Thus, conservation causes that had been supported by advocates of sustainable use, have been hijacked. Governments that once were determined to stay on course and honestly deal with one another, and base their plenary decisions on science and mutual respect for each other's nutritional, economic and cultural needs, have now banded together to pay homage to the new pirates of conservation, who have boarded their diplomatic ships, torn down their sovereignty, and are now flying the flags of a perverted and self-serving cultural preference.

For years, we have been calling this pattern, "ecoterrorism" and it has had many manifestations. Small countries have been hurt economically by attacks on their tourism, their businesses, and their agricultural exports. Large countries have succumbed to the threat of damaged political status at home, by green allegations that their leaders would contribute to danger for certain species, should they move close to agreements that would allow a certain well regulated harvest. The "like-minded group" is a well-known example of this perversion of purpose. The intrusion of ecoheroes into the traditional diplomatic process is an expanding success that government leaders may well deplore, but they are most interested in preserving their leadership ability in the face of this new adversity. They will not change this new pattern until conditions demand it.

What to do? Media have demonstrated a determined lack of interest in reporting on this example of forced culture change. Many media decision-makers believe that the general public believes the ecoheroes, and so, they would lose readers, viewers, and listeners if they bucked this trend, and exposed the process as harmful to genuine conservation.

The answer may lie in the alternative communication venue that has developed and flourished so very recently. Those organizations that support science-based conservation decisions need to develop web sites that are linked to public policy sites, educational sites in all languages, government sites that explain each nation's environmental policies, and most importantly, to media sites that specialize in environmental reportage. We can turn this thing around, but the effort has to be applied consistently and with a desperate stark honesty that is documented through cooperation of scientific authorities the world over. Only through such a concerted effort, can the ecoheroes' false messages be overcome and ignored into oblivion.

When governments see that the general public is exposed effectively to this new information source, then they will be anxious to alter their environmental policies, again, to save their own political futures. Truth has been the victim in the process by which NGOs have interrupted the normal relationships among governments that convene in IWC, CITES, and FAO. World media will not tell the truth until the alternative source, the Internet, is seen to be used and relied upon by those who were once media "hostages". Each of these new or newly designed conservation advocacy sites needs to be monitored against piracy, equipped with visit counters, and must provide a feedback mechanism for use in persuading our political leaders that the world is watching them.