 Hi guys, welcome back to another video with Moa. So today I'm going to be talking about how we as consumers can actually help in stopping the production of unsustainable palm oil. Now this is a topic that's actually really close to my heart as I've heard so many things about the damage that it's causing to our environment and the animals within those environments. So it's actually a huge issue over in Indonesia and Malaysia where a lot of deforestation, loss of habitat and the negative impact on the animals and creatures within those environments is happening. Now palm oil is a type of vegetable oil which is obtained from the palm fruit and this is grown on the African oil palm tree. Originally oil palms are from western Africa but they can thrive in almost any environment where there is plenty of heat and rainfall. Today palm oil is produced throughout Africa, Asia and North and South America with 85% of all palm oil produced and exported globally from Indonesia and Malaysia, most of the time using unsustainable methods. Now some of the environmental impacts caused by the production of palm oil is deforestation, loss of habitat, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it's produced. Palm oil production is one of the leading causes of deforestation of rain forests and other ecosystems. This has resulted in a huge loss of habitat for species such as orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos and many other animals and creatures. Currently one third of all mammal species in Indonesia are known to be critically endangered as a result of this unsustainable industry that is rapidly intruding on their habitat. One animal in particular that has been greatly affected by deforestation is the orangutan. Over 90% of the orangutan's habitat has been destroyed in such a short timeframe of only 20 years, making it a conservation emergency by the UN. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 to 5,000 orangutans are killed each year as a result of this development. Orangutans play a key role in maintaining the health of the environment in ecosystems around them. For instance, some rain forest seeds in particular can only germinate once they've been passed through an orangutan's gut. Essentially making orangutans a vital part in ensuring the spread of rain forest seeds. If they were to become extinct, this would mean that many of the beautiful trees that we see in rain forests today would eventually die out because they would be unable to reproduce. This does not only go for orangutans, thousands of other species are facing the same fate in Southeast Asia due to the development of palm oil. Furthermore, deforestation as a result of palm oil development has significantly contributed to climate change. By removing native forests, carbon that was once stored in these magnificent trees have now been released, often through the burning of timber and forest undergrowth. This emits vast amounts of CO2 and smoke into the atmosphere, and is one of the reasons why Indonesia has become the third highest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area equivalent to 300 football fields of rain forest is cleared every hour to make room for palm oil plantations. Research shows that if nothing changes, species like the orangutan could become extinct within the next 5 to 10 years, and the Sumatran tiger in less than 3 years. So here's the part where we as consumers can help prevent this from happening. So let's go on to what palm oil is actually found in. As palm oil is so cheap and incredibly versatile, it's become a really popular choice by manufacturers to use in a lot of products. Products palm oil is commonly used in include things like packaged sweets, so like chocolate, ice cream and cookies, instant noodles, packaged bakery goods like muffins and bread, margarine, cosmetics, bath soaps, detergent, shampoos and biodiesel. Now some restaurants, fast food chains and brands that you can expect to find palm oil still used in are things like McDonald's, Domino's, Walmart, Target, Costco, Wholesale, Dollar Tree, Subway, Pizza Hut and a few other brands and fast food chains which I'll link in the description below which foods and brands and products to watch out for. To help play our part in preventing the unsustainable production of palm oil, we can use our consumer power and stop purchasing products which contain this oil. You can make the decision to eat out at palm oil free restaurants and fast food stores and check the ingredients list on the back of products to see if they use palm oil. Vegetable oil is a common hidden name for palm oil. In Australia and New Zealand only three vegetable oils need to be listed in food products. These are peanut oil, soybean oil and sesame seed oil. The reason for this is the percentage of the population suffers from allergies to these oils. All other vegetable oils can be labelled under the generic vegetable oil term. However, the label must declare how much saturated fat is in the product. If the label states vegetable oil and then goes on to state the amount of saturated fat, you can count on that vegetable oil being either coconut oil or palm oil. This is a way of potentially identifying whether a product has palm oil in it as other vegetable oils aren't saturated. I'll link in the description below where you can find a full list of all the hidden names for palm oil. That's all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed the video. If you liked it you know just to give it a thumbs up and if you want to see more of my videos you know just to subscribe down below. And I hope you found this video helpful. If you did and you want to share some more ideas on how to identify palm oil in products or tips and tricks that you've learnt to help reduce your palm oil consumption, please feel free to share them in the comments below. I'd love to hear them. I'll always have a brilliant day and I'll see you in my next video. Bye guys!