WWF - Silence of the Pandas

The WWF is the largest environmental protection organisation in the world. Trust in its green projects is almost limitless. Founded in 1961, it is the most influential lobby group for the environment in the world, thanks largely to its excellent contacts in both the political and industrial spheres. Behind the organisation’s eco-façade, the documentary maker uncovered explosive stories from all around the world. <br />A year in the making, this film is a journey into the heart of the green empire and may shatter public faith in the panda forever. <br /> <br />EN and NL subtitles are human-made, other subs are auto-generated. <br /> <br />© Wilfried Huismann, Germany 2011 <br /> <br />Tabel of contents <br /> <br />Intro 00.00 <br />Tigers in India 01.31 <br />Indonesian palm oil 11.40 <br />Anthropologist vs. WWF 20.45 <br />Foundation & 1001 Club 26.32 <br />Argentine toxin desert 30.28 <br />WWF & GMOs 43.19 <br />The Monsanto deal 44.20 <br />Papua land grabs 47.00 <br /> <br />• FULL INFO AT http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/wwf_the_silence_of_the_pandas/

There is a tiger in town,
let loose by the WWF...

...the world's most powerful nature
conservation organisation.

The last 3200 tigers are facing extinction.

Such messages target
the human heart.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature acts to
protect threatened species...

...the environment and the last
remaining rainforests.

The WWF panda is a
trusted logo, helping...

...to bring in around
$600,000,000 a year.

But we discovered that
behind the pretty pictures...

...the WWF has another,
ugly face.

It collaborates with companies
that destroy tropical rainforests...

...and thus the habitat
of tigers, and of people.

The WWF shares responsibility for
the destruction of our rainforests.

We set out to unearth the
secrets of the WWF.

A journey into the heart
of the green empire.

Our expedition began in India,
where according to the WWF's...

...own figures around
1400 tigers remain.

We headed for
the Kanha reserve.

At the Singinawa Jungle Lodge
we ran into a tour group...

...on an exclusive package adventure offered
by the WWF travel agency Natural Habitat.

It's called Wild India.

Price tag: $10,000 a head.

We were off on tiger safari.
The tour guide promised:

With us, you'll get to see
one of the last living tigers.

The men who keep tiger
boulevard tidy once reigned...

...over the forest as free
indigenous Adivasi.

Now they serve the
tourist industry.

The breakfast assembly area.

There used to be an Adivasi
village here but the WWF...

...claimed the natives disturbed the
peace of the tiger habitat.

There are meadows and
another tiger is here.

We might take a chance.

Tiger alarm! The race
was on for the best view.

Only the first-comers stand a chance of
getting a ringside seat at the tiger circus.

Hundred-fifty five jeeps
are admitted to the rally...

...ploughing through the core zone of the
tiger reserve. Eight hours a day, every day.

Just wait, wait..

Halt! The ranger has
discovered a tiger track.

The tour guide heard the tiger warning
call of a monkey.

Suspense was mounting.

False alarm. Only tiger feed.

Mr. Rhana, the owner of the jungle lodge, is
a member of the Nepalese royal family.

He showed us
his treasures.

This hunt took place in Nepal
in 1913. Our family was ruling.

This was a hunt arranged by
my great-grandfather...

... who ruled at that time for George V...

...the emperor of India.

And so you see that
they shot tigers here.

In this hunt there were 39.
In the other hunt 120.

You can see how they hunted.
You see the ring of elephants.

It's a complete ring,
a whole ring.

The ring closes and
the tigers are inside.

When the ring gets very
small the tigers come out...

...and they shoot them,
which is not very fair.

It was a quite unfair
sort of sport.

The only way you can ensure that
you get a reasonable wildlife hab...

...what you like to call
it.. population...

...is by making sure
they're balanced.

You can't just leave it to
nature because we're...

...interfering with
nature all the time.

And so you protect some things
by doing away with the predators.

Otherwise it won't work.

January 1961, the queen and her
prince consort on big game hunt.

The beaters used goats
to attract the prey.

The Windsor party didn't
leave many tigers behind.

The kill-shot had been
reserved for Elisabeth II...

...but at the last moment she
deferred to her husband.

I've never been big
game hunting.

No, never...

Except on one occasion
in India which was...

I've shot one tiger
in my life, that's all.

