By Bernie Lopez
Reprinted from the Philippine Sentinel
Editor – dinocres1944@aim.com
Is the conservation program of the oil-multinational-funded World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the Coral Triangle an ‘advance party’ for oil exploration? The 1.6-billion-acre Coral Triangle, reputed to be the richest marine biodiversity area in the planet, covering six countries, is regarded by oil multinationals to also be the richest in vast oil reserves. WWF, Conservation International, and Nature Conservancy have forged a conservation cooperation with these six Asian countries through the USAID-funded Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP). Are we discerning oil wolves disguised as green sheep? Let us look at some facts.
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John Loudon, President of Royal Dutch Shell for 15 years, resigned to organize and run WWF International for four years. In 1961, WWF-UK received $663,000 from Shell Oil. Then, British Petroleum (BP) gave WWF a whopping $238 million for the year 2011 alone. WWF has been receiving a wave of donations in the last 40 years from oil giants like British Petroleum, Shell, and others. BP’s CEO John Browne was in the board of Conservation International (CI). BP gave $2 million to CI and $10 million to Nature Conservancy.
The fact that WWF seems to be doing an honest-to-goodness conservation program in the Coral Triangle shows that perhaps there are only a handful at the top who are aware of the conflict-of-interest issue. The rest are true and aggressive green advocates. A few discerning ones may perhaps be looking the other way in the name of their career and advocacy. But do donors ‘suggest’ policy guidelines to recipients? Well-funded conservation programs benefitting locals yield a foothold if oil is suddenly discovered. It is a normal USAID modus operandi to use development programs as a quid pro quo for US interests in Third World nations. In other words, USAID also aids the US. The map of CTSP turf is juxtaposed against the map of oil resources.
Multinationals extracting oil in Third World nations, giving a trickle and taking the lion’s share, has resulted in the trend of the host country nationalizing oil extraction, provided it has the capital and technology to do it. Technology transfer can come from a sympathetic oil country like Venezuela, through a bilateral equitable-sharing agreement. Capital can come from a government loan. That way, multinationals do not hold Third World nations by the throat. The oil hegemony of rich nations is slowly shrinking.
Click image to view blow up.
Source –http://media3.picsearch.com/is?SzdFE_xmKIX-WqaVBGupQTD-x5PFzv4vLOyVrKeGoE4&height=218
Note that the green (exploration) and yellow (pre-exploration target) areas are mostly within the Coral Triangle, that is why it is a prime target of multinationals. The appendix below shows the global ranking of four of the six Coral Triangle nations compared to the first eight. If the Philippine claim on Sabah is realized, it will rank much higher and maybe even out-rank Malaysia. If oil is discovered in Sulu, which is reputed to have vast reserves, the Philippine rank will again move up. Ranking does not necessarily reflect greater oil income, if the multinationals take the lion’s share.
Ranking of Coral Triangle Nations in oil resource
http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=97
| Country Name | Oil – proved reserves (bbl) | Year of Estimate |
| 01 Saudi Arabia | 262,600,000,000 | 2011 |
| 02 Venezuela | 211,200,000,000 | 2011 |
| 03 Canada | 175,200,000,000 | 2012 |
| 04 Iran | 137,000,000,000 | 2012 |
| 05 Iraq | 115,000,000,000 | 2011 |
| 06 Kuwait | 104,000,000,000 | 2011 |
| 07 United Arab Emirates | 97,800,000,000 | 2011 |
| 08 Russia | 60,000,000,000 | 2011 |
| 21 Malaysia | 5,800,000,000 | 2011 |
| 27 Indonesia | 3,990,000,000 | 2011 |
| 44 Vietnam | 600,000,000 | 2011 |
| 64 Philippines | 138,500,000 | 2011 |
Greenpeace
Oil-multinational-funded Greenpeace has an anti-nuclear-energy campaign. Nuclear energy is the competitor of oil energy of the very multinationals donating to Greenpeace. Do oil firms regard nuclear energy as a threat and a rival? Greenpeace is funded by oil giants such as Standard Oil, as reported by Activist Cash. Is there not an inherent conflict interest?
Today’s vast resources of Industrial Revolution oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller contributed substantially to Greenpeace. Rockefeller Brothers Foundation donated $1,08 million from 1997 to 2005, the Rockefeller Family Fund $115,000 from 2002 to 2005, and the Rockefeller Foundation $20,285 from 1996 to 2001. (Source. http://www.infowars.com/big-green-oil-money-wwf-founded-with-money-from-royal-dutch-shell/print/).
Yet, ironically, true green advocates within Greenpeace, are virtually ‘biting the hand that feeds it’ by attacking the very oil multinationals which are its sources of funds. As in the case of WWF, are there perhaps a few people on top who receive policy ‘suggestions’ or ‘guidelines’ from donors? In their website, Greenpeace writes that mercenary scientists are running “Exxon’s campaign to deny and undermine the scientific evidence on global warming.” It is not known if Exxon donated funds to Greenpeace.
Other Green Giants
Green NGOs Sierra Club and ACORN are funded by Standard Oil. Sierra Club received over $25 million from the gas industry led by Chesapeake Energy from 2007 to 2010. The Environment Defense Fund, which does not accept corporate donations, partnered with BP, Shell International, etal to form the Partnership for Climate Action. Environment groups joined BP Wind Energy in 2008 to form the American Wind and Wildlife Institute.
Here are some more statistics from infowars.com on Rockefeller donations to green advocacy – to Sierra Club $710,000.00 from 1995 to 2001, $105,000 from 1996 to 2002, and (Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) $38,250 from 1997 to 2000; to ACORN $25,000 in 1998 and $10,000 in 2002.
Do oil multinationals, as fossil fuel users, fear to be eventually compelled by law to lessen production when climate change starts to churn mega-disasters? A Newsweek cover screamed “Global Warming Is a Hoax”, in support of oil multinationals. Green giants subtly carry oil interests, some of which are diametrically opposed to true green advocacy.
(eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com)
Other sources / more information –http://wwf.org.ph/wwf3/programs/conservation/coraltriangle andhttp://worldwildlife.org/partnerships/coral-triangle-support-partnership
Internet source no longer available – The WWF’s Vast Pool of Oil Money,Activist Cash
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