys palm oil from these suppliers, orang-utans are pushed closer to extinction.”

liammurphy