A princely pratfall.

The photo was published to a
storm of indignation in Britain...

...just when Philip and his friends
were inaugurating the WWF...

...on September 11, 1961.

But that's old news. So
where did the tiger...

...campaign millions
actually end up?

The WWF points to investment in
photo traps, set up in the jungle...

...so that tigers can be viewed live in
their habitat on the WWF website.

A PR stunt that does
nothing for the tigers.

Vasudha is a wildlife photographer
living alone at the edge of a tiger reserve.

She believes that the WWF tiger
hype does more harm than good.

I've been living in this area
for the last four years...

...and I've spotted the cat
about seven times. That is all...

A direct sighting, without
me disturbing...

...or intruding or forceful
tracking the tiger.

Talking about tourism, why
aren't we talking about...

...the amount of pollution
that is being sent out.

The amount of smoke that is going
out. The amount of sound...

Animals are very sensitive.

Do you think the tiger will
be comfortable to come out...

...in front of a jeep?

That is because you have access
to a jeep and you go inside the core area.

In the name of tourism you are
actually spoiling pristine forest.

Vasudha gave up her job at HSBC
Bank in London for her life here.

Her jungle neighbours taught her
how to live alongside the wild animals.

The children walk seven kilometres
through the jungle to school...

...and they come back.

So if that girl doesn't fear,
why should I fear?

The father of ten-year old Preebi told
us she had come face to face...

...with a tiger recently
while fetching water.

Was she afraid? No, even
though he had a huge head.

A friend from Bangalore
had come for a visit...

...Ullash Kumar, an environmental
activist who opposes...

...the WWF tiger campaign.

It pulls in big money but the tigers
don't benefit from any of it.

More and more parks are being declared
because you get more and more money.

Actually, there have been
instances where, like in Mukurti...

...where only one or
two tigers live.

It was supposed to be a tiger
reserve. It's rainforest.

It's a scam, a
political scam.

People of that area will tell you that the last
tiger seen was thirty, forty years back...

...before the tiger project
was declared.

When it was started in 1974 we had
roughly five thousand tigers.

If the project was successful, today we
should have had at least ten thousand.

Or at least six thousand,
eight thousand.

I know money is coming in
but it's not helping.

The money has made the scientists and
the forest department officials very rich.

They have new vehicles, they are
building more buildings...

...in the name of
promoting eco tourism.

I'm going to see
that the tribes are gone.

They say the tribes are a
problem for the tiger habitat...

...but they want to bring in
urban.. so-called eco tourists...

...in the name of
the tiger project.

Ullash Kumar discovered his
own love of nature...

...in a WWF children's group.

Later, doubts arose.
Why does the WWF...

...want to drive the people
out of the forests?

The Adivasi live in and from the
jungle habitat and also protect it.

Now a million of them have
been targeted for resettlement.

The WWF and the government say that
humans and tigers cannot coexist.

We went to see a honey-gathering
tribe in Nagarhole National Park.

They too are facing removal.

To break the resistance of these
Adivasi, the forestry department...

...has prohibited them from gathering
honey in the jungle.

The WWF has accused them of killing tigers
and selling them to Chinese business men.

We do not kill tigers.
We worship them.

Deep in the jungle, over there in
the next village is a tiger temple.

In addition we revere the
elephant. The whole forest is sacred...

...to us and we protect it.

The authorities and the WWF say,
take the $16,000 in compensation...

...and clear out of here.

Why? We've been living here
since time in memorial...

...in harmony with nature.

If we're chased away
the forest too will vanish.

Our relationship with the forest is
like that of a child to its mother.

The western environmental
groups can't understand that.

We wanted to talk to the WWF
about their tiger policies.

WWF International hq in Switzerland
first agreed to speak with us...

...but then terminated discussions
with no explanation.

Onwards to Indonesia,
5,000 kilometres to the south.

The island of Borneo still boasts intact
mangrove forests along its coasts.

The WWF raises money across the globe
to save the orang utan and it does in fact...

...act to preserve existing national
parks that are home to orang utans.

But this is the reality beyond the
borders of the few protected parks.

Rainforest is disappearing to make
room for palm oil plantations...

...for the food and biofuel industries.

Who is responsible?

Here, in Central Kalimantan it is the Singapore-
based multinational corporation Wilmar.

