Charlotte Uhlenbroek5 May 2010
Planet but no Apes?
Charlotte Uhlenbroek is a biologist and TV presenter. In 2003 she made The Jungle for BBC1.
However long I've spent with apes I always have that really strange feeling of being with another creature that's just like me but that I can't quite communicate with.
She's very concerned by what's happening to the orang-utan in Indonesia and Malaysia. Its habitat is fast disappearing because of the spread of plantations producing palm oil.
Palm oil is in 1 in 10 supermarket products labelled as 'vegetable oil'.
Oil Crisis
Charlotte has campaigned with Friends of the Earth to save orang-utan rainforest habitat in Malaysia and
Indonesia. She told us:
Palm oil is in everything, it's really difficult to avoid.
It's our money in our back pockets that's going to make all the difference. It's whether we go for companies that are environmentally-friendly and use sustainable products or not.
Word power
What else can you do to make a difference? All of the big supermarkets have now joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Write to one of them and ask that they deliver on their promises as quickly as possible and only use palm oil from sustainable plantations.
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