Shop with PalmOil Scan this Christmas and help wildlife!

Whether it’s chocolates, mince pies, that delicious readymade sauce or cake, or presents like beauty and body products – use our zoos’ free PalmOil Scan app when shopping this Christmas to ensure that what you’re buying is rainforest and wildlife-friendly.

PalmOil Scan, downloadable via the Apple or Google app store, lets you easily shop for products from companies committed to sourcing Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) – palm oil produced without destroying precious rainforests and wildlife.

At Auckland Zoo we’ve worked with our international zoo colleagues on this global app recently launch here in Aotearoa, and with your support in using it, we collectively have the power to help transform the palm oil industry - for good!

“The best Christmas present and future we can all give wildlife and each other is making small everyday decisions that are kind to our planet, like using this app,” says Claudine Gibson, Auckland Zoo’s environmental initiatives advisor and an app administrator for New Zealand.

Palm oil is here to stay and is fine if grown sustainably. It’s now in over 50% of all packaged supermarket products and 85% of the 8 billion tonnes produced annually are grown in Indonesia and Malaysia.

“These are biodiverse hotspots and carbon-rich forests that are home to incredible wildlife like orangutans, Sumatran tigers, elephants, rhino, and thousands of other animal and plant species.

“We all need these forests as they help regulate the global climate that we as humans are reliant on for our own health and wellbeing, so it’s in our interest to help them thrive,” says Amy Robbins, the Zoo’s deputy curator of mammals, primate expert and founder of the Sumatran Ranger Project that works to help conserve and protect the life of these forests in North Sumatra.

“We’re excited that we can offer PalmOil Scan as a really powerful tool enabling consumers to be conservationists every day. This app is super quick and easy to use as our video below shows, and we strongly encourage everyone to download it onto their phones to shop for their festive food and Christmas present shopping, and to keep using it into the New Year and throughout 2024!”