The WWF has a consultation contract
with the corporation on sustainability.

The WWF supports plant-based
energy production worldwide...

...a monoculture model that
is rapidly eliminating forests...

...and animals and displacing
traditional forest farmers.

Nordin documents environmental
crime in Borneo...

...for the nature
alliance Friends of the Earth.

The WWF says palm oil can
be produced sustainably.

Look around you. How
can this be sustainable?

Nothing else can
grow here anymore.

The partnership of the Wilmar
Corporation with the WWF...

...improves the company's image
but not its methods.

I have no evidence that the WWF is corrupt
but they do help the industry...

...to extend its
reach still further.

They take consultancy fees to greenwash
destructive production practices.

They adhere to the same
strategy as the corporation...

...which can now go ahead and
annihilate the rainforests...

...with the blessing
of the WWF.

A driving tour of a
biologically dead zone.

Rats are the only
animals still living there.

WWF functionaries have joined
forces with the industry lobby...

...to propose such plantations be
recognised as 'reforestation'.

If they succeed, the palm oil
companies will also...

...get emission credits
as a profit bonus.

In this area the effluent is
simply fed into the ground.

They are contaminating
the nearby river.

This is prohibited by
land use regulations.

Oil palms have to grow for five years
before the first oil fruit can be harvested.

We got lost driving through the endless
monotony of the plantations.

Thanks to gps we managed to
find our way out of the labyrinth.

Near evening, we arrived in
Sembulu, a last leftover village.

The people here once lived in and
from the rainforest as forest farmers.

But the government has leased
the land to industry.

A very few have found
work on the plantations...

...others can earn a living
from fishing the lake.

But runoff from the nearby oil
mills is polluting the water.

The farmers have not yet conceded
the fight for their land...

...some of them even
have land deeds.

But the government has leased
their forest to the...

...Wilmar Corporation nonetheless.

Nordin has founded the human
rights group Save Our Borneo...

...and advices
the farmers.

Nordin got an
unexpected sms:

Get out of Sembulu immediately or
we'll get rid of you permanently.

It wasn't the first time the environmental
activist had received a death threat.

One of the farmers invited us on an excursion
into his former tropical forest garden.

This was my land. I had planted fruit
trees amongst the trees of the forest.

Here stood the big rubber trees
that were my livelihood.

One day, heavy machinery came
and crushed everything in its path...

...with no clearance permit.

I went to Wilmar management
and objected.

In vain. And I even have
a deed of ownership.

This is the land
of my ancestors.

For five years I had been fighting
against the company.

Once, they even sent the
military to chase me off...

...but I keep coming back.

Baktaran chops down the hated oil palms
and risks landing in prison for doing so.

Like these farmers, who
also fought expropriation.

How am I supposed to feed
my children? It's hopeless.

Help us.

It sickens the soul,
we're innocent.

At the WWF office in the capital Jakarta we
confronted Amalia Prameswari with the pictures.

She is responsible for the palm
oil partnership with Wilmar.

Personally I have not heard
of this case until today.

And well, it's.. it would be a
disappointment of course that, say..

...that Wilmar really let this…
such thing happen.

On the other hand, they also have other sustainability
practices in place in other areas of Indonesia.

Such as here, on this
plantation in Sawit.

It literally stinks to high heaven,
due to untreated waste water.

This plantation was in the process of
being certified 'sustainable' with the seal...

...of approval of the Round Table on
Sustainable Palm Oil

...an organisation that unites over 400
palm oil industry players and the WWF.

With the green stamp of approval
the company can cash in on...

...European subsidies for
regenerative energy.

Environmental organisations, such as Greenpeace,
characterise the certification system practice...

...by the WWF and industry
as 'fraudulent labelling'.

There is no biodiversity and
too many chemicals.

So animals cannot live here…

...too many chemicals and
there is no biodiversity.

On to the next Wilmar plantation.

Here, the WWF had managed to
stipulate that some of the forest...

...not to be chopped down.

Eighty hectares were left intact.

Eighty, from 14,500.

In the midst of the palm oil production
site we found the remaining bit of forest.

You can walk across it
in twenty minutes.

This used to be a significant
orang utan habitat.

According to our monitoring
a few months ago...

...we found two orang utans here.

The forest is too small.

