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NGOs: Leading The Parade

© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com

by

Henry Lamb

November 3, 2001

Agencies of the federal government gave $137 million last year to 20 major environmental organizations, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Tom Knudson.

Among the organizations claiming the bulk of the prize are The Nature Conservancy and the World Wide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund). Both of these organizations are also members of another international non-government organization, to which the U.S. State Department generously gives more than $1 million per year – the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In addition, six federal agencies are members of the IUCN, paying annual dues totaling nearly $300,000.

If taxpayers are surprised to learn that their hard-earned dollars are being turned over to environmental organizations, they will be shocked to learn that this direct transfer is dwarfed by the amount of money funneled to environmental non-government organizations through the United Nations.

These same three NGOs, along with Greenpeace and the World Resources Institute, are each identified as "executing agency," or "collaborating organization" on 46 projects, which received grants totaling $808,537,000, as reported in the June 30, 1999, "Operational Report on GEF [Global Environment Facility] Programs."

The United States contributes substantially to the Global Environment Facility.

Environmentalism is a multi-billion dollar business, led by giant not-for-profit corporations whose offices and executive salaries dwarf those of struggling, for-profit corporations that are often the targets of environmentalism.

The Nature Conservancy, whose assets exceed a billion dollars, is known primarily for "protecting" land by direct acquisition, or the purchase of "conservation easements" or "development rights." It also serves as a real estate agent for the federal government, reselling many of its acquisitions to federal agencies for tidy profits.

Whenever land is acquired by the government, or one of these organizations, the property taxes generated by the land vanishes, or is reduced dramatically. The remaining taxpayers are thereby forced to pay higher taxes to replace those no longer produced by the "protected" property.

This land-acquisition fever, promoted in the name of environmentalism, is an essential element of the global-environmental agenda – developed over the last few decades – that is being methodically implemented by this NGO-U.N.-government partnership.

• The International Union for the Conservation of Nature first proposed the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1981 – a proposal developed by its members, which include these NGOs and six federal agencies. When the treaty was finally adopted in 1992 – even though it was not ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1994 – these NGOs and federal agencies continued to implement domestic policies to achieve the objectives of the treaty.
• Biosphere Reserves, a program of UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – are a key ingredient of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The State Department, using The Nature Conservancy as the local promoter, instigated the nomination of the Ozark Biosphere Reserve in Missouri and Arkansas. Local activists, who knew the threat these Biosphere Reserves pose to private-property rights, opposed the project so effectively that it was abandoned.
• The Nature Conservancy is the "big-dog" in the fight which has continually worked to expand the wilderness areas and lock up more land in the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve – one of 47 in the United States.
• The World Wildlife Fund originated the "debt-for-nature" swap in South America, that resulted in exchanging poor-country debt for vast stretches of land – at rates as low as 10 cents on the dollar. This organization has also led the campaign to eliminate the use of chlorine, used to purify 98 percent of all public water supplies. PVC pipe and most plastics would be eliminated if they are ever successful in their quest.

Our tax dollars are being used to support and finance these activities.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature – which is a private, not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Switzerland, beyond accountability to any U.S. government entity, maintains special consultative status with the U.N. It was a "scientific adviser" from the IUCN who accompanied UNESCO officials to Yellowstone National Park to declare it a World Heritage Site "in danger," which triggered U.N. treaty authority to require "protection beyond the border of the site."

These NGOs develop the environmental policy through the IUCN, which is legitimized by the U.N. through treaties and side-agreements with government partners, then lobby law makers to implement the policies through law, and then promote the policies through TV ads, so-called "educational" material provided to school children and, frequently, through law suits.

These NGOs should not be receiving tax dollars. Congressional hearings have demonstrated abuse of these funds, but the funding continues. So powerful is the environmental lobby that our tax dollars continue to fund the very organizations leading the parade to global governance.

Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

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