by Dan Bacher 

The World Bank, an organization notorious for promoting structural adjustment policies and the privatization of public services that have devastated developing countries and the environment, on February 24 announced the formation of an international coalition supposedly designed to “protect” the oceans. 

“A powerful coalition of governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private interests are joining together under the banner of a Global Partnership for Oceans to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss,” a press release for the World Bank claimed. 

The decision to hold the event in Singapore, a police state known for its repressive laws and policies, is apparently designed to stop any pesky protesters and opponents of corporate globalization from showing any opposition to the highly choreographed event, The Economist’s World Oceans Summit. 

Of course, the organizers of the event, in contrast to genuine grassroots ocean activists, are preaching the “gospel” of spreading failed privatization policies like the type of questionable “marine protected areas” created under California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and NOAA Administration Jane Lubchenco’s “catch shares” program to the rest of the world. 

“Under the terms of the alliance, the World Bank-led project would pledge $300 million in ‘catalytic finance,’ followed by as much as $1.2 billion more to be raised with the help of governments, the private sector and civil society groups, according to the Wall Street Journal. “The money would be spent on technical assistance to help governments implement reforms and to help operate marine protected areas to prevent overfishing, among other steps.” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204778604577243182434990046.html) 

You can expect these “marine protected areas” promoted by the World Bank, like those established under the corrupt MLPA Initiative, to fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, water pollution, wave and wind energy projects, military testing, corporate aquaculture, habitat destruction and all other human impacts upon the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

In an overt case of corporate greenwashing, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served as chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that created the questionable “marine protected areas” that went into effect on the Southern California coast on January 1, 2012. She also served on the task forces for the North Central and North Central Coasts. The Western States Petroleum Association represents California’s major refiners including BP Plc, Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Tesoro.

Zoellick announces public-private partnership 

In a keynote speech delivered at The Economist’s World Oceans Summit, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said the Partnership would bring “science, advocacy, the private sector, and international public institutions together to advance mutually agreed goals for healthy and productive oceans.” 

“The world’s oceans are in danger, and the enormity of the challenge is bigger than one country or organization,” Zoellick said. “We need coordinated global action to restore our oceans to health. Together we’ll build on the excellent work already being done to address the threats to oceans, identify workable solutions, and scale them up.” 

Zoellick discussed the importance of developing “public-private partnerships” to “save” the oceans. “What I found in this area, but also other areas of development, that’s been quite encouraging is I’m increasingly finding private companies that find that the governments themselves seem to be stuck,” he stated. 

“The private companies want to push the agenda but sometimes they’re less familiar with how to build the governance structures. And so if we can get those interconnected, I think we can make progress,” he noted. 

Zoellick is notorious for his role as one of the signatories of a January 26, 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton drafted by the Project for the New American Century calling for “removing Saddam [Hussein]’s regime from power.” The signatories also included Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad, John R. Bolton, Richard Armitage, and Bill Kristol. 

The press release continued, “Further discussions will help define the new partnership’s specific agenda. These discussions will address improved governance systems around fishing, more marine protected areas, intensified efforts to attack the sources of ocean pollution and degradation as well as improved coastal management for resilience to weather and climate-related threats.” 

Walmart funds corporate NGOs backing the alliance 

The World Bank claimed that “numerous” ocean-focused NGOs “have expressed support for the new alliance.” Unfortunately, most of the groups mentioned, including Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and Oceana, are notorious for their top-down, “collaborative” approach to “solving” ocean problems – and excluding input from indigenous communities around the globe. 

“As the world’s population grows to 9 billion people by 2050, the demand for food and other resources will double,” said Conservation International Chief Executive Officer Peter Seligmann. “It is in the enlightened self interest of all nations and all communities to wisely steward our oceans. Humanity needs the oceans to thrive. Collaboration is essential.” 

