"New website maps the ground-level impacts of major brands’ palm oil use", 22 February 2024

Key points:

• PalmWatch is an open-access online tool, developed with UChicago DSI, using advanced data science methods to create a detailed map of global palm oil supply chains. 
• The tool links consumer brands to specific mills and fruit harvesting areas, where the often devastating impacts of oil palm cultivation occur. 
• PalmWatch shows that numerous global brands that have been lauded for their ESG credentials—including PepsiCo, Nestlé, General Mills and Unilever—have actually contributed to massive deforestation across the globe as a result of their palm oil use.

A new open-access online tool launched today by Inclusive Development International and the Data Science Institute at the University of Chicago provides a uniquely comprehensive and detailed picture of global palm oil supply chains, linking global corporations to the on-the-ground impact of their palm oil consumption.... Using rigorous data science and advanced, low-cost data visualization methods, PalmWatch traces palm oil supplies from the ground level.... It also means that powerful conglomerates—including PepsiCo, Nestlé, General Mills, Unilever and others that tout their ESG credentials and deforestation commitments—can be held accountable for their contribution to those impacts.

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The industrial cultivation of palm oil has been a major driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss globally. The industry has devastated carbon-rich tropical forests and peatlands, which contributes to climate change, pollution and related health impacts, and it is implicated in human rights violations such as land grabs and child and forced labor....