Description
The Youth Council of Staatsbosbeheer (Dutch National Forestry Service) issued a scathing advice (April 2023) on the Forestry Service's cooperation with Shell. 'Even in the coming years, Shell will still mainly be involved in extracting oil and gas,' their statement reads, actively 'making the climate crisis worse'. The cooperation 'is to the detriment of the reputation of the Forestry Service, while Shell gains publicity profit from it' and should be stopped immediately, according to the youths.
Collaboration with Shell under pressure
The advice of the Youth Council is not the first time the cooperation between the Forestry Service and Shell has been criticised. In 2022, the Shell partnership's associated advertising campaign won Greenpeace's Dirty Election for most brazen fossil advertising of the year. Shell appeared to violate the rules of the cooperation contract by advertising the project, says the Youth Council in their opinion. The Utrecht City Council passed the motion 'Do not cooperate with greenwashing by Shell', asking Staatsbosbeheer not to prolong or even stop the cooperation. This motion was forwarded by the clerk to other Dutch municipalities that cooperate with Staatsbosbeheer and has been tabled more often since then. Extinction Rebellion also took action at the headquarters of Staatsbosbeheer, where the pond was symbolically 'greenwashed'.
Shell initiated contact
While the former CEO of Shell, Marjan van Loon, speaks of an 'unexpected collaboration', Shell itself contacted Staatsbosbeheer for this project. Staatsbosbeheer itself also sensed there would be questions and set up a webpage full of greenwashing and FAQs such as "But why exactly Shell?" and "Surely working with Shell will give you a bad name?". It also turns out that Shell and Staatsbosbeheer are even working on a certified system for carbon credits in the Netherlands, another example of the close relationship between Shell and the highly dubious carbon credits industry. Staatsbosbeheer hopes to become interesting to more companies this way as they are 'explicitly seeking more cooperation with market parties' because 'the government has started to invest less in nature and forests'.
'Fake solution'
The Youth Council, however, pierces through Shell's greenwashing, stating in their advice that 'going into business with Shell to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration is, as far as the Youth Council is concerned, a false solution. After all, the amount of CO2 emitted by Shell is many times greater than this partnership can compensate for.' They therefore want Staatsbosbeheer to cooperate only with organisations 'whose operations are in line with the Paris Agreement', which Shell does not comply with.
