Animals & Money: Will companies try to save the species on their logo?

Last fall companies in Europe got this pitch: Save Your Logo, or, more specificially, save the threatened animal that's made your logo so catchy over the years. Lacoste just became the first company to jump on board. René Lacoste, a famous tennis player in the twenties, was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because he was fierce, so his Izod shirts bear the creature. The company announced their new project with pride: "LACOSTE is the international brand the most clearly associated with an animal. The brand's commitment to the preservation of crocodiles seems natural as this animal is part of LACOSTE's history and identity."

This is no goofball little plan or trifling publicity stunt. It's something we're probably going to see more of. Behind the plan are some of the biggest names in finance and and conservation. They hope private-public partnerships save some species. The World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, which funds environmental projects that support sustainable development and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (known as the IUCN or the people who place species around the globe on the spectrum between "least concern" to extinct.) The World Bank is obviously more concerned about economic development, but they're in here because it's a way to bring cash into developing countries. People are willing to travel to see animals in the wild, especially rare ones.