President of The Nature Conservancy, Mark Tercek claimed, “There is an urgent need to scale up the pace of ocean conservation around the world by bringing together a wide range of partners who are vested in the oceans; the World Bank’s leadership and commitment is a huge step forward towards achieving this. This is a tremendous opportunity for countries to realize tangible benefits – jobs, livelihoods, and economic development – by managing their oceans in a way that builds their natural capital.” 

The press release failed to note that these organizations are funded by Walmart. In an August 16, 2011 news release from Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Walton Family Foundation announced “investments” totaling more than $71.8 million awarded to various environmental initiatives in 2010. 

The foundation handed over $36 million alone to Marine Conservation grantees. The three top recipients of the Walton Foundation money for ocean “protection” were Conservation International, $18,640,917; the Nature Conservancy,$9,305,449; and Environmental Defense Fund, $7,086,054. 

The Nature Conservancy in California is a strong backer of state and federal plans to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to export more Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. Peripheral canal opponents, including recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Delta residents, family farmers and California Indian Tribes, believe the construction of the canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and southern resident killer whales. 

Rob Walton and Stewart Resnick serve on Conservation International board 

Walmart CEO Rob Walton, through his Walton Family Foundation, not only dumped $18,640,917 into the coffers of Conservational International, but he is chairman of the executive committee of the organization’s Board of Directors (http://www.conservation.org/about/team/bod). 

Walton serves on the board of Conservation International with fellow billionaire Stewart A. Resnick, Chairman of the Board of Roll International Corporation, who is the largest tree fruit grower in the world and one of the biggest recipients of subsidized water from the imperiled California Delta. 

While making a tidy profit from selling his subsidized water back to the public, Resnick has waged a relentless campaign to divert more water from the Delta through the peripheral canal and has done everything in his power to eviscerate Endangered Species Act protections for Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt and other listed species. 

Resnick’s Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, an agribusiness “Astroturf” group, has also spent a great deal of effort in litigation attempting to eradicate striped bass, now officially classified as a “native” fish, from the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary by falsely claiming that “striped bass,” rather than water exports, are the cause of Delta smelt and salmon declines. For more information, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/02/02/commission-votes-against-pursuing-striped-bass-eradication-proposal. 

Unleashing private investment is the ’solution’ 

Supporters of the World Bank’s new alliance tout the need for “improved governance” to improve oceans management” and “unleash greater private investment in sustainable ocean enterprises” – even though it is precisely the neo-liberal privatization and structural adjustment policies forced upon developing countries by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that have led to the decline of ocean fisheries in recent years! 

“Almost all the challenges facing ocean sustainability stem from governance and market failures,” said Andrew Hudson, Head, UNDP Water & Ocean Governance Programme. “Our experience has been that supporting ocean governance reform at all levels creates an enabling environment that can in turn catalyze sizeable quantities of public and private sector finance to sustain ocean ecosystem services. The Global Partnership for Oceans provides a key means of implementation to scale up proven approaches.” 

Support for the Global Partnership for Oceans includes a number of developed and developing countries and country groupings, including island nations, and non-government organizations and advocacy bodies like Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, Oceana, Rare and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 

Support also includes science bodies like the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); private investors like Paine & Partners and industry groups like the National Fisheries Institute, and the World Ocean Council whose members rely on sustainable seafood supplies or are dependent on ocean resources; and international organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The Global Environment Facility, Global Ocean Forum, GRID Arendal (Norway), the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the World Bank Group. 

There is no doubt that if you like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative and Jane Lubchcenco’s “catch shares” program, you’ll really love the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Oceans! This “Global Partnership,” rather than being a legitimate, grassroots attempt to protect the oceans, is a scheme to “save” the oceans for exploitation by the Wall Street bankster 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent and marine ecosystems. 

For more information, go to: http://www.globalpartnershipforoceans.org

by Dan Bacher 

The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), a national grassroots recreational fishing organization, on August 17 slammed the Walton Family Foundation’s contribution of $36 million to ocean privatization efforts through “catch shares” programs and the creation of so-called “marine protected areas.” 

