MayDay for sustainable palm oil

May Day 2014 at Prague Zoo. Photo: František Tymr, Zoo Praha

The growing production of palm oil destroys natural habitats especially in South East Asia. A number of the world’s top zoological gardens, whose combined visitor numbers exceed 220 million a year, have issued a Joint Statement on Palm Oil. Their aim is both to advocate for the palm oil industry to adopt a permanently sustainable model, and to raise public awareness of the problems caused by palm oil consumption.

This is why we chose palm oil to be the theme of this year’s MayDay event, which we hold on May 8 every year to respond to the “cry for help” raised by endangered animal species. Our zoo hosted children from six associated schools and children’s clubs from all across the Czech Republic, who presented their projects to inform the public about orangutans, tapirs, tigers and many other species that could vanish outright, threatened as they are by the destruction of old-growth forests and their conversion to oil palm plantations. Interested visitors who were drawn to these talks and performances could, at each site, buy souvenirs that had been made by the children themselves.

Incredibly, these school children managed to sell enough T-shirts, ceramics, jewelry, bookmarks and many other souvenirs to raise a total of 29,889 CZK! The proceeds from the event went into  the We Help Them to Survive account.