The Corporate Coup of the Commons, a decade in the making
No Deal for Nature campaign
Our natural world is facing the most serious threats she has ever known. At the forefront is the accelerating loss of biodiversity, upon which all life depends. However, this very real threat is being increasingly marketed and exploited by corporate interests, in particular by the conservation industry, with the aim of rebooting the global economy. An investigative series by Canadian independent journalist Cory Morningstar published last year [1] unveiled how the world’s most powerful corporations, financial institutions, and NGOs complicit in human rights abuses, led by the WWF, are drawing up what is called the New Deal For Nature. This deal represents the corporate coup of the commons, entailing attaching a monetary value to nature, primarily via the use of what is termed nature-based solutions, or natural climate solutions.
Plans for this deal were unveiled in 2019 at the World Economic Forum, which entered into partnership with the United Nations on June 13 of the same year [2]. At a February 9 event, Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity stated clearly the intent of the proposed deal, “There is money to be made in going green.” [3]
As Cory Morningstar has written in her detailed investigative “Manufacturing Consent” series exposing these corporate plans, 2020 has been called a Super Year. The public is now being bombarded on an almost daily basis with news stories claiming that nature needs to be “protected” and “restored”, and more recently to convince us that our health relies on doing so. As Cory has written, a decade of social engineering of the environmental movement has led us to this point. By getting the environmental movement to demand government action supporting climate action, a broad and vague call which corporations have manipulated to their own ends, the movement can easily be steered towards demanding further action from institutions which have now been fully captured by corporate interests.
“The ten-year social engineering effort also led to a transition from environmentalism into full-blown yet undetected anthropocentrism. Over a ten year span, “environmentalism” moved from that of protecting nature, to demanding a roll-out of green technology, industrial in scale, that would further plunder nature. The natural world became irrelevant as the desire for green technology superceded environmental protection. Wind turbines and solar panels replaced images of trees and insects as the new symbols of our natural world. Saving the industrial civilization that is killing off all life became paramount to saving the ecosystems that all life depends on. These ideologies slowly took hold until “movements” become nothing more than lobby groups for green energy. Volunteers marching for capital, global in scale. To suggest that Edward Bernays would be impressed would be an understatement. Such is the beauty of social engineering and behavioural change.”
Each time we see personalities such as Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough or Jane Goodall – the three main celebrities chosen by the World Economic Forum to sell the New Deal for Nature – make a media appearance, we know their goal is to help garner a social licence for this corporate coup of the commons.
Sadly, fear porn and celebrity sells, and the corporate interests behind this deal expect the unwitting public to run into the arms of these same interests, who hide behind personalities such as Greta, begging for a solution. Exploiting the public’s fear of climate change and ecological collapse, and its desire for action is expected to mobilise the required support for the financialisation of nature. In short, the public is being played.
But nothing is written in stone and if we resist, we can throw a spanner in the works. For example, the New Deal For Nature was due to be finalised as part of the post-2020 biodiversity framework at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference to be held China in October 2020. Thanks in part to our resistance, however, this event has now been postponed to May 17-30, 2021, according to a press release released by the UN CBD on July 15. [4]
Business For Nature, the greatest oxymoron ever
As one of our signatories, Winter Oak Press has written: “business can no more be ‘for nature’ than a war can be ‘for peace’, then we have fallen victim to the same colonization of the mind that Fanon identified in native peoples.” [5]
The members of the Natural Capital Coalition behind the New Deal for Nature, make no secret of the fact that this deal is all about business, not about protecting nature, which is the message it wishes to convey to the public.
Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy describes the intent best: “This reminds me of my Wall Street days. I mean, all the new markets, the high yield markets, this is how they all start.”
In a more recent piece published on June 23, 2020, It’s Time for Business to Aim Higher. Here’s One Way to Do It—Natural Climate Solutions, Tercek lays out the current state of play. [6]
The most concerning aspect of the deal is the proposal to almost double, from the current 17%, to 30%, the number of protected areas, via the use of natural climate solutions, thereby threatening the further displacement and genocide of Indigenous and tribal peoples who are far better guardians of biodiversity than the conservation industry. Experience shows that protected areas, often militarised, feed corporate profiting and destruction, with conservation NGOs regularly collaborating with oil, gas and mining interests to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands. [7]
Another of Cory’s investigations, entitled “Natural Climate Manipulations” [8], exposes the corporate interests and personalities behind the push for thesenatural climate solutions.
Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy describes the intent best: “This reminds me of my Wall Street days. I mean, all the new markets, the high yield markets, this is how they all start.”
In a more recent piece published on June 23, 2020, It’s Time for Business to Aim Higher. Here’s One Way to Do It—Natural Climate Solutions, Tercek lays out the current state of play. [6]
The most concerning aspect of the deal is the proposal to almost double, from the current 17%, to 30%, the number of protected areas, via the use of natural climate solutions, thereby threatening the further displacement and genocide of Indigenous and tribal peoples who are far better guardians of biodiversity than the conservation industry. Experience shows that protected areas, often militarised, feed corporate profiting and destruction, with conservation NGOs regularly collaborating with oil, gas and mining interests to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands. [7]
Another of Cory’s investigations, entitled “Natural Climate Manipulations” [8], exposes the corporate interests and personalities behind the push for thesenatural climate solutions.
Five reasons to say “no” to the New Deal For Nature
1. Conceived of by vested interests. The New Deal For Nature (NDFN) is being drawn up by the world’s most powerful corporations, financial institutions, and conservation NGOs, including WWF. WWF has been complicit in human rights abuses for decades. At the helm of the NDFN is the World Economic Forum which entered into partnership with the United Nations on June 13, 2019.
2. Undemocratic. The NDFN is being negotiated without any participation from the wider public. The deal is now expected to be concluded at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference in May 2021 without any vote by our local, regional or national parliaments, bypassing full democratic scrutiny.
3. Represents the corporate coup of the commons. During negotiations on free trade agreements such as TTIP and CETA, we saw how our governments work hand-in-hand with multinational corporations to hand over even greater power to big business, privatising more public services. Now nature is up for grabs.
Under the guise of taking action on the climate and ecological crises, what the NDFN entails, in practice, is the financialisation and privatisation of nature (defined as “ecosystem services”, “natural capital”, “natural climate solutions” or “nature-based solutions”)—global in scale. Assigning monetary value to nature enables industries such as the fossil fuel industry to continue polluting as long as they commit to engaging in net zero activities such as offsetting carbon emissions by planting trees, or by “restoring” nature.
4. Rescues the very system destroying nature. The NDFN would involve the total transformation of the global economic system to create new markets, thereby salvaging the failing global economic capitalist system that has brought us to the brink of ecological catastrophe.
5. Harms those best placed to protect biodiversity. The NDFN would threaten the further displacement and genocide of Indigenous and tribal peoples as global corporations and conservation NGOs seek control of their lands to maintain hegemony under the guise of tackling climate change and restoring nature. This represents a new wave of colonisation, for peoples in the Global South in particular.
How to get involved in the No Deal For Nature campaign
WWF is leading the charge in calling for this deal, so we plan to hold a decentralised International Day of Action against WWF on 26th September. Anyone interested in organising an event can email us at nodealfornature@protonmail.com and we will send on resources.
We also invite anyone who wishes to sign our statement and get involved in our campaign to get in touch.
We cannot recommend highly enough the research of Cory Morningstar, who has devoted herself to exposing the corporate interests in the climate movement – which she had been closely involved with – for well over a decade. This campaign would not exist without her work. We owe her a debt of gratitude for her tireless research and detailed investigations.
To learn more about our campaign, follow us on Twitter at @nodealfornature and @Boycott_WWF, and visit our website at nodealfornature.org.
Links for your research
[1] http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
Series summarised in this interview: https://soundcloud.com/lastborninthewilderness/cory-morningstar
[2] https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/06/world-economic-forum-and-un-sign-strategic-partnership-framework/
[3] https://youtu.be/05bG9ovIzDQ
[4] https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2020/pr-2020-07-16-sbstta-sbi-en.pdf
[5] https://orgrad.wordpress.com/2019/10/12/blasting-open-the-continuum-of-history/
[6] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-business-aim-higher-heres-one-way-do-itnatural-mark-tercek
[7] https://wrm.org.uy/bulletins/issue-249/
[8] http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/09/26/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-natural-climate-manipulations-volume-ii-act-vi/
No Deal For Nature campaign: Working to prevent the monetisation of nature because life is not a commodity - To learn more about our campaign, follow us on Twitter at @nodealfornature and @Boycott_WWF, and visit our website at nodealfornature.org