Environmentalists seek independent body on palm oil

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Updated August 24, 2009 07:08:26

The Palm Oil Action Group, which is based in Australia, has claimed a victory in its attempts to persuade large companies to stop using palm oil, after the chocolate-maker Cadburys said it would stop using the oil in its milk-chocolate. Palm Oil Action says massive new palm plantations in Indonesian and Malaysia are destroying rainforests -- the natural habitat of orang-utans.

But the chairman of the landowners committee on the Guadalcanal Plains in Solomon Island, James Votaia, has criticised the campaign, saying Pacific plantations are planted on plains and swampland, not rainforest. However Palm Oil Action Group spokesperson Anasuya Claff says an independent body is needed to determine whether oil producers are - or aren't - harming the environment.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Anasuya Claff, spokesperson for the Palm Oil Action Group in Australia

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