Appetite for Destruction: Palm oil diaries

Together with Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie) FFN Academy organized three interactive evenings on palm oil to create awareness and help kick-off the campaign ‘Draw the line’ from MilieuDefensie. In Utrecht, Wageningen and Amsterdam the documentary Appetite for Destruction was broadcasted. It showed us the devastating consequences of the palm oil industry both for the forest and its inhabitants. A video message from Alexandra Vosmear and Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn, recorded especially for this occasion stressed this even more. Next to the documentary, in each city a different speaker was invited to give a talk on the topic and to lead the discussion afterwards. In Amsterdam we had the honour to have FFN Award winner Farwiza Farhan speaking from her experiences in Indonesia. In Wageningen, Dr. Michiel Köhne highlighted the social impact of the palm oil industry and in Utrecht Dr. Pita Verweij focussed on problems and solutions on the palm oil issue. We were pleasantly surprised by the many people that attended these evenings and we thank Milieudefensie for the nice collaboration!

By Reineke van Tol