Indonesia: Greenpeace celebrate Nestlé victory
20.05.10
Greenpeace are celebrating victory in one of their latest campaigns as Nestlé commit to stop using products resulting from rainforest destruction.
The focus of the campaign was a hard-hitting video that Greenpeace report has now been watched over 1.5 million times. In conjunction with the video other social media such as Facebook and Twitter that provided extra impetus to the controversial video that was initially removed from You Tube sparking accusations of censorship.
But some good old campaigning was also used. On April 15 at the Nestlé AGM shareholders were greeted by protesting orangutans as they arrived, while activists on the inside waited to pounce on the shareholders as the meeting began.
According to Greenpeace: "The new policy commits Nestlé to identify and exclude companies from its supply chain that own or manage 'high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation'. This would apply to notorious Sinar Mas, a palm oil and paper supplier that Greenpeace has repeatedly caught destroying the rainforest - if it fails to meet Nestlé's new criteria - and also have implications for Cargill, one of Nestlé's palm oil suppliers which purchases from Sinar Mas."
They continue: "Our goal remains the complete protection of Indonesia's rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands. We will be watching Nestlé closely to make sure it sticks to its word and puts them into action fast. We will also continue to investigate and expose unscrupulous palm oil and paper companies that destroy rainforests and to pressure the Indonesian government to act. In the meantime, today's new Nestlé 'no deforestation footprint' policy is something to celebrate. We hope it will inspire action by other international companies - like Carrefour and Wal-mart - to hear our message that there is no room for forest destruction in the products we buy."
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