Greenpeace protesters dressed as orangutans swing into action for Nestle annual meeting
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Food giant Nestlé has become the first global consumer goods company to become a partner of TFT, The Forest Trust, “to build responsible supply chains”, starting with palm oil.
The company’s sourcing policy for palm oil came under attack at its April 2010 annual general meeting, when Greenpeace protesters arrived dressed as orangutans to draw attention to the problem of deforestation from palm oil suppliers.
The Vevey group says it is also studying pulp and paper sourcing.
Greenpeace credits its campaign to get KitKat fans to pressure the manufacturer, as does TFT, with Greenpeace noting that the decision will affect another multinational, Cargill.
Greenpeace protesters dressed as orangutans swing into action for Nestle annual meeting (photo: ©2010 Herbi Ditl on flick: http://www.flickr.com/photos/herbivore/)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Nestlé annual general meeting held at the Palais Beaulieu in Lausanne promised to be a relatively dull business session, compared to the UBS one the previous day. But that was before Greenpeace protesters dressed as orangutangs crowded the area outside the meeting and two of them were spotted by an AFP reporter abseiling into it and dangling above the discussions.
Greenpeace and the company have been at odds over the Vevey group’s use of palm oil, which the environmental group says is playing a significant role in destroying forests and the habitat for orangutans.
Massive flooding in five regions in El Salvador has taken the lives of 124 people, with reports of deaths still coming in as the country struggles to cope. Some 7,000 homes have been damaged. The hardest hit areas appear to be San Salvador, the capital, and San Vicente province in the centre of the country. The floods, bringing mudslides, came after days of heavy rains. The Independent reported in 2005, after heavy flooding that year, that deforestation has left the country vulnerable to major flood damage.
Links to other sites: Associated Press, BBC
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss are the largest consumers of paper goods in Europe, consuming 21 kilos of cleaning and hygienic paper products per person in 2007, says the Swiss WWF. The ecology group’s evaluation of stores in Switzerland gave 9 out 10 stores a mark of “insufficient” in their attempts to use and promote recycled paper goods.
