The Icelandic Environmental Association (Landvernd) has published a press release strongly criticising a recent governmental report on the economic impact of whaling. RÚV reported first. The nature conservation NGO is calling for the University of Iceland’s Institute of Economic Studies to withdraw the report and re-work it in consultation with ecologists.
The report was commissioned by the Ministry of Industries and Innovation to determine the economic impact of whaling. Various critics have called it biased in favour of the industry and some even calling it outright propaganda.
The Icelandic Environmental Association published a press release today outlining three points of contention with the report’s contents. Firstly, the association states, the report’s author makes ecological calculations which are far outside his field of expertise. “Many ecologists consider these premises obsolete,” the press release states.
Secondly, the association criticises the report’s implication that nature conservation groups are terrorist organisations, calling the connection “absurd” and stating it would encourage legislation that defines environmental activism as terrorism. “True terrorism is aimed at killing civilians for the sake of a particular cause,” the press release states. “The struggle of nature conservation groups is peaceful.”
Lastly, the association states, “the threat of human exploitation that we are beset by is real and this threat crystallises in the struggle of conservationist organisations for the protection of whales.”
