A partnership between the World Bank and some of the most prominent environmental organizations and funders is trying to make companies "pay" for the benefit they got from using endangered animals in their logos.
By providing financial support to global initiatives aimed at protecting biodiversity, private brands will contribute to the preservation of the species they use in their own logos, ranging from lions and tigers to elephants, polar bears and crocodiles.The "Save Your Logo" campaign was jointly launched Oct. 7 at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, by event coordinator International Union for the Conservation of Nature as well as the independent funder Global Environment Facility, World Bank and Belgian environmental NGO Noe Institute.
GEF CEO Monique Barbut said that companies were expected to contribute $1-2 million for the pilot phase of the campaign, in which GEF and the World Bank will invest $ 5 million each.
"GEF is investing 5 million, the World Bank is investing 5 million. We are expecting the private sector to come with four times as much. This is how we work," she said in a press briefing.
Barbut noted that companies would not be excluded from the initiatives on the basis of their environment-unfriendly behavior. "It's a luxury we cannot afford," she said, adding that the private sector would not be allowed to set the agenda of the conservation projects to be undertaken by the partnership in collaboration with biodiversity experts. "What matters to me is that they don't interfere in the projects that we are trying to fund," she said.
According to IUCN species expert Jane Smart, the campaign needed to stay as open as possible, since a massive global effort was needed to counter threats to the world's biodiversity. "We need all the funds we can get - private sector, NGOs, people," she told journalists.
Warren Evans, director of the World Bank's environment department, said in a statement that the joint campaign with GEF and IUCN was only one among a number of environmental initiatives in which the bank was involved.
"These efforts will complement and expand the current Bank commitments to biodiversity conservation," he said.
Barbut indicated that, although no brand had officially engaged in the campaign yet, companies such as French car maker Peugeot, featuring a lion on its worldwide popular logo, were expected to join soon. "We haven't signed any contracts yet, but we do have serious prospects," she said.
The joint conservation campaign was launched one day after the release of a IUCN assessment on endangered mammals, which concluded that almost one in four species were at risk, mainly due to the degradation of their natural habitat.