A group of Wilderness Society life members led by the former Greens leader Bob Brown are calling for an independent review into the conservation group after it recorded a $1.7m deficit last financial year, forcing it to sack campaign and other staff.
In a letter to the organisation’s directors, Brown and four other life members expressed “profound concern” for the 43-year-old organisation, which they say is “one of the world’s most important defenders of wild and natural country”.
The letter was written before a fiery annual general meeting last week at which members voted down motions to accept the organisation’s annual financial report and to acknowledge the work of board members. The board did not receive the letter until Wednesday this week.
Brown, a founding member, former director and the public face of the organisation’s groundbreaking early 1980s campaign to save the Franklin River, told Guardian Australia the scale of the loss was unprecedented in its history.
He said concern for the environment within the community was at record levels and other green groups were growing, but the Wilderness Society was not.
“It’s clearly time for a review. The organisation has obviously hit a rut. There has never been a time when the Wilderness Society was more needed to be firing on all four cylinders,” Brown said.
The society’s chief executive, Matt Brennan, said the board would organise a meeting with the life members to discuss their concerns. He said the group’s revenue was down about $2m last year, $1.5m of which was due to a decline in bequests.
Brennan said the society had been “pushing” its budget to prioritise campaigns, but realised in February it was taking a loss and would need to make tough decisions. Membership was down to about 28,000 from more than 45,000 last decade, but he said the organisation received money from more than 40,000 people each year.
“I think at its heart there is a misunderstanding and having an opportunity for people to genuinely hear each other is going to be critical,” he said of the promised meeting.
The letter from the life members asks for more information about the wilderness protection benefits of “movement for life”, a community engagement program that received more than a quarter of spending on programs last year.
Many of the cuts at the Wilderness Society came after it played a leading role in a stalled campaign for the introduction of stronger environment laws and a national environment protection authority. Labor, which had been widely expected to win the election, embraced the push for change. The victorious Coalition did not.
Some members privately see the split in the organisation on political lines: that Greens supporters are particularly unhappy with an election campaign seen as closely aligned with Labor.
The annual general meeting was told the group spent nearly $400,000 on campaigning for new environment laws. Nearly 20 staff have resigned or been made redundant since last year. Its long-time national campaigns director and joint chief executive, Lyndon Schneiders, left last month.
The life member’s letter expresses concern about the events that led to staff being dismissed and the number of premises reduced when environmental concern is on the rise. “An independent review of (the organisation’s) circumstances would be a good way forward and we would welcome the opportunity to take part in establishing such a review,” it says.
Other signatories to the letter are Geoff and Judy Lambert, Karen Alexander and a fifth life member whose name was redacted in the copy sent to Guardian Australia.
Judy Lambert, a former national liaison officer, said the organisation had always striven to find a balance between funding local campaigns run by state and regional offices and centralised programs such as movement for life. She said she was concerned the organisation now “lacked a clear focus of speaking up for wilderness”. “That’s what the Wilderness Society is for,” she said.
Brennan said the organisation had run strong recent campaigns, including to protect forests in Victoria and Tasmania, highlighting deforestation and opposing oil and gas development in the Great Australian Bight. It played a leading role in raising awareness of the extinction crisis and the need for new environment laws, he said. “We are not wanting for campaigns to spend on,” Brennan said.
Brown said the five life members had each spent decades dedicated to the society and its priorities of protecting wilderness, and wanted to see it back on track. He said the board members were “all fine people” and they looked forward to meeting with them.
“I love the Wilderness Society and it has got a great future, but its future has always depended on membership, and members have a right to know and have confidence about how campaign funds are being spent,” he said.
