CITES and Health Research

by Dr. Sunil Chacko, MD (Kerala), MPH (Harvard), MBA (Columbia)

Economics and diplomacy were behind the rejection of the bid to get the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, a U.N. affiliated body, to ban trade in bluefin tuna. Japan furiously lobbied against the proposed ban, that had been sponsored by the Principality of Monaco with the support of the European Union and the U.S., utilizing the entire Japanese delegation of more than 30 officials as well as its status as a great power and major donor to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Developing countries from the Mediterranean and beyond, worried about economic consequences to their fishing sector that exports tuna to Japan, joined with Japan, China, Canada and Korea in defeating the proposal in two technically-different voting rounds: 68 to 20, and 72 to 43. It was a stunning setback for the proponents of the CITES ban, and a stark reminder of the multi-polar world we live in.

Meanwhile, the recent spate of news concerning Japanese fish-eating practices has not appeared magically. Social causes backed by billionaires and major US foundations are at the root of it. And, The Cove, a documentary about the annual dolphin hunt in the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture/State, Japan, got the Oscar; however, over 99.9% of people in Wakayama Prefecture have nothing to do with dolphin hunting. Few realize that The Cove was financed by the billionaire Jim Clark, renowned for creating the building blocks of the Internet economy. It was Jim Clark who financed then-graduate student Marc Andreessen to commercialize Andreessen's 1992 development of the world's first browser, without which the Internet would have remained the domain of ultra-geeks doing computer simulations on the aftermath of a mythical Soviet nuclear attack. But Japan remains the only country that endured actual nuclear attacks, and many Japanese appear bewildered and beleaguered by the flurry of news now depicting them, apparently, as blood-thirsty carnivores of marine creatures.

Two Films: The Cove, and The End of the Line, and the Campaigns

There is no question that it is even difficult to watch the trailers of The Cove, for the sea of dolphin blood following the so-called "hunt," and the other movie in the news, The End of the Line, about the rapid estimated decline of the world's fish population, and particularly the butchery and predicted near-extinction of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. Again, The End of the Line was co-financed by billionaire Alan Parker, the Zimbabwean-Swiss businessman's Oak Foundation, which has its environmental program managed by Kristian Parker, himself a marine biologist. Alan Parker, like Jim Clark, is an impressive businessman, who overcame many odds to create a fortune derived from his insights into the "tax-free" airport shopping habits of the post-War then-nouveau riche Japanese tourists in the 1970s and 1980s, and especially those who were traveling for paying homage to thousands of civilians and soldiers who leapt off the cliffs of Saipan in the dying days of World War II rather than be captured. Parker co-owned many of the old airport shops that he then sold off at the top of that pre-online era. Another backer of The End of the Line, and indeed the relentless campaign, directly and indirectly (see here and here and here), has been the Pew Charitable Trusts, endowed by the family that derived its fortune from the "Pennsylvania Oil Rush" and their Sun Oil Company, led now for decades by the redoubtable Becky Rimel.

Some of the key spokespersons in the film have received grants in the millions of dollars from the Pew Trusts. The head-on collision with Japan created the situation where the proud Japanese people grimaced with disdain at the apparent hypocrisy of largely meat-eating Westerners and others who they perceive as closing their eyes to reported gruesome killing practices (see here and here) in many slaughterhouses of "farm-animals" and who then point fingers at the Japanese -- and, beyond that, the recreational killing of deer, moose, and multiple other animals, some with medieval-style crossbows that can maim and lead to a slow, painful, death. No one is expecting the proponents of the bans, who undoubtedly abhor those practices, to take responsibility for the actions of a few, and indeed, likewise no one should paint all the 130 million Japanese people on the dolphin or even the bluefin tuna business, especially since most Japanese could manage with other kinds of Tuna, and indeed multiple other fish accessible on the island nation, and virtually no one is consuming Dolphin. In any event, the proponents of the ban never targeted Japanese fish-eating, but that may have been how it came across in Japan.

There is enough blame to go around for the lack of foresight. But it is also true that responsible advocacy, especially when financed by billionaires and wealthy foundations, ought to take a comprehensive look at what needs to be done, not merely take an expedient path. There aren't that many Taiji fishermen who are absolutely committed to killing dolphins. They, like most people, are looking to earn a living, and macro-statistics such as Japan being the "second-largest economy" don't automatically translate into basic necessities for Taiji fishermen in their now increasingly lengthy pre-retirement days, especially considering the all-powerful Japanese legendary bureaucracy that has been caricatured as never taking more than bite-sized steps. It is the same for the hundreds of thousands of small-eatery owners around Japan who prepare sushi and have believed, probably erroneously, that it is near-impossible to run a sushi shop without bluefin tuna, that may now skyrocket in price because of predicted impending supply shortages.

A Flashback to 20 Years: The Nobel Conference on Health Research and Its Parallel with the Billionaires' and Foundations' Current Dolphin/Tuna Campaigns

All that is personally jarring, for other reasons as well, because this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Nobel Conference on Health Research at which our Harvard University-based Commission's Report was presented and discussed, of which I was the Assistant Director and for much of its time its sole full-time professional staff member - and both Alan Parker and Becky Rimel were funders of the Commission and thereafter rapidly moved on without appropriate follow-up. After a mammoth world-wide consultation exercise that took our every waking minute to decipher health research and capacity building needs, on a shoestring budget compared with other international Commissions, no genuine follow-up fund, other mechanism or initiative was left behind. Some NGOs organized meet-and-greet type conferences but in this era of Skype, those may be losing relevance rapidly.

Looking to the Future

What then can be done? First, the Taiji dolphin fishermen can be moved to other, peaceful endeavours - I know because I spend part of the year in a nearby town and participate in environmental protection activities with local Taiji NGOs and the Taiji Town Council. Further, in the Huffington Post I wrote about possibilities on the other matter of bluefin tuna as well.

When billionaires and wealthy foundations get involved in advocacy, the world expects a bit more for systemic, integrative and comprehensive solutions. Abrogating those responsibilities will not engender widespread respect.