Comments on: Who’s watching the watchdogs? http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/06/11/whos-watching-the-watchdogs/ This blog is about the impact of business on society. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:27:13 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: davidconnell http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/06/11/whos-watching-the-watchdogs/comment-page-1/#comment-57143 davidconnell Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:13:41 +0000 http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=375#comment-57143 Marc, This is a great post and you're spot on in your analysis of how these BINGOs (BIg NGOs) help companies implement better corporate. It may seem odd to see an environmental organization working with an energy company, but if that partnership results in real, measurable benefits in, say, greenhouse gas emissions, or a reduction in deforestation, the world is a better place for having that partnership exist. The other point I would add is that the three organizations you cite in this post are all working at a scale that smaller, activist organizations simply cannot march under their methods. (This is not to say that those organizations don't have their place, they certainly do as you note.) Take, for example, the Caribbean Challenge, an initiative that will help Caribbean nations preserve 20 percent of their marine and coastal habitats by 2020. This is a massive effort that brings together The Nature Conservancy, international governments (inside and outside the Caribbean) and global development funds. Putting together a deal of this magnitude -- and doing it several times in a fiscal cycle -- takes staff and funding resources that smaller organizations simply don’t have. As these groups have built this large-scale capacity over the years it has created a few strange bedfellows. But without this type of support these organizations could not work at the scale that they do and could not go out and get the big wins for conservation. Marc,
This is a great post and you’re spot on in your analysis of how these BINGOs (BIg NGOs) help companies implement better corporate. It may seem odd to see an environmental organization working with an energy company, but if that partnership results in real, measurable benefits in, say, greenhouse gas emissions, or a reduction in deforestation, the world is a better place for having that partnership exist.

The other point I would add is that the three organizations you cite in this post are all working at a scale that smaller, activist organizations simply cannot march under their methods. (This is not to say that those organizations don’t have their place, they certainly do as you note.) Take, for example, the Caribbean Challenge, an initiative that will help Caribbean nations preserve 20 percent of their marine and coastal habitats by 2020. This is a massive effort that brings together The Nature Conservancy, international governments (inside and outside the Caribbean) and global development funds. Putting together a deal of this magnitude — and doing it several times in a fiscal cycle — takes staff and funding resources that smaller organizations simply don’t have.

As these groups have built this large-scale capacity over the years it has created a few strange bedfellows. But without this type of support these organizations could not work at the scale that they do and could not go out and get the big wins for conservation.

]]> By: jblog http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/06/11/whos-watching-the-watchdogs/comment-page-1/#comment-56594 jblog Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:40:26 +0000 http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=375#comment-56594 Journalist AND activist? That right there indicates a conflict of interest. You can be one or the other, but not both. Journalist AND activist? That right there indicates a conflict of interest.

You can be one or the other, but not both.

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