The proposal, which requires just a simple majority to pass, would establish a "Conservation Committee", financed by outside organizations and individuals, that would direct most of the IWC’s activities.

Many of the campaign groups accredited to attend and lobby at IWC meetings are themselves financed by outside organizations and individuals, particularly wealthy foundations in the USA. Today, forty of these advocacy NGOs publicly backed the new Berlin Initiative. Some of these groups, such as Greenpeace, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), are widely believed to have forged the proposal working ‘behind the scenes’ with officials from some of the proposing nations.

Eugene Lapointe said: "Power follows money. The obvious danger is that the unelected financial powerbrokers of this new Committee will use their newly-granted muscle effectively to run the IWC. A group of unaccountable and shady individuals will end up pulling the strings."

Few representatives at the IWC will have even heard of prospective backers like Suwanna Gauntlett who inherited a fortune from the Upjohn pharmaceuticals business (now part of Pfizer) and now runs the Barbara Delano Foundation, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaign groups. (See bdfoundation.org and wildaid.org). The identities of many potential backers is obscured by the NGOs who deliberately keep the identities of their large financiers secret, often channeling money through third party organizations like WildAid."

Mr. Lapointe appealed to the countries supporting the Berlin Initiative to build safeguards into their proposal to ensure that, if passed, there is no abuse of power at the IWC either by the financiers directly or by the NGOs they bankroll.

Mr. Lapointe suggested a series of safeguards and controls should be attached to the proposal:

1. The Commission should accept no money from any organization or individual that has provided financial support over the preceding ten years to any of the NGOs accredited by the IWC.

2. The Commission should accept no money from any NGO accredited by the IWC.

3. The source of all donations to the IWC must be totally transparent. All donations approved by the Commission should be published on the IWC website, listing the name of the donor, the amount donated and all supporting information.

4. Any donations that have conditions attached to them must be automatically rejected.

5. The Commission should decide by vote at its annual meeting which proposals of financial support it will accept.

6. No donations should be solicited by the IWC Secretariat.

7. The total donation by an individual or organization in any one year should be limited to $20,000.00.

8. Donations should not be accepted from the same organization or individual for more than three years in succession.

9. All organizations wishing to make a donation should provide the Commission with three years audited accounts.

10. The Commission should reserve the right to scrutinize the credentials of organizations and individuals wishing to make a donation through a system of public hearings.

Mr. Lapointe warned: "The Berlin Initiative will be voted on in a matter of days. It is astonishing that the proposal contains no mention of any controls to ensure accountability. We have heard nothing from the likely powerbrokers. The campaign groups have been silent about dealing with the problems of a conflict of interest. All this has to raise considerable doubts about the intentions of those driving this proposal."