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Amsterdam – Procter and Gamble (P&G) has committed to a new No Deforestation policy that will remove forest destruction from its products and provide full traceability for all the palm oil and derivatives it uses. After weeks of public pressure and outcry over the company’s palm oil sourcing practices, Greenpeace International has welcomed the move as a huge step forward in protecting the country’s forests and the communities who depend on them, but warned that much work still remains.

Nearly 400,000 people have called for the company – which manufactures a wide range of products, including the Head and Shoulders shampoo brand – to change its ways and take measures to stop the destruction of habitat that is home to the Sumatran tiger and the orangutan, amongst other species.

A series of protests across the world drew attention to P&G’s bad practices, including at the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati in the United States, a peaceful action for which Greenpeace US activists still face serious charges.

In response P&G have promised to take measures removing all deforestation from its palm oil supply chains by 2020. The policy goes beyond existing criteria from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and requires the company’s suppliers to guarantee there will be no conversion of peatland, that the rights of local communities will be respected and that high carbon and high conservation value areas will be protected.

“Hundreds of thousands of people across the planet have called on P&G to get rid of palm oil that is leaving tigers and orangutans homeless,” says Areeba Hamid, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace International. “Their commitment today is another step towards responsible supply chains and ending deforestation in the world’s rainforests.”