Orang utans need very
much forest to find food.

To survive they go
into the plantation...

...and of course the company
gets angry and kills them.

A token 'sustainable forest'.

What compels the WWF to get
into bed with agribusiness?

The search for an answer took us
to Geneva, Switzerland...

...the epicentre of global
agricultural trading...

...an arena in which the WWF
appears quite at home.

The organisation offers green
certificates to industry...

...for tropical woods, corn, soy,
fish, sugar cane and palm oil.

The world congress for
bio-ethenol was in full swing.

The WWF was the only
NGO to be invited.

Dörte Bieler heads the biomass
section at WWF Germany.

We had to leave the hall
before her speech.

According to the minutes she offered the
industry players support for their business.

The WWF was in
favour, she said...

...of sacrificing even more
land for bio energy production.

She added: we're different than other nature
conservancy organisations. We're constructive.

We filmed in Indonesia at a new plantation
created with the approval of the WWF.

It includes a high conservation value
forest that's been kept intact.

With orang utans. Eighty hectares on a
14,000 hectare plantation, 0,5 percent.

Can you call it a success when
99,5 percent is destroyed?'

It's a start.

If the WWF hadn't collaborated,
the company...

...would have converted the
entire rainforest to plantation.

Eighty hectares. That means
certain death for these orang utans.

Absolutely certain death would be if
the eighty hectares were gone too.

The intention may well be to enforce
sustainability by engaging in close dialogue...

...but isn't there a chance you could
fall into a trap and end up being...

...used to greenwash so to speak
this type of production?

The WWF has a very strict code of
conduct in order to prevent just that.

Our partnership contracts always state
that funding has no binding implications.

Both partners can terminate the relationship
should they ever become dissatisfied with it.

And that's enough for you?

The fact is, we live in a world with a global
economy and money plays an obvious role.

There are costs involved in everything
and I don't know why...

...you want to portray that
as something negative.

It costs money to fly here and
give a lecture for instance...

...but I have to be here in person
to deliver our message effectively.

You know what I mean though. Other nature conservancy
organisations reject major donations.

They say the risk of dependency is too great
when you close ranks with big industry.

Yes, but other NGOs perhaps
don't have the same impact.

Ok, what is your impact?
Where is the success?

For one thing, as an ngo it's
nice not to be sneered at...

...but to be accepted as a
competent dialogue partner.

Our work is science-based.

We always do a study first before expressing an
opinion and we try not to rely on emotionality.

We've been able to achieve quite a
bit with this science-based approach.

For example?

I couldn't come up with anything
you wouldn't find fault with.

How is this for an example?

The HSBC bank in London.

It's a member of the Round Table on
Sustainable Palm Oil...

...founded by the WWF.

The world's largest bank provides
financing for the palm oil industry...

...and the WWF isn't
left empty-handed.

The bank has donated one 100 million
dollars to a climate partnership with the WWF.

So many of these companies are being
criticised for contaminating the environment...

...for deforestation, destroying rivers.

They need some kind of cover.

Companies are essentially buying
the panda, just to greenwash things.

By saying, oh yes we have an alliance
with the WWF, so everything's fine.

Mac Chapin lives at the
foot of the Rocky Mountains.

An anthropologist, he has
worked for over forty years...

...with indigenous people
in the rainforests.

He has first-hand experience
with the WWF.

The indigenous people have awful problems with
the penetration of petroleum companies...

...mining and the
biofuel plantations.

They're just sweeping
through those areas...

...and a number of these companies give
money to the conservation groups...

...and so they tend to stay away
from criticising them.

They're working with the companies
that are destroying the ecosystem.

Now, to say that they are influencing them
in one way or another...

...I just don't see it.

The WWF was built
on old money.

Founding members included A list British aristocracy
with solid family, financial and educational pedigrees.

Sir Peter Scott, celebrated natural
scientist, took prince Philip...

...sailing to fill him
in on the WWF project.

Peter Scott said we're going to set
this thing up, and would I be president?

I said I would be
president of the UK thing...

...but I wouldn't be of the international because...

...I was president of the International
Equestrian Federation at the time...

...and I said I can't do two
international things at once.

But I said I know that prince
Bernhard of The Netherlands is very interested...

...in wild animals
and conservation.

He happens to be staying at The
Carriages so if you pop along...

