fPcN interCultural:

defenders of free tribal life

Worldwatch kerfuffle, World Watch magazine's controversial article by Mac Chapin on how the Big Three conservation organizations are shafting indigenous peoples roiled the waters not just at those groups (World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International) but at Worldwatch itself. The upshot: The magazine's editor is fleeing the coop.
from: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2004/11/23/9447/2639 Word is that Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin originally gave editor Ed Ayres the OK to run the piece, but Flavin got cold feet when he realized that WWF President Kathryn Fuller -- whose portrayal in the article is less than favorable -- chairs the board of the Ford Foundation, to which Worldwatch had recently submitted a grant proposal.

But by the time Flavin's toes started to feel the chill, the magazine had already gone to press. Multiple sources confirm that he called the printer and told them to destroy all the printed copies. With times lean as they are for nonprofits (and perhaps for Worldwatch in particular, as it tries to shore up funding after the 2001 ouster of well-known founder Lester Brown), Flavin apparently figured he'd rather pulp thousands of dollars worth of printed magazines than ruffle a funder's feathers.

That didn't sit well with Ayres, and a bit of kerfuffle ensued. In the end, it seems, Ayres won the battle -- the magazine went out, the article made its splash -- but lost the war. We hear that Ayres, now in his mid-60s, will be taking retirement at the end of the year. Seems he was edging toward the door anyway, thought likely to make his departure in the next year, but this little episode helped push forward the time frame.

Oh, the irony. One thing Chapin's article did particularly well was show how green groups are so beholden to their funding sources that they take great pains to avoid rocking the wrong boats.

(The public fracas over the article -- though not the behind-the-scenes drama -- made The Washington Post today.)

World Watch, Kicking Dirt on Three Big Greenies
By Peter CarlsonWashington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6009-2004Nov22.html

Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page C03

Environmentalists around the world are buzzing over a controversial article printed in the November-December issue of World Watch, the magazine published by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based enviro group.

The article, "A Challenge to Conservationists," is a scathing attack on the rich and powerful "Big Three" environmental groups -- World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy. Author Mac Chapin, an anthropologist who has worked with indigenous people for 35 years, accuses the three groups of cozying up to their corporate donors and governmental partners while ignoring the native peoples whose cause they once championed.

"The large international [groups] are allying themselves with forces that are destroying the world's remaining ecosystems," Chapin writes, "while ignoring or even opposing those forces that are attempting to save them from destruction."

Chapin's long and carefully argued essay is so incendiary that World Watch felt obliged to publish an "Editor's Note" promising that the Big Three would get a chance to respond in the upcoming January-February issue.

Anyone who donates to these groups should probably read both issues before writing any more checks.

Bob Burton,
PO Box 6157
O'Connor ACT 2602
Australia
Ph/Fax 02 6251 7998
International 61 2 6251 7998
Email bobburton@ozemail.com.au

The WRI article that started this ongoing global hubris over evil doings by Conservation International, Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund (World wide Fund for Nature) is:

Mac Chapin - "A Challenge to Conservationists"
World Watch Magazine: November/ December 2004

You can download PDF file of this article for FREE for a limited time, starting from this page:
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2004/176/

It seems that even WRI quakes at the prospect of upsetting the big 3 corporate conservation groups because they see that such insurrection will threaten their money bag from the big corporate foundations such as Ford.

Money talks sweetly and WWF, CI and TNC bump each other in being the first to listen.

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