Alcoa claimed it was ‘here with the facts’ on WA jarrah forest rehabilitation. The ads watchdog ruled otherwise

3 months ago 8

Ads from mining giant Alcoa praising its forest rehabilitation that were published in the state’s daily newspaper have been deemed “inaccurate and likely to mislead or deceive target customers” by the advertising watchdog.

The bauxite miner has cleared 280 square kilometres of the northern jarrah forest as part of its operations, which have been running in Western Australia for more than 60 years.

Alcoa’s recent ad which was the subject of an Ad Standards Authority complaint.

The US-owned company launched a public relations blitz in 2023, following a series of investigative articles by this masthead detailing how it had not completed rehabilitation on a single hectare of the cleared land. Instead, it had been planting seeds and seedlings, and advertising areas as rehabilitated.

The miner’s Here with the Facts campaign included an advertisement in The West Australian on May 24, 2025, which claimed it had rehabilitated 75 per cent of the jarrah forest destroyed by its mining operations and that rehabilitation of jarrah forest was possible.

“Is Jarrah Forest rehabilitation possible? We’re here with the facts … We’re proud to confirm, the answer is yes - It’s not only possible, it’s happening,” the ad read.

“Studies have confirmed that the Jarrah Forest can, and does, recover after mining.

“Since 1963, only two per cent of WA’s Northern Jarrah Forrest has been cleared for mining, of which, 75 per cent has already been rehabilitated.”

Ad Standards received three complaints about the accuracy of the ad from the WA Forest Alliance, the Conservation Council of WA and The Wilderness Society.

The environmental groups argued the ad breached the Environmental Claims Code because its claims were inaccurate and misleading, were not supported by evidence, and overstated any environmental benefits.

The complaint, lodged in July, was upheld by the watchdog, with Ad Standards publishing its reasons on Monday.

“The panel considered that a target consumer was likely to interpret the statement ’75% of the cleared forest has already been rehabilitated’ as the rehabilitation work was already done, to a point where the area would resemble a forest,” the ruling stated.

“The panel considered that while the target consumer may understand the land had not been returned to its former state, they were also unlikely to understand that rehabilitation is a long-term project and the areas referred to as rehabilitated may only contain seedlings and not forest.”

Conservation Council of Western Australia executive director Matt Roberts said the public deserved better.

“Alcoa has taken advantage of the trust of the WA people and provided misleading and deceptive claims to its audience through these adverts,” he said.

Alcoa, in its response to the panel ruling, said it would update its future advertising material accordingly.

“The subject of the complaint had already been discontinued per the original schedule, and there are no plans for the advertisement to be used again in future,” the miner said.

A spokesperson told this masthead Alcoa acknowledged the Ad Standards decisions.

“The company used language according to mining industry-accepted definitions, though acknowledges that some people may have interpreted this differently,” they said.

Alcoa plans to expand its WA operations to clear another 114 square kilometres of jarrah forrest over the next 20 years are currently being scrutinised by the state’s Environmental Protection Authority.

It’s the first time the miner’s application has been released to the public for comment, with most of its previous state government approvals occurring behind closed doors.

The application received a record 59,000 public submissions before the consultation period closed on August 21.

The miner now faces a nervous wait, with 70 per cent of its global bauxite and alumina production based in WA.