...and ask him.
You may get him.

This is what he did.

Prince Bernhard came on board bringing the
first corporate sponsor - Shell - along with him.

In 1967, thousands of seabirds perished
after an oil tanker spill off the coast of France.

WWF leadership prohibited any form of criticism "that could
jeopardise donations from certain branches of industry."

Bernhard also looked after Africa,
where wild game poachers...

...were an increasing
problem in the national parks.

The WWF financed armed anti-poaching
commandos. In Zimbabwe for example...

...there were dozens of dead...

...including innocent bystanders.

In a top-secret action in 1989, the
WWF deployed a mercenary unit...

...from the security company
KAS Enterprises...

...close collaborators with apartheid
South Africa's secret services.

Internal documentation was leaked
to the news service Africa Confidential.

It seems to have been thought
up by prince Bernhard...

...and John Hanks, a WWF official.

They got the idea that they would raise
money and hire some British security company...

...former SAS soldiers, to
go to southern Africa.

There they told various people they were
going to find out who was poaching rhino horn.

They were going to kill them.

Bernhard gave them I think it
was about 500,000 pounds.

He raised this in the
most extraordinary way.

He sold two old master paintings
from his wife's collection...

...the former queen
of The Netherlands.

I think these were the
two paintings he sold.

These were offered at
Sotheby's at auction...

...with the proceedings going to the
WWF. In other words to charity.

But it later transpired that the
WWF then gave the money...

...or lend the money back to
Bernhard - secretly - and...

...that was the money he paid
to the British company KAS.

Prince Bernhard also established a nature
trust for the WWF. The 1001 Club.

Its founding members were
aristocrats, captains of industry...

...leaders of the South African apartheid
regime and the odd despotic ruler.

Such as Mobutu Sese Seko,
the dictator of Zaire.

And Jose Martinez de Hoz, number two
man in Argentina's military dictatorship.

A major landowner, big game
hunter and founder...

...of the Argentine
section of the WWF.

As minister of the economy, Martinez de Hoz
opened the country to international agribusiness.

Fact finding in Buenos Aires.

We had a rendezvous at the Plaza
San Martín with Jorge Rulli.

The former resistance fighter
spent five years in prison.

He lost a kidney and an
eye as a result...

...of the torture he
endured there.

This high rise is home to his old
arch enemy Jose Martinez de Hoz.

He lives there under house arrest,
sentenced for crimes against humanity.

Across the square is the
home of Monsanto, the...

...world's largest genetic
engineering corporation.

For Jorge Rulli, it is the
secret ruler of Argentina.

Monsanto and the WWF are
two arms of the same body.

One arm Monsanto, has managed
to establish its monoculture...

...production model
throughout Argentina.

The other arm - the WWF - is working to
make this model socially acceptable.

Even though it's destroying
our traditional agriculture.

They try to convince us GM soy is good,
you can even produce it sustainably.

The WWF is seeing to
it that we and...

...public opinion in Europe
accept the Monsanto soy.

Just outside Buenos Aires
begins Monsanto land.

Soy fields as far as
the eye can see.

Biodiesel crops for
Europe and the USA.

Global oil players, such as BP and
Shell and car companies like...

...VW and Toyota have a stake
in this multi-billion sector.

No more room for beans,
wheat or potatoes.

Even the famed Argentine
beef is now in short supply.

Many villages have become
dilapidated ghost towns.

Monsanto soy needs a lot of herbicide because
the weeds become resistant within a few years.

The farmers have to pay a licence fee
from Monsanto's seeds annually.

And they have to buy the
companion pesticide Roundup...

...a further development
of Agent Orange...

...the notorious defoliant deployed
by the USA in the Vietnam war.

Within a day of spraying,
all plant life is snuffed out.

Only the soy seedlings survive. A gene
has been inserted...

...that makes the plant
resistant to the toxin.

But people are not.

Roundup damages human
genetic material.

Roundup…

If you invite me to drink
a glass of Roundup...

...or to smell it for a
couple of hours directly.

I would say no, this will k...
can hurt me of course.

On the other hand...

...like anything if you use it,
the product...

...and I don't have any
relationship with Monsanto...

I want to be very
clear on that...

If you talk about
risks of technology...

... in terms of accidents
or illnesses...

