Palm Oil: Australian and NZ Zoos Caught Running Factually Incorrect Campaigns

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by: palmoiltruthfoundation
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Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 Time: 7:53 AM
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"Zoos in Australia and New Zealand are running political campaigns against palm oil based on dodgy ‘facts'", Director of the Intellectual Property and Free Trade Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, Tim Wilson, said today.

Mr Wilson's comments follow the release of Exposed: The inaccurate and inappropriate campaign by Zoos Victoria, a new report released by the Institute of Public Affairs today looking at the claims of zoos against palm oil and the actual evidence supporting these claims.

"Following our research, attacks by zoos, most notably Zoos Victoria, against palm oil aren't based in evidence. Out of the twelve anti-palm oil ‘facts' claimed by Zoos Victoria only two have been found to be accurate, eight are false and two cannot be substantiated. Similar claims are also being made by Auckland Zoo"

Zoos Victoria's ‘Facts' vs ‘Facts' status:

Over 85% of the world's palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia TRUE
Today, the most common cause of deforestation and fragmentation in Indonesia is related to palm oil development FALSE
An estimated 40% of food on our supermarket shelves contains palm oil UNKNOWN
In SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil production FALSE
Palm oil typically costs the lives of up to 50 Orang-utans each week UNKNOWN
Australians unknowingly consume on average 10 kilograms of palm oil each year because we do not currently have the ability to exercise consumer choice FALSE
Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations are a possibility however you need you to tell FSANZ you want palm oil labelling if they are to become a reality FALSE
Once palm oil is labelled, consumers can actually drive a market for proper certified sustainable palm oil because they can demand it of manufacturers (as we've seen with Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance products) FALSE
Palm oil from certified sustainable RSPO sources only accounts for 8 percent of the global supply of palm oil FALSE
90% of Orang-utan habitat has been lost already. If all of it is lost then so are the livelihoods of many people UNKNOWN /FALSE
The industry needs to increase yields on land that has already been cleared but right now there is very little incentive for them to do this FALSE
We share 97% of our DNA with Orang-utans. You could say they are our wild cousins TRUE
Source: Institute of Public Affairs www.ipa.org.au
"Understandably many New Zealanders and celebrities have well intentionally opposed palm oil based on false information provided by zoos, and demanded palm oil be labelled separately . But their support is based on factually and inaccurate information provided by zoos, including Auckland Zoo and its Don't Palm Us Off campaign."

"For example, claims by Auckland Zoo that 300 rugby fields are deforested every hour in South East Asia for palm oil production are just rubbish. Those claims are a misrepresentation of a 2005 UN report on illegal logging in Indonesia. Not palm oil and not South East Asia."

"Auckland Zoo claims that palm oil production costs the lives of more than one hundred orang-utans each week. But it is just a claim. Zoos Victoria claims it is fifty. Perth Zoo claims it is one hundred and sixteen."

"More concerning is the impact of the misallocation of resources diverted to palm oil political campaigning. It's time zoos stuck to their knitting and cared for animals and stopped engaging in factually incorrect political campaigning", Mr Wilson said.

Exposed: The inaccurate and inappropriate campaign by Zoos Victoria is available at Melbourne Zoo and political campaigns. THE END

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Palm Oil Truth Foundation is an international non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation, without strings to the world of commerce and power. We are a people organisation, organised for the people and founded upon the principles of integrity and responsibility as a global citizen with the sole purpose of representing TRUTH to the global community about health, environmental and economic benefits of palm oil.

The TRUTH Foundation is an international network of social conscience and cooperation among peoples in industry, government, academia and the ordinary global consuming public, strengthening the forces devoted to respect, justice and equality for a more just and sustainable world and for global peace.