Palm oil is used in a vast number of products on sale in supermarkets in Britain - from biscuits to fish fingers, from cosmetics to toiletries.

The majority of palm oil comes from unsustainable sources.

To make way for palm oil plantations rainforests are often illegally cut down and sold. The logging destroys the rich and valuable biodiversity that exists there - and in particular it's destroying the last remaining homes of our closest relation, the orangutan.

Destruction of the rainforest also has a double whammy effect on climate change:

1. Logging itself releases huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, both from the trees themselves, and also from the dense peaty earth that's disturbed in the logging and replanting process.

2. But of course rainforest is also one of the largest and most important carbon sinks on the planet, absorbing carbon directly from the atmosphere. Once the rainforest is cut down the trees stop sucking up the CO2.

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Panorama invesitgates palm oil - Dying for a biscuit
Panorama journeys into Borneo's rainforest where palm oil companies cut down trees illegally & develop plantations on protected land.

• Watch Panorama now - Click here
• Find out more about palm oil products on sale in Britain - Click here

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What is IoM FoE doing?

• We are raising awareness - and asking you to stop buying palm oil products.
• Unfortunately palm oil is sometimes just listed as 'vegetable oil' on packaging, but you can make a difference by refusing to buy palm oil products, and by writing to manufacturers asking them to ensure their palm oil comes only from certified sustainable sources, even if that does cost a little more.