NGO accuses WWF of hindering economic development, profitability of businesses
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, has been accused of exploiting the good intentions of businesses, in order to further their environmental campaign.
The accusation is contained in a new report released this week by a pro-development Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), World Growth, on World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) plans for business partnerships.
WWF, which is a global organisation acting locally through a network of over 90 offices in over 40 countries around the world, has also been cited as not being interested in the profitability of businesses unless it serves their own purposes.
Together with the new report on WWF’s threat to free enterprise, the pro-development NGO on Sunday released a statement that said “WWF’s main goal is to increase conservation areas. They are not interested in the profitability of businesses unless it serves their own purposes.”
In the statement, World Growth warned; “Businesses should be wary of what a WWF partnership means. Our close review of collaborations between WWF and businesses has found that working with WWF ultimately harms business and economic growth.”
The organisation stated that radical green activists have business leaders so obsessed with demonstrating green credentials that they run to apparently ‘business friendly’ groups such as WWF, but fail to realise WWF is just another environmental activist group.
To the NGO, WWF’s “prioritising of conservation has run roughshod over the world’s poor on many occasions.”
Revealing that “WWF is a global organisation with budget turnovers exceeding half a billion dollars,” World Growth lamented that in spite of that they are effectively accountable to no one.
“Our examination of WWF policies and their collaborations with the ‘bad cops’ of the Green movement – such as Greenpeace or Rainforest Action Network – shows that WWF will portray itself as the ‘good cop.’ The ‘bad cop’ will carry out the smear campaigns against the businesses; WWF will then offer the environmental solution,” they stated.
World Growth also alleged that “WWF’s ‘solution’ will be a set of corporate policies that WWF dictates – and businesses must pay for the privilege.
Continuing that to the outsider this could look like an anti-business bait-and-switch, while WWF consistently portrays itself as ‘business friendly’ and ‘development friendly,’ the NGO cautioned; “In the current economy, businesses need to be smarter and more careful about where they spend their Green dollars. They need to put their money where it’s going to help further broader economic goals – not just WWF’s conservation strategy.”
By Edmund Smith-Asante
Oh dear,
I’m worried that Ghana Business News is publishing news like this uncommented. On the other side it enables to discuss purely propaganda like this, so it might be good from this point of view.
To give you a little background: Alan Oxley, who calls himself an ambassador even though he is not an ambassador any more, is chairman of World Growth, which calls itself an NGO. This label is an imitation of organisations which usually focus on the improvement of social or environmental aspects, nationally or internationally. World Growth (and his other organization ITS Global) on the contrary are think tanks / a lobbyist groups, who have a purely power and profit oriented agenda. They challenge climate change, support free trade, lobby for the forestry and palm oil industry. As a matter of course these are points which seriously threaten the environment and harm social welfare.
From this point of view it becomes obvious why World Growth tries to slander NGOs like WWF. The arguments WG presents can be easily proven wrong. It is not the environmental protecting organization which threatens economic growth. On the contrary, more often than not the big international companies, with support of lobby groups, are the ones that are interested in short term profit. They exploit the country they are coming to, and as soon as they social or environmental issues become too obvious and profits decrease, because of land degradaton, they move on to another place with all their profit. Regularly they leave behind a devastated land and let the locals deal with that problem.
But, be aware that environmental protection does not oppose economic growth. No, it just redirects the efforts of entrepreneurs in a way that without harming the environment a sustainable growth and welfare for all people and future generations is achieved. Therefore this kind of approach has a greater potential to improve the situation for business men and local inhabitants in general anywhere in the world, especially in the developing countries.
This means that the accusation of World Growth versus WWF should be looked at very critically.
Which is the job of a reporter from my point of view.