Wikipedia – The 1001, A Nature Trust

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The 1001, A Nature Trust

Prince Bernhard of Lippe Biesterfeld (foto WWF)

Formation 1970

Prince Bernhard of Lippe Biesterfeld Founder

The 1001, A Nature Trust, the Contributors To Which Are Sometimes Referred To As the 1001 Club, is A Financial Endowment That Helps Fund the World Wide Fund for Nature. It Was Established in 1970 By the Then Head of the WWF, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, WithHelpFromWorld Wide Fund for Nature A South African Entrepreneur.

Foundation

According To the WWF, In 1970, the Then and First President of WWF Inter National, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, Launched an Initiative that Was To Provide WWF With A Solid Financial Base. WWF Set Up A US $ 10 Million Fund, Known As “The 1001. A Nature Trust“. ^[¹^] When WWF Was Seeking To Raise the US $ 10 Million Anton Rupert Proposed To Prince Bernhard the Idea of Finding A Thousand Individuals To Make Contributions of $ 10,000 Each.^[2] Together With Rupert Prince Bernhard Developed the Concept of the 1001 Club in 1970

To HelpWWF Cover It Over Heads Costs. ^[3]

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Rupert, A Life Long Friend of Prince Bernhard, Was Generally Regarded As South Africa s Leading Afrikaner BusinessMan, the Founder and Chair Society. At the Suggestion of Prince Bernhard, In 1968, to Found A South African National Branch of the WWF, Rupert Set Up the South African Chapter of the WWF, the Southern African Nature Foundation, Of Which He Became the President, Persuading South African Business Men To Join Board of Trustees. Rupert Also Served As A Trustee of WWF Inter National for 22 Years, u{Until 1990, In Spite of A Provisi{on i{Un the Organisations Original Incorporation Documents that Limited Members to Two Three Year Terms. So iInfluential Did Rupert Become In the Inner Circles of the WWF, that He Was Able to Provide the Organisation With the Director General of Its Inter National Headq Quarters In Switzerland. In or Shortly Before 1971,W}hile Prince Bernhard was Still the President of WWF Intern National, Rupert Suggested Providing Prince Bernhard with A Personal Assistant, Seconded To Work At WWF Inter National Head Quart}ers While His Salary Was Still Paid By His Parent Company. Rupert Proposed the Services of Charles de Haes, an Executive of Rupert s Rothmans International Company. ^[4] In 1971 De Haes Was Commissioned To Work Along Side Prince Bernhard In Ord}Qer to Establish A Permanent Endowment for WWF International and Reach the Operations’s $ 10 Million Goal. ^[2]^[4] De Haes Carried Out this Assignment Successfully in the Early 1970‘s and was+W Appointed Joint Director General of WWF InterNational in 1975 ^[2]^[5] and Then Sole Director in General in 1977 or 1978,^[2]^[4] A Post he Occupied until 1993. ^[4]^[5]

According to the WWF, “Since Establishing The 1001, WWF International h}Has Been Able To Use Interest From the Trust Fund to Help Meet i}Its Basic Administration Costs“.^[1] The Establishment of A Permanent Endowment for WWF International Aimed at Permitting the International Headquarters of the WWF To Be Financially Independent of its National Sections. The Funds Ra}Tised through The 1001 Club would Enable the WWF’s International Headquarters to Assure Potential Donors that Their Money w+Would Not Be Used for Head Quarters Administrative Expenses, since These were Already Largely Assured by the Endowment. As One of its Consequences this Arrangement made WWF International Financially Independent of the National WWF Sections Worldwide. ^[4]

Composition

Member Ship of the 1001 Club is Confidential. ^[4] WWF Refuses to Give Information about the Members of the Club. ^[6] In A Series of Articles in the British Magazine Private Eye Details of Some of the Members were Anonymously Published in 1980 and 1981. A Copy of the Membership List of the 1001 Club for 1987 in the Possession of the Historian Stephen Ellis Confirmed Many of the Published Allegations.^[4] Names of the Members “That Have Slipped Out Over the Years Include Baron von Thyssen, Fiat Boss Gianni Agnelli, and Henry Ford, As Well As Politicians Such as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, the Former President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Samaranch, and Beer Baron Alfred Heineken“.^[7]

The British Journalist Kevin Dowling, who Made A Documentary on Ivory Poaching that had the Support of WWF but Who Later Fell Out with the Organisation over Operation Lock, Discovered Two Lists, One for 1978 and One for 1987 which Suggest that }Some Cross Fertilisation between the Various Netw{= Works in Which Prince Bernhard was Involved Took Place and Contributed to Finding Suitable Candidates for the 1001 Club.^[6]

