Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is a con

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) sustainability guarantee is supposed to mean shoppers and industry can buy palm oil – used in products from cosmetics and foodstuffs to biofuels – without worrying that it is linked to deforestation, destroying the habitats of endangered species and human rights abuses. In 2015, we exposed major failures in its system and now we’re back with a new report, Who Watches the Watchmen? 2 – and, far from the RSPO cleaning house, the situation is even worse.

Antiques trade bid to quash Ivory Act fails

A group of antiques traders has failed to overturn the UK Ivory Act. Following a judicial review, the judge ruled in favour of the Government and against the traders, who had argued the ivory trade ban was contrary to EU law and infringed their rights.