The World Wicked Fund (WWF) - aka The Killer Panda - is once again prostituting itself to big business. WWF's aquaculture director Jose Villalon is leaving to join salmon feed giant Nutreco.
Villalon is currently vice president and managing director of WWF’s aquaculture program, and chairman of the board of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) - which also includes Marine Harvest, Nutreco and Pew Environment Group consultant Hank Cauley.
Villalon oversees the Aquaculture Dialogues — eight multi-stakeholder roundtables created to design environmental and social aquaculture standards. He also manages the global Aquaculture Improvement Projects (AIPs) which assist fish farmers to comply with those standards.
Over the past six years Villalon has been key to developing the aquaculture standards that led to the creation of the ASC, said Jason Clay senior vice president of market transformation at the WWF. “While our loss is Nutreco’s gain, WWF remains committed to developing and supporting improvement projects and standards for sustainable aquaculture as demand for farmed seafood increases on our finite planet,” said Clay. “We look forward to working with José in his new role in Nutreco.”
Villalon “brings with him a wealth of experience both in sustainability and our industry, which will certainly contribute to bringing our sustainability to the next level”, said Nutreco’s CEO Knut Nesse.
Read more via "Nutreco hires ASC chairman, WWF director as sustainability head"
"Sustainability is a journey and we’re all
on the march together – the word ‘sustainability’ implies you’ve already reached
your destination," said Jose Villalon at the Seafood Summit in 2011 . "Hence the ASC is staying away from the word sustainability
and focussing on responsible. Please appreciate that the ASC is a work in
progress".
Read more via "ASC on a ‘mission’ impossible to brand
farmed salmon as “responsible”"
Sadly, "progress" for the ASC and WWF appears to be leaping into bed with the salmon feed giant Nutreco (a former owner of Marine Harvest and the world's largest salmon feed company). WWF has already accepted the corporate dollar in the shape of a partnership with Marine Harvest so Villalon's move to Nutreco is a cosy fit.
Jose Villalon will now be well-placed to peddle more 'Panda Porn'. Expect to see more farmed salmon products stamped by the ASC's 'farmed responsible' certification mark.
Nutreco is desperate to brand itself as a "sustainable" company via various green-washing schemes.
By securing a place on the ASC's supervisory board - and now bagging the chair of the ASC's supervisory board in the shape of Jose Villalon - Nutreco are attempting to corner the market in "sustainable" farmed salmon.
“Making sustainability an integral part of everyday business will ensure Nutreco can contribute to the Feeding the Future challenge: feeding nine billion people sustainably in 2050,” Nutreco said, adding the appointment intends to bring its sustainability strategy “to the next level”.
Nutreco's vision of feeding the world with farmed salmon is fundamentally flawed and inherently unsustainable. "It is clear that the conference organizers and sponsor – the feed companies Nutreco and Skretting – have a vested interest in presenting salmon aquaculture as ‘sustainable’ as well as socially and environmentally acceptable," said Kurt Oddekalv, leader of the Green Warriors of Norway, at the AquaVision conference in June 2012 . "However, you would be doing the hungry people of the world a serious injustice if you presented salmon farming as anything other than what Dr. Daniel Pauly calls “a giant Ponzi scheme” which is robbing our oceans of fish to feed the rich.”
Read more via "Kofi's United Nations of Aquaculture"
WWF's global image is fluffy and cuddly - duping the gullible public into adopting pandas, dolphins and elephants.
Yet, WWF is more of a killer than compassionate. WWF's global ambassador Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, was even caught killing elephants on an African hunting trip.
The bloody reality is that WWF is sponsoring the killing of marine mammals via the certification of farmed salmon. In July 2012, the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture wrote to WWF
with the simple message: Please withdraw your support for the slaughter
of marine mammals (including pregnant seals and protected sea lions) by salmon farms.
Sign the petition online here
The wholesale corruption of WWF’s founding principles is a kick in the teeth to WWF members who are under the mistaken impression that the iconic panda is a champion of wildlife protection.
Read the letter to WWF online here
By supporting the certification of farmed salmon via the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and lethal farmed salmon standards via the ‘Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue’, the ‘Killer Panda’ is effectively pulling the trigger and has blood on its paws.
GAAIA’s ‘Salmon Farming Kills’ campaign is calling for a global boycott of all ‘seal unfriendly’ and ‘sea lion unfriendly’ farmed salmon – and that shamefully includes WWF-endorsed farmed salmon.
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