A publicity and business engagement campaign led by local non-government organisation People’s Movement to Stop Haze is to launch in the new year with a bold ambition: Make Singapore the first country in the world to use only sustainable palm oil. Palm oil is the crop most heavily blamed for the peatland forest fires in Indonesia—known locally as the haze—that choke Singapore and its neighbours with toxic smoke caused by slash-and-burn forestry to prepare plantations that rages almost every dry season. PM.Haze’s campaign was inspired by the English city of Chester, which declared itself in March to be the first city to use 100 per cent sustainably sourced palm oil, grown free from deforestation, forest fires and the human rights violations that have long plagued the sector. The campaign, which is being supported by several organisations including palm oil grower Wilmar, will start with a research mission to find out what sorts of oil Singapore’s food and beverage sector uses.

Posted by

Eco Business