"We are eliminating our closest relatives, which is not very wise for a species that had the stomach to call itself Homo sapiens, the wise one," says Paul R. Ehrlich, professor and principal at Stanford University.

The vegetable oil is found in margarine, cookies, deep-fried products and chocolate, but can also be found in products such as makeup, soap, detergents and biofuels. Palm oil itself does not have to be bad, but the way most of it is produced is harmful to animals and nature.

Extinguished fires

For the orangutans, palm oil production contributes to losing their homes as huge amounts of rainforest are cut down. Then they also become easier prey for poachers who kill or sell them as pets.

But palm oil production also increases the risk of large, extinguished fires, which in turn destroy nature and threaten humans and animals. Fires are being burnt, on desiccated land, when you want to prepare new land for palm oil plantations.

- Lighting a fire on a turf is like lighting a fire on a coal mine, it is pure hell to try to extinguish it, says Paul R. Ehrlich.

Durable palm oil

But the cultivation of palm oil is also important for the economy of Southeast Asia. It creates jobs and export revenue. The oil palm requires less water, fertilizers and pesticides than other oil plants and you can harvest most of the year. Therefore, it is not obvious that a boycott of palm oil is the right way to go.

"For me, there is only one solution and it is sustainable palm oil," says Erik Meijaard, professor of biology at the University of Queensland.

In the last few decades, nearly 150,000 orangutans have disappeared, halving the population of Borneo. And global consumption of palm oil is expected to double by 2050, according to the BBC.