Community Choices - Cumbria Development Education Centre

"Community Choices" is a day-long simulation activity for sixth formers focused on the dilemmas and consequences of palm oil production in Indonesia - using outdoor as well as indoor spaces.  It's been trialled by CDEC at Youth Hostels in the Lake District and can be adapted for use in different settings.

The Issues

Palm oil is in at least 1 in 10 of the products on our supermarket shelves.  With the increase in demand for biofuel from India and China as well as the traditional "developed" economies, the pressure to produce more and more palm oil has never been greater.

Unfortunately, the quickest way to establish palm oil plantations is to slash and burn rainforest - destroying habitats for rare species, devastating the traditional ways of life of indigenous peoples and depleting the very "lungs" of the planet (the carbon storing ancient trees).

But if you need a job, or if you want to grow your economy and lift your people out of poverty ...  And if you want cheap food with a long shelf-life or an alternative to fossil fuel and are not too worried about where the raw materials came from ...