Soaps With An Eco-conscience At The Body Shop Singapore
Each bar of soap you buy from The Body Shop Singapore will help save the rainforests in Borneo, where some 15,000 animals and plant species call home. From 24 July 2009 to 23 July 2010, The Body Shop Singapore will donate 10% of the profit from sale of Soaps (RRP: $4.90 to $7.90) to WWF’s Heart of Borneo programme. Through this fundraising activity in all stores, The Body Shop Singapore aims to raise $20,000 in 12 months, which will support the conservation efforts of the Heart of Borneo initiative, ensuring that Borneo’s natural treasures are protected well into the future.
Spanning across the borders of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, the “Heart of Borneo“ is one of the most biologically diverse habitats on the planet. However, it also has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. Every year, 1.3 million ha of forest area is being cleared away for commercial uses – an equivalent of six football pitches every minute, and the international illegal wildlife trade is threatening the survival of already endangered species.
According to Carine Seror, Director of Corporate Responsibility at WWF Singapore, funds raised will go towards the protection and sustainable management of the rainforest, as well as empower local communities and governments to generate income by offering ecologically-sustainable goods and related services.
The Heart of Borneo
| According to WWF sources, 75% of Borneo was covered by dense forest in the mid-1980s. However by 2005, its forest cover dropped to 50%. If logging and land-clearing for agriculture continues at the current rate, forest area may very well be reduced to less than a third by 2020.
This is alarming because what remains of this forest, also known as the Heart of Borneo, boasts a diversity of species that few places in the world could match. According to scientific research in 2006, plants found within this region may provide cures for terminal diseases like cancer, malaria and AIDS. Given that 400 new species of plants and animals were discovered over 10 years (or an average of three per month), it is likely that more life-saving medical breakthroughs rest on the timely conservation of the rainforest in Borneo. |
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Sustainable Palm Oil in The Body Shop Soaps
As Seror noted, the conversion of forest area to oil palm plantations is one of the biggest threats to the remaining rainforest in Borneo and the species that inhabit it.
In 2007, The Body Shop International became the first cosmetics and toiletries retailer to introduce sustainable palm oil into the global beauty industry. The company made this pioneering move as a response to the continued and rapid destruction of the world’s ancient rainforests caused by irresponsible palm oil production. It started sourcing the sustainable palm oil from a plantation in Colombia. Today, The Body Shop uses sustainable palm oil in all its Soaps, equating to 7.5. million bars sold in 2008.
The original, natural and ethical beauty brand has focused on tackling the palm oil issue for some years and is a leading figure on the global Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). When The Body Shop joined the organising committee of the RSPO in 2004, membership numbered just 10 organisations. Five years later, over 250 organisations have committed themselves to finding solutions to the grave issues posed by palm oil production, including a number of major retailers who now make up a 20 strong group within the RSPO. The Body Shop continues to call for more retailers to join the RSPO, and for those who have already made this commitment to begin sourcing RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil.
Power of Consumers
From 24 July 2009, The Body Shop customers can choose from a wide range of Soaps, safe in the knowledge that not only are the Soaps great for their skin, but that The Body Shop has sourced and manufactured the Soaps in an environmentally sustainable way. Now, in more ways than one, the Soaps will also be helping to protect one of the world’s most ancient rainforests and its endangered biodiversity.
There are more than 10 different Soaps to choose from, such as fruity Strawberry, Passion Fruit, Pink Grapefruit, Satsuma, Papaya and Mango, or deeply moisturising favourites Brazil Nut, Olive, Shea and Moringa. Prices for these Soaps range from $4.90 to $7.90.
WWF
| The World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, with more than 5 million supporters globally. With the mission to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, WWF aims to achieve this by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. WWF’s global conservation network is active in more than 100 countries, with conservation programmes in 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific region alone. |
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