Conservation International

Conservation International aims "to conserve the Earth's living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature." They are a U.S.-based, nonprofit international organization. 

Aziz Choudry writing in Zmag in 2003 notes that "Colin Powell says that its work is "amazing". In 2001, it received what the media dubbed the biggest ever grant to an environmental organization - US $261 million spread over 10 years. Its website proclaims: "A passionate few can make the difference in the world."" He adds that:


 * "In 1997 CI signed a comprehensive bioprospecting agreement with California-based company Hyseq, which specializes in genomic sequencing. CI agreed to pre-screen drug candidates derived from flora and fauna samples, and provide regular reports on its research findings to Hyseq. As well as an initial contribution, Hyseq would pay CI on a country basis, and an annual fee. Hyseq is free to pursue intellectual property claims over any results.


 * "In Panama, CI worked with Novartis, Monsanto, and others, in "ecologically guided bioprospecting" - seeking pharmaceutical and agricultural products from plants, fungi and insects. In Surinam it cooperated with Bristol Myers Squibb, with its ethnobotanists collecting plant samples. CI worked to win the trust of Indigenous communities and healers and negotiate a very dubious "benefit-sharing" agreement. ...


 * "A June 2003 report by Chiapas-based Center for Political Analysis and Social Investigation (CAPISE) dubbed CI a Trojan Horse of the US government and transnational corporations. It revealed that CI's program of flyovers - part of their USAID-supported "environmental monitoring" program - flew over areas occupied by Zapatista communities in planes which bore USAID markings. In Chiapas, CI uses state-of-the art geographical information systems (GIS) technology, including high resolution satellite imaging. ...


 * "CI supports the World Bank -backed MesoAmerican Biological Corridor project. Many indigenous communities, social movements and NGOs have condemned this as an attempt to greenwash the massive Plan Puebla Panama infrastructure scheme, and as a front for corporate biopiracy in the region.


 * "CI is also a partner in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, with the World Bank and the American Forest and Paper Association (US timber and paper industry lobby group), launched by Colin Powell at last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg."


 * Dan Martin - Senior Managing Director


 * Chairmans Council, Conservation International

Funding
According to their 2005 Financial Summary they received the following:
 * Individuals $7,502,000
 * Corporations $6,710,000
 * Foundations $12,038,000
 * U.S. government $7,714,000
 * Non-U.S. government $719,000
 * NGO/Multilaterals $9,030,000
 * Investment income $2,296,000
 * Other income $423,000
 * TOTAL REVENUE $46,432,000

Staff

 * Peter A. Seligmann, Chairman and CEO
 * Russell A. Mittermeier, President

Directors
Source: http://www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/about/board.xml
 * Peter A. Seligmann, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer - Conservation International
 * Gordon E. Moore, Ph.D, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus - Intel Corporation

Vice Chairs Board Members California, N.A.
 * Meredith Auld Brokaw, Conservationist
 * Lewis W. Coleman, President - DreamWorks Animation SKG
 * Mark L. Feldman, President and Chief Executive Officer - L & L Manufacturing Company
 * Harrison Ford, Actor
 * Nicholas J. Pritzker, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer - Hyatt Development Corporation
 * Henry H. Arnhold, Chairman - Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Holdings, Inc
 * Skip Brittenham, Senior Partner - Ziffren, Brittenham,
 * Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman & Cook, LLP
 * The Lord Browne of Madingley, Group Chief Executive - BP p.l.c.
 * Paula Hannaway Crown, Principal - Henry Crown and Company
 * Barry Diller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - IAC/InterActiveCorp
 * Robert J. Fisher, Chairman - Gap, Inc.
 * Ann Friedman, Teacher
 * Michael H. Glawe, Director Emeritus - UAL Corporation, United Airlines
 * Judson Green, President and Chief Executive Officer - NAVTEQ
 * Dr. H. Fisk Johnson, Chief Executive Officer - SC Johnson & Son, Inc.
 * S.K.I Khama, Lt. General, Vice President - Republic of Botswana
 * Joel Korn, President - WKI Brasil Servicos, Ltda.
 * Federico R. (Piki) Lopez, President - First Philippine Conservation, Inc.
 * Peter McPherson, Founding Co-Chair - Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa
 * Her Majesty Queen Noor, Conservationist
 * Claire Perry, Ph.D, Curator of American Art - Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
 * Stewart A. Resnick, Chairman - Roll International Corporation
 * Story Clark Resor, Conservationist
 * Kenneth F. Siebel, Chief Investment Officer - U.S. Trust Company of
 * Orin Smith, Chief Executive Officer (retired) - Starbucks Coffee Company
 * Tom Stephenson, General Partner - Sequoia Capital
 * Enki Tan, M.D., Executive Director - GITI Group
 * Ray Thurston, Chief Executive Officer - Edgewood, LLC
 * Rob Walton, Chairman of the Board of Directors - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
 * Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D.
 * Marjorie Yang, Chairman and CEO - Esquel Group
 * Tamsen Ann Ziff, Ziff Brothers Investment

