Greenpeace Claims Sweet Victory Over Nestle

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Greenpeace Claims Sweet Victory Over Nestle

by Stuart Washington


Environment group Greenpeace has claimed social media led to its success in a campaign that linked global food giant Nestle's chocolate bar KitKat to deforestation in Indonesian rainforests and the destruction of orang-utan habitats.

Today in Malaysia, Nestle announced a partnership with not-for-profit organisation The Forest Trust (TFT), promising to adhere to responsible sourcing guidelines for palm oil.

In a Greenpeace report titled Caught Red-handed, launched on March 17, Greenpeace exposed Nestle's use of Indonesian logging company Sinar Mas and subsidiaries including Asia Pulp and Paper to obtain palm oil.

Palm oil is used as an ingredient in Nestle chocolate products, including its well known KitKat chocolate bars.

Greenpeace said Sinar Mas was implicated in rainforest destruction and the destruction of orangutan habitats as it planted plantations for palm oil and pulp.

An accompanying video posted on YouTube went on to record more than 1 million views - in part because Nestle had attempted to have it removed, Stephen Campbell, the head of campaigns for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said today.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/17