Natural Resources Council of America

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The Natural Resources Council of America was founded in 1946 [1] and is today dedicated to networking and partnerships among environmental groups and corporations. Most of its events are closed to members except for its gala annual awards dinner held each year in Washington, DC.

According to its website, "In any successful partnership, the goals of all parties are mutually valued and achieved. The Council's work with corporate, foundation, government, and individual contributors has established a network that all parties rely upon to maximize the effectiveness of their message to the collective conservation audience. ... For more detailed information on each program, please peruse the site. Some areas of the site are password protected for our members-you may use the username 'guest' and password 'welcome' to access these areas of the site. [2]

Ron Duchin and the NRCA

The NRCA is a vehicle through which corporation can observe and influence the actions of the the Big Green environmental groups that have been lured into participating with it. The following article is excerpted with permission from a piece by John Stauber for PRWatch in 2001:

"Some people, myself included, would call Ron Duchin a spy. His crisis management PR firm, Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin (MBD), specializes in gathering military-style intelligence. The 'enemies' it spies on, however, are not foreign governments. His enemies are the thousands of activist organizations around the world that seek in various ways to change the behavior of mining, chemical, nuclear, tobacco and other industries. MBD specializes in developing strategies that isolate and marginalize the activists they consider 'radicals' by engineering divisions between radicals and the 'realists' within their movement. The 'realists' are typically mainstream organizations willing to accept industry money and enter into supposed 'win-win' agreements that both they and their corporate partners can tout in the press as progress. Last September 7, 2000, Duchin was surrounded by the sort of realists he likes at a snazzy banquet event held in Washington's National Press Club. The occasion was the Sixteenth Annual Conservation Community Awards, sponsored by a group that few environmentalists have ever heard of, the Natural Resources Council of America. Duchin, the anti-environmentalist spy, served on the official banquet committee with his friend Patrick F. Noonan and other notables including William K. Reilly, a Monsanto board member and former head of George Bush Sr.'s Environmental Protection Agency. Beyond well-heeled schmoozing, the purpose of the event was to dispense official awards to many of the mainstream environmental groups in attendance, including the Wilderness Society, the Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Share and the National Wildlife Federation. Financial support was provided by a host of corporate "benefactors, patrons and contributors" including AT&T; E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company; International Paper; Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.; Toyota Motor Company, USA; American Forest & Paper Association; Eastman Kodak; Rolex Watch USA, Inc.; Bank of America; Cargill Incorporated; Johnson & Johnson; Lucent Technologies and Procter & Gamble. Sitting at Table 23, Ron Duchin had reason to look like the cat that just swallowed the canary. 'If PR Watch knew we were here, they would freak,' he remarked to his entourage, not realizing that he was within earshot of another attendee who was familiar with Duchin's role as an anti-environmental strategist. Unlike the rest of the minglers, Duchin primarily kept to himself, talking with his assistants. Indeed, his presence and the event itself would certainly "freak" many among the thousands of environmental activists who labor in a variety of campaigns against Duchin's corporate clients. What about the large environmental groups with multi-million dollar budgets attending the dinner? No one I contacted afterwards from any of these groups admitted knowing much about Duchin. If they recognized his name at all, they said they only knew him as a friend of someone else, and no doubt this is the way Duchin wants it. Perhaps the environmental 'realists' in these organizations also prefer not knowing much about their corporate partners."[1]


Demise of the NRCA?

On June 16, 2010, the website below was for sale and the phone was disconnected:

  • NRCA
  • 1616 P Street, NW, Suite 340
  • Washington, DC 20036
  • (202) 232-6531
  • Website: http://www.naturalresourcescouncil.org/
    • "Some areas of the site are password protected for our members-you may use the username 'guest' and password 'welcome' to access these areas of the site. [3]"


Board of Directors


Corporate Sponsors

Major corporations listed below support the NRCA. According to the NRCA website, "As a corporate partner of the Council, you have the opportunity to showcase your stewardship and environmental ethic directly with the community that champions such efforts. Corporate sponsors of our Annual Awards Banquet have participated in ceremony presentations, program acknowledgment, promotion of specific environmental initiatives (such as Toyota's Prius hybrid vehicle and Exxon's Save the Tiger Fund) and now can gain additional profile via Council website links and acknowledgments directly on this site. There's no easier or more effective way to reach the audience of natural resource professionals." [4]



Foundation and Non-profit Sponsors


NRCA Member Organizations

SourceWatch Resources

References

  1. ↑ John Stauber, Endangered Wildlife Friends Are Here!, PR Watch, Volume 8, No. 3 3rd quarter 2001.


External Articles

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