21 January 2013: Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) ambassadors Jane Goodall and Richard Wrangham challenged popular television host Mehmet Oz to clarify his endorsement of red palm fruit oil so that consumers might appreciate the negative impacts of unsustainable palm oil cultivation on great apes and their habitat.

Oz declared red palm fruit oil as his “most miraculous find for 2013,” but failed to warn viewers that the production of palm oil is a major threat to the long-term survival of orangutans in Southeast Asia and other great apes in Africa. “At a time when many multi-national corporations are turning away from the use of palm oil and seeking sustainable alternatives, Dr. Oz did not reference the environmental crisis at all,” Goodall said. In Southeast Asia, more than 80 per cent of the orangutans’ habitat in Borneo and Sumatra has been lost to agricultural conversion in the past 20 years, predominantly for the production of palm oil. The wild orangutan population has plummeted in that time, and the Sumatran orangutan is classified as “critically endangered.” At the current rate of population loss, experts believe orangutans could soon become extinct in the wild.

Mehmet Oz responded to the concerns expressed by posting an online blog that specifically addresses the threat unsustainable production poses to great apes and their habitat in Africa and Asia. [UNEP Release][GRASP Release on Response by Oz]