Forest Conservation and Propaganda in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, 1900–1945

Over the last decades, the history of the conservation movements in Australia, Canada and New Zealand has portrayed them as elitist and scientific movements. This article sheds new light upon these movements by investigating how scientific foresters and conservationists, influenced by new notions of the political sway of the public, devoted significant attention to influence public opinion through propaganda, believing public support essential to the implementation of scientific forestry in a democracy. As this article shows, conservationists and state forest agencies published pamphlets, launched magazines, delivered lectures, and organised exhibitions, seeking to shape public opinion. However, witnessing how the depression threatened to curtail their long work, some conservationists abandoned the idea of the possibility of enacting far-reaching conservation policies under democratic governance, instead advocating for bestowing experts with dictatorial powers.