The foundation, set up by the family who founded Wal-Mart, announced this week “its efforts to help fund the demise of both the recreational and commercial fishing industry while also working to ensure that the next generation of sportsmen will have less access to coastal fish stocks than at any point in U.S. history,” according to a news release from RFA. 

In a August 16th news release from Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Walton Family Foundation announced “investments” totaling more than $71.8 million awarded to various environmental initiatives in 2010. The foundation handed over $36 million alone to Marine Conservation grantees including Ocean Conservancy, Conservation International Foundation, Marine Stewardship Council, World Wildlife Fund and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

The five top grantees were: Conservation International, $18,640,917; the Nature Conservancy,$9,305,449; Environmental Defense Fund 
$7,086,054; the Marine Stewardship Council, $4,500,000; and the Ocean Conservancy, $3,757,768 ((http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/walton-family-foundation-invests-718-million-in-environmental-initiatives-in-2010-127835788.html). 

Critics of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, have blasted the company for decades for being able to sell its products at cheap prices only by employing sweatshops, undercutting competitors, wielding its market power to cripple both competitors and suppliers, and flouting national and international health, safety, labor, and environmental standards. Anti-corporate globalization opponents have long regarded Wal-Mart as a virtual “Darth Vader” of retailers, as documented in the film, “The High Price of Low Cost.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJMYZwL8sPA). 

Greenwashing Wal-Mart’s image 

However, in 2006 the retail giant hired Adam Werbach, former Sierra Club president, to “polish” its image (http://reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2006/green_greenwashing.php). This latest release is apparently part of a carefully orchestrated campaign to greenwash its image – and extend control over public trust resources. 

According to the release, the Walton Family Foundation “focuses on globally important marine areas and works with grantees and other partners to create networks of effectively managed protected areas that conserve key biological features, and ensure the sustainable utilization of marine resources – especially fisheries – in a way that benefits both nature and people.” 

“We focus our work in the United States’ primary river systems and in some of the world’s most ecologically significant marine areas,” said Scott Burns, director of the foundation’s Environment Focus Area and the former director of marine conservation at the World Wildlife Fund. “It’s important to us to protect and conserve natural resources while also recognizing the roles these waters play in the livelihoods of those who live nearby.” 

The RFA countered that these specially managed areas of coastal waters are also referred to as “marine protected areas” or “marine reserves,” and the end result is denied angler access, of little or no benefit to the very people whom Wal-Mart claims to benefit. 

Marine protected areas without real protection 

“A quick visit to the Ocean Conservancy website should be telling enough for anglers interested in learning where Wal-Mart’s profits are being spent,” said RFA executive director Jim Donofrio. “These folks are pushing hard to complete California’s network of exclusionary zones throughout the entire length of coastline, and they’ve made it very clear that they would like to see the West Coast version of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) extended into other coastal U.S. waters.” 

Grassroots environmentalists, fishermen, California Indian Tribes, civil liberties activists and environmental justice advocates have criticized Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, for its numerous conflicts of interest, institutional racism and the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. 

The so-called “marine protected areas” established under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, water pollution, wave and wind energy projects, military testing, corporate aquaculture, habitat destruction and all other human impacts upon the ocean other than fishing and gathering. In an extreme case of corporate greenwashing, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served as chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that created these questionable “marine protected areas.” 

The release also said that targeted marine protected areas moving forward include Indonesia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, the Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico. It will be interesting to see if these marine protected areas, like California’s MLPA Initiative, will disrespect and fail to acknowledge the sovereign gathering rights of the indigenous people of these countries and regions. 

