Leading Scientists Accuse Think Tanks of Close Ties to Logging Firms

Twelve top experts on biodiversity and rainforests have accused two think tanks of acting as mouthpieces for the global logging and palm oil industry and of promoting “distortions, misrepresentations, or misinterpretations of fact” in their analyses of tropical forests and logging. The scientists, including the former head of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the biodiversity adviser to the president of the World Bank, sent an open letter to the Guardian alleging that the two think tanks — Washington-based World Growth International (WGI) and Melbourne-based International Trade Strategies Global (ITS) — have essentially been lobbying for logging and palm oil companies. These include Sinar Mas, a conglomerate of mostly Indonesian logging, wood pulp, and palm oil companies that has been repeatedly criticized for illegal deforestation and human rights violations. William Laurance, a leading tropical forest expert at James Cook University in Australia, said that while WGI and ITS portray themselves as independent think tanks, they are funded by logging and oil palm companies “playing a major role globally in the rapid destruction of tropical forests.” WGI and ITS have attacked conservation groups, including WWF and Greenpeace, working to slow rainforest destruction.