Palm Oil Watch International (hereinafter POWI) is an independent platform of organizations and individuals who cooperate in order to reduce an excessive global consumption of palm oil and to improve its certified sustainable production. We, its members, are working across disciplines, with information obtained directly from the production sites. We organize educational events for the public, provide political lobbying, and communicate with the business sector. We focus on the issue of palm oil but do not ignore the related environmental and social impacts. Intensive production of palm oil is an example of the global market system where, despite many promises and certifications, the short-term profit dominates over the sustainable management of the environment and the interests of particular people. We, therefore, provide advice for consumers and producers in a broader context, including the issues of food self-sufficiency, responsible and sustainable management and conscious consumption. We believe in a fairer world each of us can shape, therefore www.PalmOilWatch.net.

At the moment the concept of coalition established in the Czech Republic aspires to expand abroad. We are getting in touch with the like-minded people and institutions in many European countries (currently we are gaining contacts in Belgium, France, Holland, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Slovakia), but also in Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and South America in order to create a new worldwide platform called Palm Oil Watch International. We hope that in the next two years we will be able to elaborate and stabilize the concept of POWI sufficiently, which will allow us to share our experiences with foreign partners, and our joint effort will result in a worldwide campaign run by a global coalition - assuming that we will have not solved the problem by then. :)

An initial idea to create a close cooperation of those who are not indifferent to the global problem of tropical forest devastation by oil palm plantations emerged in the Czech Republic in 2012. An establishment of Czech Palm Oil Watch was a logical step. We launched a national campaign against palm oil that has proven to be very successful and expanded into neighbouring European countries. The pressure from "below" (i.e. consumer-oriented) has resulted in increased media attention and ultimately even in political interest, ranging from the domestic scene to the European Parliament.

From its very beginning, POWI has been heading much higher than "just" towards reducing the global consumption of this problematic commodity. Palm oil is perceived as a kind of a flagship, which nicely illustrates "unwanted" consequences of the unconscious behaviour of consumers and companies to the natural world. Our main goal is, therefore, to promote environmentally considerate production and distribution of goods across all ranges of commodities and services.

The world is finally becoming increasingly aware of the impact of current irresponsible approach to nature and the environment. Though, it is unfortunately not so much the merit of those who have tried to inform about these problems for many decades (environmentalists), but rather due to the fact that the negative scenarios of climate change with all their consequences, including global migrations, depletion of natural resources, pollution threatening ourselves, and our (in)fertility have become our everyday reality. Perhaps, there is no other way out than to start thinking differently on a global scale and lay paramount emphasis on the conservation of the world's ecosystem. We know only too well that the greatest power is not in the hands of politicians, governments or multinational corporations, but in the wallets of ordinary people - buyers and consumers. We are, therefore, confident that this will be a decisive force that will increasingly influence the future of our planet. And that's the power we successfully want to cooperate with further on.

If you are a member or know about an organization that would like to cooperate with us, please, contact our international coordinator Petr Sramek (coordinator.powi@gmail.com) who will send you a cooperation invitation.

Czech Palm Oil Watch is celebrating 4th anniversary
on 7 April 2017!

Watch the story of palm oil campaign in the Czech Republic. (in Czech only)