The north devon unesco Biosphere Sustainable Palm Oil community (bspoc) campaign

The Biosphere Sustainable Palm Oil Community campaign encourages businesses, workplaces, hospitality and organisations – anyone that serves, sells or deals with food – to find out where they source their palm oil from, and make changes to ensure that they only use certified sustainable palm oil.

Using certified sustainable palm oil reduces deforestation and protects biodiversity including orangutans, pygmy elephants, and other endangered and vulnerable species that inhabit these rich forest ecosystems.  For more information on what sustainable palm oil is, go to our FAQs page.

About 100 globally-renowned conservation organisations including WWF, Ocean Conservation Trust, Dartmoor Zoological Society and Save the Rhino signed a statement declaring that sustainable palm oil and halting deforestation is the best solution to the palm oil crisis rather than a blanket boycott.  It was also heralded as an innovative solution in BBC Wildlife programme, The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet.

Since Chester Zoo started the Sustainable Palm Oil Communities initiative in 2019, many towns, cities and villages have joined the project including Saltash, Oxford, Plymouth, Newquay, Blackpool and Hull.

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How will the NORTH DEVON UNESCO BIOSPHERE become a sustainable palm oil COMMUNITY?

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We need YOU!  

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Commercial

We need hospitality businesses, workplaces (even if you just have biscuits in the office), educational institutes, council food outlets, hospitals, visitor attractions /leisure facilities and manufacturers / retailers and more.

Click to visit our  'Becoming a Sustainable Palm Oil Community Champion' Page.

A list of businesses within our Biosphere, who have already signed up and pledged to only use sustainable palm oil, will be available soon here.

If you have any other questions about the project, please contact Ruth Read at biosphere-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

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Individuals

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Making informed decisions on sustainable palm oil in your purchases as a consumer and communicating this to shops and manufacturers is one of the best things you can do to make a real difference. Chester Zoo and WAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums) have created a free app to empower you to make sustainable choices called PalmOil Scan. By empowering shoppers to demand change and show support for those that are leading the way we can all play our part in protecting wildlife and their habitats from the devastating effects of deforestation. Use the app to check your favourite product’s barcodes to see how major manufacturers are sourcing their palm oil ingredients. It also gives you the opportunity to alert companies that you’re checking out their scores and may be changing your buying habits as a result! Thousands of products, including chocolates, sausage rolls and crisps have been scanned and scored, with companies worldwide ranked as excellent, good, poor or having made no commitment to sourcing palm oil sustainably.

‍Download PalmOil Scan on the Apple Store

Download PalmOil Scan on Google Play

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For more information:

Check out our FAQ page for further info on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Click to read our Position Statement.

If you’d like to read more about the research and information we’ve spoken about, please visit Chester Zoo’s website.

If you’re interested in setting up your own Sustainable Palm Oil Community and want to find out more about what’s involved, please get in touch with Faye at SPOCity@chesterzoo.org.