New Report: WWF’s Failing Credibility

Melbourne, Australia – The pro-development NGO, World Growth, today released a new report, which concludes WWF is wholly out of touch with the real world. The report – Is WWF Delusional? – was released as part of World Growth’s “Road to Rio” series ahead of the Rio +20 Conference for Sustainable Development. The report argues that WWF wants the global economy shaped by ecology, not economics, and justifies this with models built on flights of fancy, not science, and numbers that are factually inaccurate.World Growth Chairman Ambassador Alan Oxley released the following statement:”While world leaders grapple with the biggest global economic crisis in 80 years, WWF seems to be living in another world, arguing that the world must reduce consumption and production. All this will do is make life more miserable for hundreds of millions of people and reduce the capacity of governments to address real environmental problems” said Ambassador Oxley.
Ambassador Oxley said the World Growth report shows WWF is following its long-standing practice of misrepresenting facts and producing supposedly technical reports to advance its broad environmental ambitions and political positions, not demonstrate environmental damage.He said it also shows WWF has shrugged off any pretence of being mainstream and has positioned itself with the radical ecological wing of the environment movement.“WWF has used unsupportable data to repackage in today’s language the Malthusian fear that over-population will deplete resources and food stocks, and the discredited assumption of the Club of Rome five decades ago that the world will run out of resources,” the World Growth report states.“The facts are that since 1992, global management of the environment has improved markedly. There has been a marked reduction of toxic effluents, major improvement in management of the environmental impacts of industrial and resource industries, adoption of sustainable management practices in agricultural and resource industries and a significant expansion of conservation reserves globally. To reduce poverty and to improve the environment, the world needs more prosperity, not less.”
World Growth is an international non-governmental organization established to expand the research, information, advocacy, and other resources to improve the economic conditions and living standards in developing and transitional countries. At World Growth, we embrace the age of globalization and the power of free trade to eradicate poverty and create jobs and opportunities. World Growth supports the production of palm oil and the use of forestry as a means to promote economic growth, reduce poverty and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. World Growth believes a robust cultivation of palm oil and forestry provides an effective means of environmental stewardship that can serve as the catalyst for increasing social and economic development. For more information on World Growth, visit http://www.worldgrowth.org.