How palm oil harms forest, health and life.

intro:
Today we'll talk you about an ecological problem: the expansion of the palm oil.
The palm oil is very taken in the cosmetic and the food industry. It's present in more than 40% of the products sold in supermarket like cake, crisps, pizza, spreads, but in cosmetic too, like cream, lipstick or shower gel. Its very attractive price makes it very interessant for the firm. Actually, 23 million tones of palm oil are produced each year. This business is supported by the IFM and the World Bank. However, his effect on the environment, the health and the social are disastrous.

I) Environment effect
One of the major problem with the palm oil is that it's the second cause of deforestation in the world after the paper industry. Indeed the palm oil producer needs ground to plant their palm so they destroy the rainforest and all the animal and vegetables which live in it.
The major part of palm oil comes from Asian islands.
Since the 1970s, the areas planted with oil palm have expanded radically in both Malaysia and Indonesia.

Only a century ago, 85 to 90 % of Indonesia’s total land mass was densely covered with tropical rainforest. As recently as 1950, forest still covered 77% of the land area. Forest loss started to become a serious concern in the 1970s. Today there are 2 millions hectare of rainforest burned each year (equivalent of one football field each 15 seconds). At this rate all Indonesian tropical forests—which are the richest in plant and animal species—will be gone before the end of the century.
In Malaysia, the 2900 square kilometer devoted to oil palm in 1973 mushroomed to
35000 square kilometer by 2003. That constitutes 11% of Malaysia’s total land area and 62% of all the cultivated agricultural land. The plantations now grow more than 500 million oil palm trees.

This palm oil production leads to terrible effect on the wildlife. Indeed, the rainforest contain a lot of animal and vegetables,