Cancun, Mexico, 10 September 2003: A leading international environmentalist warned today that the world’s fisheries industry is facing possible destruction not as a result of over-fishing but because western campaign groups are targeting fisheries as "the next big environmental issue".

Speaking at the International Symposium on Sustainable Fisheries Trade in Cancun, Mexico, Eugene Lapointe, President of IWMC World Conservation Trust, warned that fisheries is the next big target of environmental campaign groups, and predicted that it will soon be discussed on a par with global warming and the destruction of rain forests.

Mr. Lapointe, a past-Secretary General of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, made his remarks in an address on globalization. He argued that one of the areas of globalization that attracts little publicity is the ability it has given wealthy western campaign groups to influence the way of life of communities in less developed nations that may be small and remote. In the case of environmental groups, this change is almost always destructive because, like British imperialists in the nineteenth century, the campaigners are trying to apply and enforce their particular brand of western values without taking proper account of local human needs.

"The fundamental urge to subjugate one culture to the will of another remains. The new cultural imperialist does not bash a bible; he pushes an ecological manual in your face and demands your adherence. He does not avow adherence to a church of the spiritually enlightened; he professes membership in a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) of the morally superior. He comes not to save your soul; his flock will be your birds, your elephants, your reptiles and your fish. He alone knows how to care for and tend to them."

In his address, Mr. Lapointe noted that NGOs are relentlessly campaigning to raise more money by highlighting new environmental crises and marketing themselves as the planet’s guardians. Warning that this type of campaigning dishonestly puts in jeopardy the livelihoods of many different workers around the word, Mr. Lapointe said:

"The attempts by western NGOs to globalize culture can only be counter-productive to fishermen. The NGOs do not care about jobs or local traditions. To them, a fish ‘saved’ justifies their campaign."

Mr. Lapointe noted that fisheries has a particular attraction to NGOs because, unlike rain forests and even whales, it is difficult to accurately estimate fish stocks and quantify the alleged problem. Campaigners will always be able to claim particular stocks are imperiled whether or not that is true, and it will be very difficult to conclusively prove otherwise.

Mr. Lapointe said: "Where there are real problems with fish stocks, management systems must be put in place. This is already happening. But what we don’t need are simplistic slogans and unjustified restrictions, developed by campaigners in their ivory towers, that unnecessarily rip apart traditional fishing communities around the world."