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EOG
What is the EOG Association for
Conservation?
In our new bi-monthly column, the EOG Association for
Conservation will be talking directly to members, non-members
and future members, explaining their wonderful work and how
it benefits us as an industry.
I
n June 2006, the EOG Association for Conservation was
brought into being following a desire by the Outdoor
Industry to collectively ‘put something back’ into conserving
and protecting the environment that it cared about so
passionately.
Patagonia, a member of the European Outdoor Group (EOG),
asked what the EOG was doing with regards to environmental
issues, and out of this came an EOG environmental working group,
which was set up to look at what could be done within the
framework of the European industry. During its investigations, the
group looked at the North American market and the work of the members, and the locations
Conservation Alliance. of these projects are not
The Conservation Alliance, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary this restricted to any
year, was set up by a group of outdoor companies to ‘help protect and geographical boundaries –
conserve threatened wild places for their habitat and recreation value’. With thus far projects have
two funding rounds per year and 165 members, the Conservation Alliance included creation of an
has raised funding of nearly $7.5 million since its inception in 1989. environmental trail in Nepal,
Having talked to and been very impressed by the work of the Alliance, the clean-up operations on a
EOG decided it must be possible to achieve similar results within the mountain peak in
European Outdoor Industry. Although many companies within the industry Kyrgyzstan, creation of a trans-boundary hiking trail in Macedonia and
already had their own programmes of giving grants to support environmental Albania, protection of marsh fritillaries in Ireland and the saving of an ancient
projects, this was a chance to harness the collective power of the industry to forest in Sweden from logging.
put money directly into grassroots projects and make a tangible difference to As time progressed, it was found that, in order to continue to grow the
threatened wild areas, species and habitats. Association for Conservation, more time and resources were needed. In
The EOG board agreed to fund the start up and legal costs of the January 2009, a permanent position was created to lead the organisation
Association, asked Hervé Chabert, then General Manager of Patagonia forward in the shape of Tanya Bascombe, who had been working within the
Europe to head up the Association and tasked Mark Held, General Secretary outdoor industry for a number of years for both The North Face and Lowe
of the EOG, with talking to companies about membership. Alpine. Passionate about conservation, Tanya took on the role at one of its
From a standing start and in just three short years, the Association for busiest periods, coinciding with the period leading up to winter ispo and the
Conservation has assessment of the 2009 project applications.
funded 22 projects, to “My role is to increase awareness of the Association and its work within
the tune of €500,000! the industry as well as growing the funding we have available,” said Tanya,
There are currently adding, “Politically it is important to demonstrate what the outdoor industry
nearly 50 members of can achieve. There has been a lot of talk recently about ‘greenwashing’, and
the Association, there is a danger of the public growing suspicious of the claims companies
stretching from Norway make about how much they are really doing to protect the environment. Yet
to Italy and from the UK as a charitable organisation directly
across to the Czech funding specific projects, I believe we can
Republic. Membership prove that our industry is committed to
is open to any company putting something back and show
operating within the tangible, exciting results.”
outdoor industry, whether they are a manufacturer,
supplier, or retailer. Fees for the Association are based on For further information about the
company turnover – although members are free to give Association for Conservation, please look
more if they would like to. 100% of membership fees go at the website
directly into the projects that are nominated, and then www.eogconservation.org or contact
voted on, by the members themselves. Tanya directly on
The projects chosen are as wide ranging as the tanya.bascombe@eogconservation.org
14 SGB OUTDOOR APRIL 2009
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