...we should then eliminate
planes and cars….

Argentina is on the brink
of ecological collapse...

...and the WWF tells
us everything's ok..

It's a business that lives
from its sponsors.

In Argentina that means many major
corporations, from the soy producers...

...to the telephone company.

They all want to clear
their guilty conscience.

They donate to the WWF
to polish their image.

The companies can rely on the
WWF. It gives them room to move.

We headed north on
the soy highway.

One thousand kilometres and nothing but
soy all the way to the foothills of the Andes.

And poison is sprayed over all of it. This area
would be seeded with soy in a few days time...

...but the fields had already been treated with Monsanto's
Roundup and already everything was already dead.

Independent studies prove that
Roundup is damaging to humans.

Cancer rates rise where
it is used and...

...more and more infants
are born with birth defects.

The united soy republic
of South America.

That's what it says in the
advertisements for big soy producers.

They propagated genetically modified
soy all across South America.

Even though Brazil and Paraguay had
prohibited gm soy by law.

Monsanto just took it over the border
from Argentina and spread it...

... throughout Uruguay, Brazil,
Paraguay and Bolivia.

With the blessing of the
Argentine government.

In 2003, WWF Argentina held
a dialogue with the industry.

How can the country become
the leading biodiesel superpower?

Absurdly, they were
talking to themselves.

Dr. Héctor Laurence was not
only the head of the WWF...

...but also president of the
agricultural association AMIA...

...and director of the GMO
company Morgan Seeds.

I'm independent, with no company
affiliations at present.

But you were also president
of Morgan Seeds.

Yes, of course. And also
of Pioneer [Overseas].

That's obvious. I have an
absolutely clear conscience.

Because I am independent I have
been able to bring both sides together.

With prudence, information, science
and facts instead of ideology...

...industry and environmentalism
can work...

...together and find
solutions for progress.

I believe that genetic engineering and
biodiversity are perfectly compatible.

The Chaco region in northern Argentina is home
to one of the world's largest savannah habitats.

Or at least it was.

Over half of it has already
been deforested.

The soy desert of South America already
covers an area the size of Germany.

The plan is to double it.

The WWF has green-lighted the
project, deeming the Chaco forests...

...'substandard' and degraded
by human exploitation.

It's open season for burning
and pillaging.

But this area was also the habitat
of jaguars, monkeys and birds.

And there was a great
diversity of plant life.

People lived here too. Like
the farming family Rojas.

They have lost their land
in the forest and have to...

...make due with a much
smaller compensation plot.

Since the forest is gone, we
have suffered from drought.

It hardly rains at all anymore.

The soy companies don't care about that.
But our seeds just dry up in the fields.

The big producers
all live in the city.

They don't know the
land and nature.

They don't have a clue.

The farmers here, gauchos of the
forest they call themselves...

...work in the forest and use its
resources without destroying it.

Farmer Santana had lived
here for fifty years.

According to customary
law, the land was his...

...but the provincial government
sold it to a soy company.

People from the provincial administration
came here and said:

We'll let you keep a piece of your land
where you can rear your animals.

But then they came with their heavy
machinery and destroyed the entire forest.

What can I do? Without land deeds
there is no way we can fight it.

You first have to determine whether the
forest land really belongs to these people...

...or if they've
simply claimed it.

And then, look at the poor quality
of life these people have.

No drinking water, no
health care services.

Often no education.

What they need is training and
jobs and new technologies.

An on-site inspection.

The soy frontline has reached
the periphery of the village.

No farmers are
needed there now.

The rich northern hemisphere is trying to solve
its energy problems with diesel made out from soy...

...at the cost of food
production in the south.

Every year they spray herbicide...

...from airplanes too.

One of those planes
flew over our house.

The plants all died, and
I got a skin rash.

I lost my baby.

I was in the ninth month of pregnancy
when they delivered the girl by cesarian.

She was dead and
had several deformities.

Several doctors studied
the case and...

...they all concluded that the deformities
were the result of the toxic spraying.

The herbicide had
damaged the dna.

That happened to me.

According to the health authorities the rate of birth
defects in the Chaco soy region has risen by 400%.

To cut costs the aircraft often spray
an especially dangerous cocktail:

A mixture of herbicides,
pesticides and fungicides.

