World Ocean Conference Greenwashes Schwarzenegger's Abysmal Record

World Ocean Conference Greenwashes Schwarzenegger's Abysmal Record

by Dan Bacher

The California and the World Ocean Conference (CWO) 2010, sponsored by the California Ocean Protection Council, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco from September 7-10, was a festival of corporate greenwashing, injustice and exclusion.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger used the event to greenwash his ocean policies, led by his widely-criticized Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The MLPA process creates so-called “marine protected areas” (MPAs) that fail to protect the ocean from an environmental disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil gusher or the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

"I am committed to protecting the world's oceans and I know that by working together will make a difference - we already have," said Schwarzenegger in his statement in the conference show program. "We are establishing a network of marine protected areas, unlocking the secrets of the deep, working with West Coast Governors and the Premier of British Columbia to improve the health of the coast and seeking to improve the economic and environmental vitality in the Pacific Rim through the Pacific 2020 Challenge."

Schwarzenegger was originally scheduled to open Wednesday's plenary session with a keynote address, along with John Hanke, the Vice President of Google Earth and Google Maps, and President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati. Schwarzenegger cancelled out at the last minute, but Hanke and Tong both gave presentations.

Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, seaweed harvesters and environmentalists have criticized his MLPA initiative, funded privately by the Shadowy Resources Legacy Foundation, for eviscerating the landmark law while violating numerous state, federal and international laws. The initiative has completely taken oil drilling, water pollution, aquaculture, wave energy projects, habitat destruction and all uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in the creation of so-called marine protected areas.

The same Governor who constantly gushes about "establishing a network of marine protected areas" has presided over the collapse of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, young striped bass, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other species. His administration authorized record water exports out of the California Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California that spurred the collapse.

The conference program featured four plenary sessions, 64 concurrent sessions, and other events with hundreds of participants. The conference organizers went out of their way to make sure that Tribal and fishing community members were excluded from or marginalized on the panels. No Tribal scientists or members of California Indian Tribes were scheduled for any of the panels, although Scott Williams, a lawyer for the Klamath Basin Tribes, spoke on the Klamath River Panel.

With the exception of Melvin de la Motte of the Central Coast Fisheries Conservation Coalition, I couldn't find any recreational fishermen invited to speak on the panels either. Likewise, only three commercial fishing representatives, including Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, were scheduled for panel presentations.

The "Fostering Effective Stakeholder Participation in the MLPA" panel, held on Thursday from 8 am to 9:45 am, was a prime example of how this conference was in reality a festival of injustice, exclusion and greenwashing, particularly when it came to the discussion of marine protected areas.

Melissa Miller-Henson, Program Manager for the MLPA Initiative, "moderated" the panel. The panel members included Bob Breen, Member of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council; Calla Allison, Staff Director for the Orange County Marine Protected Area Council; Eugenia Laychahk, Principal of EJL & Associates; Sara Sikich, Coastal Resources Director of Heal the Bay; Matt Winslow, a student at Mendocino County High School; and Kelly Sayce, Outreach and Eduction Coordinator for the California MLPA.

The Schwarzenegger administration scheduled no Tribal, fishing or grassroots environmental stakeholders to present their perspectives on fostering "effective stakeholder participation" in the MLPA process on this panel. Is it because they might portray a view of "stakeholder participation" at odds with the Schwarzenegger administration and well-funded corporate environmental NGOs?

Tribal members, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen blasted the Schwarzenegger administration for excluding them from these and other panels in a disgusting example of institutional racism and elitism.

"This conference was done as decisions are always made by state agencies - without input from the local communities, especially from Tribes," said Georgiana Myers, Yurok Tribal member and Coastal Justice Coalition organizer. "They come into our territory and homeland to impose laws, rules and regulations that most of the time have a negative impact on us."

"The event organizers made no attempt to get any substantial representation from the commercial or recreational fishing industry, with the exception of three panels," said Zeke Grader, who spoke on the aquaculture and offshore energy panels. "Lots of good people in the industry were ignored."

"For those who struggle to make ends meet in the fishing industry, the Governor's ocean policies appear to be a kind of class warfare launched by the California elite against us,” said Jim Martin, West Coast Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.

While tribal and fishing communities were marginalized and excluded from the speaker panels, one government bureaucrat after another promoted their questionable ocean policies.

Nancy Sutley, Chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, and Jane Lubchenko, the Under Secretary for Ocean and Atmosphere under the Obama Administration, spoke on "Protecting Our Ocean: A National Perspective." They discussed the implementation of President Obama’s Executive Order on the National Ocean Policy and Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning.

Unfortunately, the ocean “protection” ‘plans of Lubchencko, the former Vice Chair of the Board of Environmental Defense, include pushing a "catch shares" policy that privatizes ocean fish resources and concentrates fisheries into fewer, more wealthy hands.

Food and Water Watch, fishing organizations and grassroots environmental groups are opposing the "catch shares" program. Marie Logan of Food and Watch, who attended the conference, noted that there is a process of quota allocation (catch shares) being implemented to West Coast groundfish fisheries in the coming months and years.

The luncheon and closing event was entitled (you can't make this stuff up!) "Investing in Our Ocean's Future." The speakers were three of the biggest names in ocean corporate greenwashing and privatization: David Rockefeller, President and Founding Member, Sailors for the Sea; Michael Sutton, Center for the Future of the Ocean, Monterey Bay Aquarium; and Steve McCormick, President and Trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Of course, no Schwarzenegger administration oceans event is complete without a speech from Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association. Reheis-Boyd spoke at a luncheon panel on Thursday, September 9 about "The Gulf Oil Spill: Lessons Regarding Prevention and Response."

Reheis-Boyd was the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast and now sits on the task force for the North Coast. In recent months, she has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California Coast while presiding over the creation of marine protected areas that do nothing to protect the ocean from new oil drilling, oil spills, water pollution, wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture and habitat destruction. What type of marine guardian is this?

Rather than a legitimate effort to address the many problems that our oceans face, this conference served as a networking session for corporate leaders including David Rockefeller, Jr., John Hanke and Catherine Reheis-Boyd, corporate environmental "Gang Green" representatives, foundation heads and state and federal agency officials to discuss, promote and greenwash their plans to privatize ocean management and public trust resources.