A challenge to conservationists

Conflicts of interest among the three big international conservationist organisations

This essay argues that because of corporate and government money flowing into the three big international organisations that dominate the world’s conservation agenda, their programmes have been marked by growing conflicts of interest—and by a disturbing neglect of the indigenous peoples whose land they are in business to protect. The three organisations in question are the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

Conclusion of the essay are:

misunderstandings, conflicts of interest and long periods of stagnation are common in project work in the field where cooperation among groups and sectors is crucial
cooperation between the large conservationist NGOs and with smaller groups, including indigenous and traditional peoples, has decreased over the past decade, to be replaced by financial competition
the large conservationists are not accountable to anyone, and that far too little is known about what is really happening in the field. One reason for the lack of clear information is the role of the three groups marketing and fundraising arms in packaging field reports and data, a tactic that encourages the exaggeration of successes and downplaying or non recognition of questionable results.

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A challenge to conservationists