Perth Zoo invites you to take action in a new advocacy campaign called Don’t Palm Us Off that seeks to change food-labelling legislation in Australia and New Zealand, mandating the labelling of palm oil on all food products. So why is this so urgently necessary?

Approximately 6,000 orangutans are killed per year and the United Nations warns that orangutans could become extinct within a generation. The primary reason for the orangutans’ habitat being destroyed is the increasing demand for oil palm plantations which results in large-scale clearing of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia. Over 85% of the world’s palm oil comes from these two countries.

Don’t Palm Us Off is part of a national campaign urging visitors to sign a petition – via postcards, an interactive touch-screen at Bukit Station or below – to mandate the labelling of products containing palm oil.

As a vegetable oil, palm oil is used in a variety of products such as chocolate, bread, detergents and cosmetics. While oil palm plantations could be grown on already-degraded land, palm oil companies lobby to use forested land because they can sell off the valuable forest timber.

The aim of the campaign is to empower consumers to make informed decisions about the food they purchase. By knowing whether or not palm oil has been used in the production of groceries and household products, you can choose not to buy those products and therefore help orangutans. It is estimated that Australians unknowingly consume an average of ten kilograms of palm oil per person each year.

In South-east Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 soccer fields are deforested every hour for oil palm plantations. In addition to fuelling global warming by releasing vast quantities of CO² into the atmosphere, this unsustainable practice is pushing species such as the Sumatran Orangutan toward extinction.

When displaced orangutans venture into the plantations in search of food, many are slaughtered. Often bounties are offered for their slaughter and orphaned infants are sold in the pet trade.

Many other animals including the Sumatran Tiger and Sumatran Elephant are also affected by the sprawl of oil palm plantations encroaching on their habitat.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has the power to change food labelling legislation. However, in order to justify this change the community needs to ensure that FSANZ knows that you want the right to choose.

Read about our latest Sumatran Orangutan birth.

Please show your support for the campaign by adding your name to the petition below.

You must be aged 18 years or older to submit the petition.