This is the corporate coup of the commons. It represents the monetization of all nature on a global scale.
Under the guise of environmental protection, the NDFN amounts to the privatization, commodification and objectification of nature, marketed with emotive imagery and holistic framing.
It also threatens further Indigenous displacement and genocide.
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.”
The NDFN must be stopped. We call on all those who care about nature to speak out now.
We urge them to hold public meetings, disseminate information, form local campaign groups, hold protests, and to take whatever action is necessary to halt this monstrous and unprecedented assault on our living world by the capitalist system.
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.
• Brian Davey, Social Ecological Economist, UK
• Luke Dodson, campaigner, UK
•Dr. Alexander Dunlap, University of Oslo, Norway
• Dr. Anwesha Dutta, post doctoral researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway
• Luke Eastwood, Regional co-ordinator, Extinction Rebellion, Kerry, Ireland
• Angela Elder, UK
• Richard Evoy
• Patrick Farnsworth, campaigner and host of Last Born in the Wilderness
• Rosanna Ferrera
• Trace Fleeman y Garcia, Oregon Institute for Creative Research, International Ecolinguistics Association, US
• Dr Achiba Gargule, Kenya
• Kelly Rose Gibbons
• Dr Karen Goaman, independent anthropologist and campaigner, UK
• Charlotte Golding, tree hugger and nature lover, UK
• Ronald Lee Hagelund
• Hiroyuki Hamada, artist, US
• Jimmy Han, US
• Melissa Hoffman, campaigner, US
• Wendy Howard, ecologist, educator, ecosystem repairer, Quinta do Vale – Permaculturing in Portugal, Portuga
• Dr Jasmin Immonen, anthropologist, affiliated with XR Finland, Finland
• Marcy Johnson, US
• Molly Klein, campaigner, US
• Dr Timothy Krantz, Professor of Environmental Science, University of Redlands, US
• Chris Lang, REDD-Monitor
• Lukas Leitinger, MA student at UPF Barcelona
• John Lennon, campaigner, Let’s build a better Jamaica, Jamaica
• Prof. dr. ir. Frédéric Leroy, VUB, Belgium (signing in an independent capacity)
• Jacob Levich, university administrator and researcher, New York City, US
• Jacob Levich, university administrator and researcher, New York City, US
• David Lewane, campaigner, US
• Jennifer Little
• Alasdair Lord
• Sumner Macpherson, campaigner, US
• Gary MacDougall
• Paul Melzer, campaigner, US
• Jordan Michel-Muniz, social activist, Brazil
• Dr Jonathan Molad, philosopher, Melbourne, Australia
• Cory Morningstar, writer and researcher at Wrong Kind of Green, Canada
• Rael Nidess, M.D., US
• Branko Obradovic, campaigner, Croatia
• Andrew Orpen
• Forrest Palmer, writer and researcher at Wrong Kind of Green, US
• Mark Pryke
• Geraldine Ring, campaigner, Belgium
• Yzabelaah Samahra Rose, editor of AEVA magazine, UK
• Kelly Rose GibbonsEmma Sansom, UK
• Vijay Sekhon, campaigner, Mumbai, India
• Noga Shanee, PhD, Reclaim Conservation, UK
• Wendy Sharpe, UK
• Christopher Shaw, Visiting Faculty member of the School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK
• Nicholas Sherrington
• South Essex Radical Media, UK
• Keith Harmon Snow, photojournalist and war correspondent, US
• Dr. Clive Spash, Chair of Public Policy and Governance, Institute for Multi-Level Governance & Development, Department of Socio-Economics, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
• Don Sullivan, former N. American Co-ordinator for the Taiga Rescue Network, Canada
• Paul Swann, campaigner, UK
• Michael Swifte, writer and researcher at Wrong Kind of Green, Australia
• Marc Thibault, Indigenous Ally and Regenerative Thinker, Ohlone Territory, US
• Sarah Grace Thomas
• Cheryl Thorpe
• Peter Underwood, writer and researcher, UK
• Inês Valdez, US
• Myrah Vandermeulen, student at Ghent University, Belgium
• Gregory Vickrey, teacher and researcher, Wrong Kind of Green associate, US
• Mathias Weiss, PhD student, Faculty of Sociology, University of Innsbruck, Austria
• Natalie Westwood, Daoist medical practitioner, Australia
• Jean-Samuel Weyeneth
“Whoever thought that capitalizing natural resources could be a solution for our ecological crisis knows better now: thanks to the investigative approach of the directors. It is clear that the protection of endangered species should not be left to multinational companies and financial consultants. Although the topic is highly complex, the film remains exciting to the very end. The development to profit from nature as revealed by the film is frightening.”
“This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history.”
-— Christiana Figueres, UNFCC Executive Secretary, February 3, 2015 Press Conference, Brussels
“Unfortunately, many environmental non-governmental organisations have bought into this illogical reasoning and justify their support as being pragmatic. Neoliberal language is rife across their reports and policy recommendations and their adoption of natural capital, ecosystems services, offsetting and market trading. These new environmental pragmatists believe, without justification, that the financialisation of Nature will help prevent its destruction.”
-— Clive L. Splash, WU Vienna, University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria
"TEEB and other articulations of market-based conservation do little to question the dominant economic theory that has licensed the financialisation of social, political and economic life and led to our current global economic crisis. As a species of power, it can also be analysed in the social connections of the corporate boardroom: where the professional authority, executive expertise, epistemic frameworks and political projects of senior conservation ecologists increasingly converge with those of the worlds most powerful bankers."
October 29, 2016 The “New Economy” is Not Inclusive “The route for real change is not via those who are already totally vested in the growth economy and have gained power through it. Rather look for power amongst those who are disenfranchised by the capital accumulating system. Give them voice. Look to organisations that care..
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