Are your Supply Chains Tiger and Orang-Utan Friendly?

Accounting for roughly 40% of vegetable oil production, palm oil is the most important vegetable oil worldwide. As a key commodity, it is an ingredient of a large range of products, including processed food, cosmetics, shampoo, and soap. A recent Greenpeace report reveals how palm oil supply chains are pushing Sumatran tigers and orang-utans closer to extinction (pdf). It becomes evident “that the palm oil sector is currently the greatest single driver of deforestation in Indonesia, accounting for about a quarter of all forest loss”. The report demonstrates that palm oil supply chains “are aiding and abetting the clearance of the Bornean orang-utan’s rainforest habitat and that of the even scarcer, critically endangered Sumatran tiger” and that “[t]hey have also been complicit in peatland destruction and depriving communities of their land and livelihoods”. How can research in the field of supply chain management help to recognize the true costs of palm oil production?