WildMaid Awareness

It is hard to doubt the sincerity of Cindy, the WildAid model who so eloquently expressed support for her sponsor during the official COP 13 reception party on Sunday evening. Cindy explained afterwards how there should be more “awareness” about wildlife issues.

While Cindy was not personally aware of the alternatives of sustainable use and total protection, she was sure that WildAid does its very best to help wildlife.

WildAid’s activities, of course, make much more sense if you start from the assumption that people don’t matter much at all. People, that is, who make a subsistence level living from selling wildlife artifacts or whose culture is based on interaction with fauna and flora. The people that do matter to the wealthy American group are those who provide it with celebrity endorsements. As it seeks publicity and public support, glamour is WildAid’s substitute for rigorous scientific analysis. Enter Cindy…

Cindy was also unaware how WildAid is financed and how it operates. Originally an offshoot of the controversial Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), WildAid is controlled by Suwanna Gauntlett, heiress of the Upjohn pharmaceuticals business (now part of Pfizer). Gauntlett runs the Barbara Delano Foundation that, in addition to financing WildAid, donates large sums of money to other radical campaign groups. (See bdfoundation.org and wildaid.org).

Sources have told Tribune that WildAid activists have recently embarrassed U.S. diplomats in Cambodia by taking the law into their own hands and confiscating the property of individuals they alleged were involved in illegal wildlife activities.

Wildlife conservation is not a beauty pageant. It is a complex arena of evaluations and choices. It demands careful consideration by all those with the authority, or the ability, to make a difference. CITES has the task of sifting through the arguments, the data, the practicalities and the consequences of placing species onto its Appendices.

The reception was fun, but CITES delegates must now focus on the merits of the COP 13 proposals.