Monkey business as protestors scale Nestle building (From Your Local Guardian)

Monkey business as protestors scale Nestle building

9:43am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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Eco-activists claiming Kit Kat is killing Orang-utans have scaled the Nestle building in Park Lane to protest against the company.

Campaigners from Greenpeace claim the company uses palm oil in some of their chocolates, sourced from suppliers who destroy rainforest in Indonesia, the natural habitat of endangered Orang-utans.

Protestors dressed as the monkeys are outside the Nestle headquarters in Croydon and are appealing to Nestle staff to stop using palm oil in some of their chocolates.

Others have scaled the building to unfurl a banner with a picture of an Orang-utan on it reading: Kit Kat give me a break.

Niall Bennett, a protestor at the company headquarters, said: "We are here today because Nestle sell Kit Kat which is linked to destroying rainforests.

"They buy palm oil, which goes into the chocolate, from the worst suppliers.

"We have some climbers on the building. They have unfurled a banner down the side of the building."

He said they had been handing out leaflets to passersby and Nestle employees to highlight the issue.

The police have cordonned off part of Park Lane where the protest is taking place.

Mr Bennet said: "We hope to be here most of the day but that all depends on the cops. They turned up pretty quickly when we arrived."

The protest follows a Greenpeace report released today detailing Nestle’s use of palm oil. The report claims palm oil used in Nestle products has come from a palm oil producer called the Sinar Mas Group.

The report claims this company is destroying the Indonesian rainforest.

A Greenpeace spokesman said: "Other large companies, such as Unilever and Kraft, have now cancelled contracts with the Sinar Mas Group.

"Nestle have refused to rule out buying either palm oil or paper products from the Sinar Mas Group."

Ian Duff, rainforests campaigner for Greenpeace, said: “Nestle products like KitKats contain palm oil from suppliers who are trashing rainforests and driving orang-utans to extinction.

“Other big companies are acting to stop this, but Nestle is turning a blind eye to it and continuing to trade with a company that has done more than any other to wipe out the rainforests of Indonesia.

“Nestle must stop destroying rainforests for palm oil.”

As part of the campaign, Greenpeace will also release a video showing an unwitting office worker taking a break to enjoy a KitKat but instead chomping into an orang-utan finger

Are you at Nestle? Call us on 0208 330 9559 or send us your pictures by text to 80360, with SLPICS in the text body.