Palm oil is found in many products you probably use every day. But its production sometimes comes at the expense of forests, communities and wildlife. What are the solutions?

1. There are a few things you should know about palm oil... © James Morgan / WWF International

2. First, palm oil is widely used in all sorts of products sold in supermarkets – from shampoo to ice cream and margarine to lipstick. © WWF-Canon / Richard Stonehouse

3. Second, palm oil is a multi-billion dollar industry which fuels economies, and directly and indirectly employs millions of people. © James Morgan / WWF International

4. It is also poised for major expansion, especially to help feed growing demand in developing markets like China and India. 50 million tonnes of palm oil produced 77 million tonnes of palm oil produced (projected)

5. But like all stories, this one also has another side to it...

6. To make room for plantations, tropical forests are often cleared, and communities are sometimes forced to move out. © Mark Edwards / WWF-Canon

7. And as forests go, so does the natural habitat of endangered species such as the orang-utan and the tiger. © Fletcher & Baylis / WWF-Indonesia

8. The United Nations says that palm oil plantations are now the leading cause of rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia. © Tantyo Bangun / WWF-Canon

9. At the global level, deforestation is linked to the release of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming. © NASA

10. So does that mean we should boycott palm oil?

11. No. The problem is not with palm oil itself, but rather with where—and how—it’s produced. © James Morgan / WWF International

12. In fact, the palm oil industry has reached a cross-roads and has to decide if it is going to take responsibility for its impacts. © James Morgan / WWF International

13. By aligning their practices to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, more and more palm oil producing companies are showing that they can be sustainable and profitable. © Jürgen Freund / WWF-Canon

14. Over the last few years, the marketplace has seen a growing amount of certified sustainable palm oil produced by these more responsible companies. 2008 2009 2010 1 MT 2 MT 3 MT Million Tonnes/ year

15. But the truth is, most companies on the other end of the supply chain—the ones that buy palm oil—could be buying much more sustainable palm oil.

16. WWF wants all products on supermarket shelves to contain only certified sustainable palm oil by 2015. © WWF-Canon / Richard Stonehouse

17. That’s why in November 201 WWF released the Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard , an assessment of the palm oil buying practices of retailers and consumer goods manufacturers in Europe, Australia and Japan.

18. Curious to know how your favourite brand or retailer has scored? Then check out WWF’s Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard 2011 >