75 0 Half of the things we buy A are not sustainable. B contain palm oil. C come from Southeast Asia. D are produced in Indonesia. 1 The production of palm oil A needs a large variety of plants. B only takes place in Indonesia. C involves chopping down trees. D is a new development. 2 Indonesia’s rainforests are A cut down for sporting events. B home to many kinds of wildlife. C lost to fires and floods. D strictly protected by the state. 3 Palm oil farmers in Indonesia A now have a worse standard of living. B make their homes in the forests. C can’t afford to get an education. D have a better life thanks to palm oil. 4 Sustainable palm oil production A is just beginning. B would also destroy the rainforests. C involves care for humans and animals. D is only adopted by a few farmers. 5 The problems of palm oil production A are difficult to solve completely. B don’t affect the poor farmers. C can only be solved by companies. D will be solved if we stop using the oil. 30 million hectares (more than the area of 30 million football fields) of primary forest over the last twenty years. As rainforests are the habitat of more than half of the world’s species of plants, animals and insects, the loss of so much forest seriously endangers much of the world’s biodiversity. Orangutans, for example, have become critically endangered, partly due to deforestation for palm oil plantations. Humans are also negatively affected as they are forced to make way for new plantations. The people who have lived off the forests’ rich resources for generations often do not own the land they work on, and, as a result, communities are destroyed. Yet palm oil production also brings advantages to some people in the Global South. Indonesia typically exports around 2.9 million tonnes of palm oil products each month. This way, the farmers have a stable source of income, which allows them to build homes, install running water and send their children to school. They can afford a standard of living that would not have been possible before. The same is true in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer of palm oil, which accounts for more than a third of the world’s supply. Markets in Africa and Latin America have grown too. Currently, about two thirds of the palm oil sold is considered sustainably grown. This means that measures like a ban on deforestation, support for small landowners and conservation efforts to restore forest habitats are in place. Research has shown that when palm oil is produced in this way, plantations can have a positive impact on the local environment, even attracting wildlife. However, any oil not produced sustainably contributes to the ongoing destruction of the world’s rainforests. This happens when countries don’t pass environmental laws and when companies don’t act responsibly. Some people have called for palm oil production to end, but because so many small farmers depend on it for their income, the solution is not that simple. It is clear that many more issues will need to be addressed. Should companies work harder to save the environment? How can governments better protect their rainforests and still support their local farmers? What do consumers need to know about the products they buy? Should everybody just stop buying products made with palm oil? These are the questions that need to be answered if the precious tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia are to be protected. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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