WWF’s Secret Terrestrial Mining Investments

We were recently made aware that WWF’s support for the terrestrial mining industry extends much deeper than we reported in “Is WWF’s Campaign Against Deep Sea Mineral Extraction Corrupt?”   It turns out that the group has invested in terrestrial mining companies – an odd strategy for a group that is supposedly dedicated to protecting biodiversity.  Secret Paradise Papers revealed that WWF invested in Denham Commodity Fund Partners Group V, a fund which collected $2 billion from various investors to invest in mining and oil and gas projects. 

We note that Denham has made many mining investments to include at least one in a DRC tin mine which has been the subject of articles claiming that the concession was taken from indigenous people without their Free Prior and Informed Consent against international law.  It is widely known that minerals such as tin and cobalt fuel conflict in the DRC and that armed militias in the region derive their income, weapons, and power from the mineral trade.  These groups have cause enormous amounts of bloodshed in the region. 

“It’s hypocrisy at its core,” said a divestment advocate who runs a $156 million fund (link)

In light of its terrestrial mining investments, WWF’s motivation for opposing deep sea nodule collection appears to be even more conflicted than previously thought.  We don’t know whether WWF continues to secretly invest in terrestrial mining companies or not.  The only reason that the group’s investment in Denham became known was due to the leak of the confidential information. But the existence of the known investment shows that WWF’s financial portfolio would benefit from preventing deep sea nodule harvesting while it would also benefit from defending established terrestrial mining interests, whether in the DRC or elsewhere, regardless of the impacts on humanity and biodiversity.  So, the group’s behavior, which directly contradicts its stated mission as well as its promises to the public, is understandable if unethical. WWF gains economically in at least three ways from its anti-nodule harvesting campaign; through donations, through its investment portfolio, and through its corporate partnerships.    This information also confirms that WWF feels no responsibility to disclose its conflicts of interest to its donors. 

People contribute to the WWF because they think the group will use that money to defend biodiversity –that is how WWF markets its services to the public.  Whether the public’s contributions go to invest in mining firms directly is not important, as money is fungible.  What is most important is that WWF is selling a service to people, who trust the NGO implicitly to be true to its mission and to protect biodiversity, yet the group is turning around and using those funds to harm biodiversity, ostensibly because doing so benefits WWF and its partners financially.  It clearly turns a blind eye to the most damaging forms of mining in the most biodiverse and endangered ecosystems in the world (as we laid out in our last report) while it does everything in its power to stop non-invasive nodule collection despite the fact that this practice will spare human lives and biodiversity. 

This is a scandal, and it deserves the attention of authorities and the public. 

We should all make sure that the new administration in the US is aware of these facts.  The US government has, in the past, worked with WWF and given the group money.  Your hard-earned dollars are going to fund an organization that is actively working to undermine US national security interests, to hurt US competitiveness, and to promote economic interests that conflict directly with the group’s stated mission.  We need to hold the WWF to account for its actions – past and present.