Will these marine protected areas be like the one imposed by the Mexican government that denied members of the Cucapa Tribe the right to fish in the Colorado River Delta, spurring the Zapatistas (EZLN) and the Tribe to set up a “peace camp” from February to May 2007 to affirm their sovereign rights? (http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher04212007.html) 

Donofrio said of Ocean Conservancy in particular, “Here’s an organization which has publicly opposed creation of artificial reefs used by Wal-Mart’s tackle buyers, in some cases openly advocating for their removal, yet the Walton family is handing over tons of money for support.” 

Wal-Mart boycott follows Safeway boycott 

“Shopping for fishing equipment at Wal-Mart is contributing directly to the demise of our sport, it’s supporting lost fishing opportunities and decreased coastal access for all Americans,” Donofrio said. “I hope all RFA members across the country will remember that when it’s time to gear up, but I would also wonder if perhaps our industry can help spread the message and support our local tackle shops by also pulling product off Wal-Mart’s shelves.” 

RFA in April announced its support of a national boycott of the Safeway Supermarket chain, including Genuardi’s in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, because of that corporation’s support for California’s widely-contested MLPA initiative. 

“Apparently Safeway has gotten some bad advice from the people in the ocean protection racket, a community to which the California-based mega-corporation is now donating profits,” said Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the RFA. “Safeway says it is supporting groups that make a difference like the Food Marketing Institute’s Sustainable Seafood Working Group, the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions and the World Wildlife Fund’s Aquaculture Dialogues, but it’s little more than corporate greenwashing.” 

Donofrio believes it’s time that Wal-Mart was added to the angler boycott list as well. 

“The Walton family created this huge corporate entity that has threatened the vibrancy of our local retail outlets, and now they’re essentially doing the same thing with our fishing communities,” Donofrio said. 

“Much like Safeway has done with their financial investment in the environmental business community, Wal-Mart apparently prefers customers buy farm-raised fish and seafood caught by foreign countries outside of U.S. waters, while denying individual anglers the ability to head down to the ocean to score a few fish for their own table,” noted Donofrio. 

Foundation pushes catch shares program 

The Walton Family Foundation is also working “to create economic incentives for ocean conservation,” while candidly pledging their support for “projects that reverse the incentives to fish unsustainably that exist in ‘open access fisheries’ by creating catch share programs,” according to the official news release. 

A broad coalition of commercial and recreational fishing, consumer and environmental groups is opposing the catch shares programs being pushed by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, a former vice-chair of the Board of Directors of Environmental Defense, because these programs amount to the privatization of public trust resources by concentrating fisheries in the hands of a few corporate hands. Wherever catch shares have been introduced, local fishing communities, fish populations and the environment have been devastated. 

“A catch share, also known as an individual fishing quota, is a transferable voucher that gives individuals or businesses the ability to access a fixed percentage of the total authorized catch of a particular species,” according to Food and Water Watch. “Fishery management systems based on catch shares turn a public resource into private property and have lead to socioeconomic and environmental problems. Contrary to arguments by catch share proponents – namely large commercial fishing interests – this management system has exacerbated unsustainable fishing practices.” 

“Fish are a public resource,” explained Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director. “Unfortunately, private investment groups and even some public interest groups have shamelessly and publicly compared access to fish to the stock market and are treating it like an investment that can be bought and sold for personal profit. They’re aiming to model the fishing business after big agribusiness on land, with giant commercial operations controlling the market.” (http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world/6013-food-a-water-watch-launches-campaign-against-catch-shares.html) 

Donofrio emphasized, “Our local outfitters and tackle shops along the coast have had to face an immense challenge by going up against Wal-Mart’s purchasing power during the last decade, but now that the Walton family is so up front about their opposition to open access fisheries, it’s hard for me to believe that any sportsmen would ever be interested in shopping there again.” 

“California anglers have been outraged to learn that money they spend at a Safeway grocery store might end up in the hands of anti-fishing groups like the EDF and the Ocean Conservancy, so I hope more anglers will join the national boycott by sending a message to Wal-Mart as well as Safeway,” Martin added. 

