Proctor & Gamble is destroying tigers' habitats, says Greenpeace

Proctor & Gamble is destroying tigers' habitats, says Greenpeace

Global giant is challenged in Philippines to launch a 'no-deforestation' policy

Greenpeace activists dressed as Sumatran tigers protest outside Procter & Gamble's facility in Laguna province. (Photo by Jimmy Domingo)Greenpeace activists dressed as Sumatran tigers set up camp outside a Procter & Gamble facility in Laguna province in the Philippines today to show how the company allegedly wiped out the tigers' habitats.
The protesters installed tree stumps and tents to dramatize the company’s "lack of a no-deforestation policy" when sourcing palm oil.
Greenpeace earlier discovered that a palm oil producer linked to Procter & Gamble has been actively destroying primary forest in the Papua region of Indonesia.
"Every time we purchase P&G products, we become participants in wiping out the tropical rainforests in Indonesia, considered the lungs of Southeast Asia," said Beau Baconguis, program manager for Greenpeace in the Philippines.
He urged the company "to change by committing to a no-deforestation policy today."
Greenpeace field teams and mapping analysts have documented large-scale clearance across an area owned by PT Rimba Matoa Lestari in the districts of Sarmi and Jayapura in Papua province.
Indonesia's forests are disappearing at a rate of more than nine Olympic swimming pools each minute, with palm oil being the biggest driver of forest destruction, Greenpeace said.
PT Rimba is controlled by Indonesia's industry conglomerate RGE Group, which sells palm oil to Cargill, a supplier to Procter & Gamble.
RGE Group also owns pulp and paper company April, the company that Greenpeace described to have "singlehandedly destroyed more forests in Indonesia than any other."
Greenpeace claimed in a statement that nearly 400,000 people have already written to Procter & Gamble demanding that the company immediately commit to a "no-deforestation policy."