The Melbourne Zoo, the Auckland Zoo and the Philly Zoo – forming an unholy trinity, these 3 zoos have betrayed a reflexive hostility to all things palm oil. Some of their arguments beggar belief and the verbal hoops that they routinely jump through to justify their actions against palm oil raises serious doubts about the bona fides behind their actions.

For instance, all three zoos argue that palm oil is responsible for massive deforestation on such a scale that it threatens the extinction of the orangutan.

However, none of the zoos have shown any inclination to avail themselves of a US$7 million Wildlife Conservation matching grant launched by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC).

It’s easy to launch anti-palm oil campaigns it would appear but not quite as convenient when the zoos have to put their money where their mouths are, as in putting up an equivalent amount for the MPOC matching grant. Suddenly, the plight of the orangutans do not appear to be quite as urgent, important or exigent when the Zoos has to put up its own funds to qualify for the matching grant. What a bunch of utter hypocrites!

The Melbourne Zoo launched a “Don’t Palm Us Off” campaign arguing that the crop is responsible for dwindling forests that is threatening the extinction of the orangutan.

Never mind the fact that the crop is planted on only 0.23% of the world’s agricultural lands and yet supplies a staggering 30% of the world’s edible oil stocks. Never mind that the allegations of massive deforestation are patently untrue. They know that so long as they use emotive images of forest clearing by legitimate logging companies, they can pin the blame on palm oil. After all, it is so easy to take satellite pictures of an area of logged over forests and allege that it is clear evidence of deforestation caused by palm oil.

The fact that palm oil requires so little land to produce so much edible oil should clue in any objective observer that the deforestation claims are disingenuous. If the claims were true, how could Malaysia, which had been the world’s largest producer of palm oil for the past 100 years have managed to retain the 53% forest cover that it has today? 53% forest cover dwarfs the percentage forest cover of any western developed country anywhere in the world!

In the view of Deforestation Watch, the 3 zoos launched their palm oil campaigns knowing that palm oil is a third world commodity which is unlikely to have the wherewithal to respond to their machinations. The 3 Zoos consequently carefully targeted this third world crop! Their actions can be equated with the cowardly actions of schoolyard bullies and nose ring wearing punks who’d never dream of picking on someone their own size! THE END