Sam and Helen Walton launched their “modest retail business in 1962″ with the guiding principle of helping “increase opportunity and improve the lives of others along the way,” according to the Walton Family Foundation website. It is that principle the foundation says, that makes them “more focused than ever on sustaining the Walton’s timeless small-town values and deep commitment to making life better for individuals and communities alike.” 

RFA said grassroots efforts to combat the corporate anti-fishing, pro-privatization agenda are more than just an uphill climb. 

“The EDF catch share coffers are already filled to the top, while Pew Charitable Trusts has billions in reserve,” Donofrio said. “When you add another $36 million annual commitment from the Walton family each year, I can’t see how our local efforts can get anywhere unless the national manufacturers step up and openly denounce this corporate takeover once and for all.” 

“The individual anglers and local business owners are being denied opportunity, and I hope the federal trade representatives are willing to get onboard with their support of real small-town values,” Donofrio said, adding that Ocean Conservancy and EDF combined received more than $10 million in Walton Family Foundation grants in 2010. 

EDF: RFA is ‘just wrong’ 

Tom Lalley, communications director for the Oceans Program, Environmental Defense Fund, responded to RFA’s release by claiming, “RFA’s contention that the contribution in question was made by Wal-Mart is just wrong.” 

“The contribution was made by the Walton Family Fund and not Wal-Mart,” he told http://www.fishnewseu.com. “These are two different entities. There is no connection between the two other than the fact that the fund’s money comes from private holdings of the same Waltons who started and managed Wal-Mart, but none of the money comes from the existing company. So it was the family, and specifically the family’s foundation, that made a contribution for sustainable fishing and ocean conservation, and not the store.” 

“That’s B.S.,” Martin said, responding to Lalley’s statement. “The foundation money is Wal-Mart money sheltered from taxation to push the Walton’s family agenda.” 

“Mr. Lalley is putting a false spin on this issue,” added Donofio. “The fact is that the Walton family’s money comes from the profits on the Wal-Mart stores that they founded. The Waltons are still in the top management tier of the company.” 

Commercial fishermen join recreational anglers in denouncing Wal-Mart and Walton Family Foundation 

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), praised the RFA for criticizing the Walton Family’s contributions to ocean privatization efforts and welcomed the organization’s call for a Wal-Mart boycott. 

“Wal-Mart is wrong on this issue, just as it has been in the past on labor and community issues,” said Grader. “The privatization of public trust resources is the antithesis of conservation.” 

“I’ve been boycotting Wal-Mart for decades and it’s absolutely great that recreational and commercial fishermen are together on this,” noted Grader. 

It is worth noting that Conservation International and the Nature Conservancy, the two top recipients of Walton Family Foundation funds, are known throughout the world for their top-down “environmental” programs that run roughshod over local communities to achieve their corporate greenwashing goals. 

The Nature Conservancy in California is a strong backer of state and federal plans to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to export more Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. Canal opponents, including recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Delta residents, family farmers and California Indian Tribes, believe the construction of the canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other imperiled fish populations. 

About the Recreational Fishing Alliance: 

The Recreational Fishing Alliance is a national, grassroots political action organization representing recreational fishermen and the recreational fishing industry on marine fisheries issues. The RFA Mission is to safeguard the rights of saltwater anglers, protect marine, boat and tackle industry jobs, and ensure the long-term sustainability of our Nation’s saltwater fisheries. For more information, call 888-JOIN-RFA or visit http://www.joinrfa.org. 

MLPA Initiative Background: 

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA “Initiative” to “implement” the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA. 

The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. 

The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of “marine protected areas” included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast. 

The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public “partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). 

Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

MLPA and state officials refused to appoint any tribal scientists to the MLPA Science Advisory Team (SAT), in spite of the fact that the Yurok Tribe alone has a Fisheries Department with over 70 staff members during the peak fishing season, including many scientists. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force also didn’t include any tribal representatives until 2010 when one was finally appointed to the panel.