The pilots aren't allowed
to fly over the villages...

...but there is still no
escaping the toxic shower.

We fly at just three metres
above the fields at high speeds.

Just a small gust of wind and the
substances spread across a large area...

...up to five kilometres wide.

Can't you prevent it
from reaching the villages?

No, that's impossible.

A year ago I flew into a
power line and crashed.

I had inhaled some of the poison pesticides
that had seeped into the cockpit.

That clouds your perception

I was no longer able to judge
the distance to the power lines.

In an unprecedented fight for land,
the WWF has taken Monsanto's side.

At the 2010 Round Table for Responsible
Soy the two made a deal.

Effective immediately Monsanto's gm soy
could bear the 'produced sustainably' seal.

Misleading labelling:

The only sustainable growth here
is in Monsanto's revenues.

The genetic engineering industry has
the panda in its pocket...

...but no one is
supposed to notice.

Are you for or against
genetic engineering?

That's irrelevant. I
represent the WWF.

So of course you must have a position
and I like to know what it is.

I'm very sorry, I don't
want to be rude but...

...I'm not authorised to express
my personal opinion.

I'm here as spokesperson for
WWF Germany and International.

If there is no official opinion,
I won't express one.

So WWF International
has no opinion?

We decided to give
WWF USA a try.

Most members of the organisation know
nothing of the deals made by its leadership.

In many cases because
they would rather not know.

At the headquarters in Washington DC, we
made contact with a department head.

He revealed to us that Monsanto boss Hugh Grant
had been there in person in the summer of 2010...

...for a summit meeting.

The outcome of the
discussions remain secret.

WWF vice-president Jason Clay
is in charge of the partnership.

Surprisingly, he agreed
to speak with us...

...but WWF Germany asked
him to cancel the interview.

The reason: there were fears
donors and trustees...

...might pull out if Jason Clay told
the truth about the Monsanto deal.

Jason Clay cancelled
the confirmed interview.

We really appreciate
dr. Jason Clay...

We managed to find Jason Clay after all on
the website of the Global Harvest Initiative...

...a corporate agriculture
lobby group..

Members include the agri giants Cargill, ADM,
Monsanto and most recently, the WWF.

We need to freeze the
footprint of agriculture.

And we think there are seven or
eight things - and you can disagree...

...that's great, let's get the discussion
started - that we need to work on.

One is genetics.

We have got to produce
more with less.

We need to focus not just on temperate crops,
not just on annual crops, but on tropical crops...

...on orphan crops, on crops
that produce more...

...calories per input per
hectare with fewer impacts.

We need to get our priorities right.
We need to start focussing...

...on the food production where it's needed,
what's needed and how to move forward.

It takes at least fifteen years, maybe longer, to
bring a genetically engineered product to market.

If we don't start today
we're already at 2025.

The clock is ticking.

We need to get moving,
there is a sense of urgency.

Alright. Well Jason,
thanks, good job.

A clear endorsement of the
brave new Monsanto world.

Agribusiness is busy reapportioning
planet earth with the WWF right by its side.

In Indonesian Papua up
to 9 million hectares...

...have been earmarked for oil palm
plantations, according to an agreement...

...between the provincial
government and the WWF.

The WWF mapped the tribal
land itself and is helping...

...to choose the sites
for the plantations.

Who does the rainforest
belong to?

Local communities.

The land still belongs
to the tribes.

Do they know that they are planning
to plant 9 million hectares with oil palms?

We'll inform them, so that they
are aware of what is being planned.

Otherwise they won't
give up their land.

That would lead to conflicts.

We have to explain it to them because
they're still not open to the development.

Some are worried: Where will I
live if I sell off all my land?

They also can't imagine
working on a plantation.

Some on the other hand think, if
I sell up for 16 thousand dollars...

...I'll be able to live up to fifty years
on that. They have understood.

We visited one of the spots on the WWF map
destined for 1 million hectares of oil palms.

It is the ancestral homeland
of the Kanume tribe.

They do not yet know
that their time is up.

Surveyors came here
accompanied by soldiers.

But they can't take the
rainforest away from us.

I am in power here,
and defend the forest.

Soldiers have weapons
but they respect me.

If I want I can cast
a spell on them.

The gods and our ancestors
live in the rainforest.

It is the source of life.

No one may destroy it.