Emeritus
 * Adam Albright
 * Eliezer Batista da Silva
 * Nini de Berger
 * Skip Brittenham
 * Louis Cabot
 * Yvon Chouinard
 * Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.
 * Damaris D.W. Ethridge
 * William Clay Ford, Jr.
 * Eileen R. Growald
 * Alan J. Hirschfield
 * William T. Hutton
 * Christine Jurzykowski
 * William H. Kent
 * Jose Koechlin Von Stein
 * Oscar Lopez
 * Dr. Paulo Nogueira-Neto
 * Leon Rajaobelina
 * Lynda Rae Resnick
 * Claude Rosenberg, Jr.
 * Andres Marcelo Sada
 * Jose Sarukhan K., Ph.D.
 * Amb. Rodolfo Silva
 * Hon. Jack H. Vaughn
 * Governor Miguel Aleman Velasco
 * Alan N. Weeden

Publications

 * 2005 Financial Summary
 * 2005 Annual Report

Contact
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22202 Telephone: (703) 341-2400 Toll-free (within the US): 1(800) 429-5660 Web:

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Center for Applied Biodiversity Science
 * Nicholas P. Lapham
 * Spencer B. Beebe
 * Adrian Forsyth
 * John Reid, Environmental
 * John Heyl
 * Kai Robertson
 * Joshua S. Reichert - former vice president for conservation
 * Ian Bowles - former vice president for conservation policy
 * Carlos Manuel Rodriguez - vice president for conservation policy
 * Kristen Walker Painemilla
 * Nigel Asquith
 * Sojourner
 * Business and Biodiversity Offset Program
 * Global Aquaculture Alliance
 * Jennifer Morris - Venture Capital fund manager
 * Horizon Organic Dairy - partner
 * Roger C. Altman

Criticism

 * irlandesa, "Deconstructing Conservation International, Part I: Say Hello to the Masters of the Universe", Zmag, May 27, 2002.
 * José Merced Hernández Gómez, José Leopoldo Castro, Benedetta B., Michael Chamberlin, and Ernesto Ledesma Arronte, "Conservation International: The Trojan Horse", San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, June 2003.
 * irlandesa, "Deconstructing Conservation International, Part Two: Chiapas - Strategic Intelligence and the "Preserve"", Chiapas Coalition '98, Undated.
 * Aziz Choudry, "Tarzan, Indiana Jones and Conservation International's Global Greenwash Machine", Zmag, October 10, 2003.
 * Aziz Choudry, "Conservation International: privatizing nature, plundering biodiversity", Seedling, October 2003.
 * Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, "The Troubled Marriage of Environmentalists and Oil Companies", Special to CorpWatch, December 22, 2003.
 * Brian Tokar, "The World Bank and the "Next Green Revolution"", Zmag, April 2004.
 * Brian Tokar, "Gene Traders: Biotechnology, World Trade and the Globalization of Hunger", 2004.
 * Patrick Bond, "Africa again foiled by elites, North and South", Znet, July 22, 2004.
 * Manuel de la Cruz, "Starbucks and CI's Eco-Imperialism in Chiapas: Mexican coffee growers slam environmentalists' multinational ties", Organic Consumers Association, August 22, 2004.
 * "Conservation International", Public Eye, 2005.
 * Christine MacDonald, Green Inc.: An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad (Lyons Press, 2008).
 * Marc Gunther, "Corporate ties bedevil green groups: When environmentalists work with big business, sometimes big money changes hands", Fortune, November 14, 2008.
 * Michael Barker, "When Environmentalists Legitimize Plunder", Swans Commentary, January 26, 2009.
 * Michael Barker, "Hollywood’s Corporate Conservation Collaborators", Swans Commentary, February 23, 2009.
 * Mark Dowie, Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples (MIT Press, May 2009).
 * Joann Hari, The wrong kind of green, "The Nation", March 22, 2010.
 * Dawn Paley, "Starbucks Carbon-Neutral Coffee", Watershed Sentinel, Sept.Oct 2011.