Unilever, the multinational consumer goods company, is terminating its contract with Sinar Mas, the biggest producer of palm oil in Indonesia.

According to a report released by the environmental organisation Greenpeace, Sinar Mas has been involved in the illegal felling of rain forest trees. It is also suspected of burning peat bogs to provide space for palm oil plantations and of cutting down trees in the protected habitats of orangutans.

Unilever, which consumes around 1.3 million tonnes of palm oil a year in many of its products, said it had had doubts about Sinar Mas following its own investigations, but that the Greenpeace report had confirmed them. It has announced that by 2015, it wants all its palm oil to come from sustainable plantations.

Photo of palm oil plantation by angela7 (flickr)