Blackwashing: do NGO tactics risk long term public trust?
05 January 2010
The continued expansion of palm oil
plantations means orangutans are just a few years from extinction, if
you accept the predictions of various environmental groups, including
Friends of the Earth.
One group, the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), has gone further in claiming, 'orangutans are predicted to become extinct as early as 2011.'
Neither
claim is likely to be true and may in fact be evidence of
'blackwashing', a term used to describe environmental scaremongering
and propaganda.
A report published recently in the journal of tropical biology and conservation analysed the publicity tactics used by both NGOs and palm oil companies on the issue of tropical deforestation.
It
is openly critical of groups, including FOE and RAN, for making,
'exaggerated claims in their campaigns...misleading and unverified
accusations of avoidable environmental degradation by corporations.'
It
says there are 50,000 orangutans in 54 wild populations scattered
across Sumatra and Borneo. And that at least 38 of those populations
exceed 250 individuals, the level needed to maintain a viable breeding
population.
No extinction in 2011
Other
organisations like the Sumatran Orangutan Society refuse to use
extinction dates because of their unreliability. ‘We prefer to say that
they are likely to be the first great ape species to become extinct
unless we stop deforestation,' says spokesperson Helen Buckland.
Report
co-author Rhett Butler explains further: 'We aren't saying the
deforestation isn't occuring (it certainly is) but that NGOs need to be
careful about getting the facts right. For example, claiming that
orang-utans are going to be extinct by 2011 is not accurate.'
RAN admitted that its figure was inaccurate. Spokesperson Margaret Swink said it had been taken from a Guardian news report that in turn got it from a British orangutan association.
'Everyone
wants to take the fact that is the most convincing or grabs people's
attention the quickest. We try and be as accurate as possible but we
don't always succeed.
'We are a campaigning organisation so research is not our main thrust,' she says.
Unfair comparison
Swink
says she hopes people realise that the action they and other NGOs take
are designed to force corporations to be more responsible and
acknowledge the impact their decisions have on wild orangutan
populations.
'This is the critical point rather than the exact extinct date of 2011, 2015 or 2020,' she says.
A
point reiterated by Friends of the Earth (FOE), who said it was
'completely unfair' to compare the tactics of corporations and NGOs.
'On
the one hand FOE is concerned about human rights and environmental
protection. On the other hand, you have PR projects funded by
industries that destroy the environment and commit human rights
abuses,' says head of economics Ed Matthews.
Matthews said
species like the orangutan were emblematic of the wider destruction of
rainforest in Indonesia. 'To get corporations to act, to galvanise
political parties, we have to focus on emblematic cases.
'But we would never have used the figures we used if we had not thought it was credible,' he says.
Short-term tactics
The report says such an approach could actually be 'counterproductive' to safeguarding against deforestation.
In
the short term, says the report, blackwashing can 'make headlines,
raise the profile of environmental debates and increase donations'. But
in the longer term, blackwashing exposed for what it really is could,
'diminish the trust invested in environmental groups and more generally
undermine public support for conservation.'
Co-author Rhett
Butler says NGOs rushing to defend their use of facts are missing a
more important point, namely the unprecedented power environmental
groups have to change corporate behaviour, if they stick to accurate
facts.
'Given current trends, it seems likely that in the future
the bulk of environmental degradation (especially deforestation) will
be driven by industrial enterprises rather than subsistence users. Thus
since corporate entities are the actors, engagement is important.'
NGO power
Butler
points to the success of a recent Greenpeace campaign that pressurised
the largest soy crushes in the Amazon to implement a moratorium on soy
processing, pending the development of a tracking mechanism to ensure
their crop was coming from environmentally-responsible producers.
He
said while the rise of industrial-scale deforestation was ‘alarming',
it allowed NGOs to focus their attention on a ‘vastly smaller number of
resource-exploiting corporations'.
‘Many of these are either
multinational firms or domestic companies seeking access to
international markets which compels them to exhibit some sensitivity to
the growing environmental concerns of global consumers and
shareholders,' says Butler in a previous report he co-authored, ‘New Strategies for conserving tropical forests'.
RSPO
Helen Buckland, of the Sumatran Orangutan Society,
says the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), working on mutually
acceptable criteria for palm oil production, was a case in point. RAN and Greenpeace have been among those critical of RSPO and NGOs taking part for becoming part of corporate greenwashing apparatus.
‘We
have to be realistic,' says Buckland. ‘Oil plantations are not going to
go away. Deforestation will continue, we cannot save every tree. But
there are millions of acres of land available in Indonesia that is not
of conservation value,' she says.
Friends of the Earth said they
also took a deliberate decision to harness corporate support for
ethical palm oil rather than call for a boycott. Ed Matthews said while
RSPO had not developed as they had hoped they had succeeded in getting
all major UK supermarkets to join up.
While admitting RSPO on
its own was never going to be enough, Buckland said activists calling
for a ban on palm oil were getting their message across the loudest but
ultimately confusing the public.
‘People might assume there
will be an easy alternative to palm oil but that might be soya and then
the problem is exported to the Amazon,' she says.
How to collaborate with companies?
Buckland
admits they have to continually assess their relationships with
companies to make sure there is progress being made, ‘we do not want to
let them use us as greenwash'.
But Butler and his co-authors say RSPO and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) pointed the way forward for NGOs.
‘Neither
greenwashing nor blackwashing campaigns are constructive...instead they
should be helping palm oil industry develop stronger sustainability
criteria and raising consumer awareness and demand for certified
sustainable palm oil.'
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