EVEN environmentalists do branding. They nurture iconic species that bring adoration and dollar donations in equal measure. Pandas, elephants and tigers get the lion鈥檚 share 鈥� along with lions, of course.
Faceless ecosystems, which are arguably what really matter, are a harder PR exercise. That said, green campaigners cracked it with 鈥渞ainforests鈥� 鈥� an inspired rebranding of hateful jungles.
The problem comes when the lack of donor enthusiasm stymies the conservation priorities of NGOs. Selling the virtues of small, uncuddly creepy-crawlies is hard. So is selling the planet鈥檚 鈥淐inderella鈥� ecosystems.
Advertisement
Take the Paraguayan Chaco, a featureless thorn forest in one of the most extreme climates on Earth (see 鈥淏attle of the Chaco: Who will win the wilderness?鈥�). You may not have heard of it, yet it is possibly as important as the neighbouring Amazon rainforest. And while decades of rebranding have helped slow Amazon deforestation, the ignored Chaco is disappearing ever faster. So: save the Chaco, Earth鈥檚 forgotten Eden!
Meanwhile, many more endangered ecosystems need a makeover. Save the , anyone?
