Deforestation Watch aka Melbourne Zoo Watch administers Zoos Victoria’s ‘Fact or Fiction’ Factometer Test

 
•    Over 85% of the world's palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia TRUE
•    Today, the most common cause of deforestation and fragmentation in Indonesia is related to palm oil development FALSE
•    An estimated 40% of food on our supermarket shelves contains palm oil UNKNOWN
•    In SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil production FALSE
•    Palm oil typically costs the lives of up to 50 Orang-utans each week UNKNOWN
•    Australians unknowingly consume on average 10 kilograms of palm oil each year because we do not currently have the ability to exercise consumer choice FALSE
•    Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations are a possibility however you need you to tell FSANZ you want palm oil labelling if they are to become a reality FALSE
•    Once palm oil is labelled, consumers can actually drive a market for proper certified sustainable palm oil because they can demand it of manufacturers (as we've seen with Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance products) FALSE
•    Palm oil from certified sustainable RSPO sources only accounts for 8 percent of the global supply of palm oil FALSE
•    90% of Orang-utan habitat has been lost already. If all of it is lost then so are the livelihoods of many people UNKNOWN /FALSE
•    The industry needs to increase yields on land that has already been cleared but right now there is very little incentive for them to do this FALSE
•    We share 97% of our DNA with Orang-utans. You could say they are our wild cousins TRUE
Source: Institute of Public Affairs www.ipa.org.au
“Understandably many New Zealanders and celebrities have well intentionally opposed palm oil based on false information provided by zoos, and demanded palm oil be labelled separately . But their support is based on factually and inaccurate information provided by zoos, including Auckland Zoo and its Don’t Palm Us Off campaign.”

“For example, claims by Auckland Zoo that 300 rugby fields are deforested every hour in South East Asia for palm oil production are just rubbish. Those claims are a misrepresentation of a 2005 UN report on illegal logging in Indonesia. Not palm oil and not South East Asia.”

“Auckland Zoo claims that palm oil production costs the lives of more than one hundred orang-utans each week. But it is just a claim. Zoos Victoria claims it is fifty. Perth Zoo claims it is one hundred and sixteen.”

“More concerning is the impact of the misallocation of resources diverted to palm oil political campaigning. It’s time zoos stuck to their knitting and cared for animals and stopped engaging in factually incorrect political campaigning”, Mr Wilson said.

Factometer Test Findings on Zoos Victoria's claims on palm oil: FALSE!

The inaccurate and inappropriate campaign by Zoos Victoria is available at Melbourne Zoo and political campaigns. THE END