Africa’s forests 'threatened by palm oil rush'

Greenpeace France warns that tropical forests could be lost to a palm oil bonanza that has already razed millions of hectares of south-east Asia

Africa's tropical forests are threatened by a palm oil bonanza that has already razed millions of old-growth hectares in south-east Asia, Greenpeace France warned on Tuesday.

The NGO called on European palm and rubber plantation giant Socfin, which controls vast tracts of tropical land in more than half-a-dozen African nations, to join other multinationals in adopted so-called "zero deforestation" policies.