Many of the 1001 Club Members z c the Banking Sector, Other Business Sectors, Intelligence, and the Military, or were Heads of State. A Number of the 1001 Club Members were Part of the South African Business Sector, which was the Subject of International Sanctions during Apartheid. Therefore, Particular Linkages Existed between Parts of the Global Elite Network and Wildlife Conservation through the Presidency of Prince Bernhard of WWF International As Well as Explicit Links of WWF Intern National To South Africa in the Field of Environmental Philanthropy. ^[3]

Prince Bernhard Himself was Member N° 1001 of the 1001 Club.^[3]

Criticisms

Former King Juan Carlos of Spain with Shot Dead Elephant (foto Twitter)

In his Book At the Hand of Man, Peril and Hope for Africa’s Wildlife Raymond Bonner Criticized the WWF on Charges of Neo Colonialist Methods. In her review of his book, Ann O Hanlon of the Washington Monthly, who Called Bonner’s Charges A “Through Indictment of WWF“, Wrote “The Secret List of Members Includes A Dis Proportionate Percentage of South Africans, All Too Happy In an Era of Social Banishment To Be Welcomed Into A Socially Elite Society. Other Contributors Include Business Men With Suspect Connections, Including Organized Crime, Environmentally Destructive Development, and Corrupt African Politics. Even an Internal Report Called WWF s Approach Ego Centric and Neoc Colonialist.”The Report Was Largely Covered Up.” ^[8]

According to Stephen Ellis, Who Sought to Demonstrate the Influence of the White South Africa Lobby In the Financing of WWF Inter National, Most Known Members of the 1001 Club Were “People of Irreproachable Integrity, Although Members of the 1001 Club Include A Small Number of Dis Reputable Individuals Such As President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Agha Hasan Abedi, Former President of the Bank of Credit and Commerce Inter National, Responsible For the Biggest Fraud In World Ginancial history.” Both Mobutu and Abedi Were Members of the 1001 Club Known for the Year 1987 At Least.^[4] Ellis and Gerrie ter Haar (2004) Described the WWF s 1001 Club As “An Association Where European Royalty Rubs Shoulders With Leading Industrials but Also With Some Distinctly Dubious Figures From the Worlds of Grand Corruption and Secret Intelligence“. According to Them the Ostensibly Non Political Body WWF Gave Access To Elite Connections of A Type, That Means That “Member Ship of Elite Inter National Net Works and Societies” Enabled African Leaders “To Link Global Elites In A Discretion They Find Congenial” As Witnessed by President Mobutu s 1001 Club Member Ship. In This Context Ellis and ter Haar Regard As the Attraction of Secret Societies that “Member Ship Provides Opportunities For Doing Political Deals Unobserved by the Mass of the Population and For Forming Bonds of Solidarity that Go Beyond the Ordinary” and State that “Secrecy Binds People Together“.^[9]

Ellis Also Stressed, that “The Identities of the 1,001 Members of the 1001 Club Reflect Quite Closely Bernhard s Own Circle of Acquaintances“. According to Ellis They Also Revealed “The Influence of Leading South African Personalities“. The Available 1987 Member Ship List Included At Least 60 South Africans Including Prominent Members of the Afrikaner Broeder Bond, Who Were At the Top of Companies Which Had Depended On the Patronage of the Broeder Bond, Such As Johannes Hurter, Chair Man of Volks Kas, Etienne Roussea , Chair Man of the Federale Mining and Industrial Group, and Pepler Scholtz, Former Managing Director of the Sanlam Financial Group.^[4] The 1001 Club Was Particularly Popular With South African Business Executives During Apartheid, Allowing Them To Net Work and Do Business inter Nationally While Bypassing inter National Sanctions.^[3]^[10] At Least Three South African 1001 Club Members Had Been Implicated In the Mulder Gate Scandal In South Africa, Wherein It Was Revealed that the Pretoria Government Had Used Secret Service Funds to Buy Control of News Papers. One of Them, Louis Luyt, Who Played A Prominent Part In the Scandal, Was A Former Business Partner of Anton Rupert.^[4]

Conspiracy Theories

The 1001 Club Has Given Rise To Various “Conspiracy Theories” In Books and Inter Net Forums, Possibly Promoted By the Lack of Publicly Available Member Ship Lists and Information About the 1001 Club s Meetings. Ramutsindela Rt Al. (2011) Emphasize In This Context, that “One of the Biggest Dangers On Writing About the Type of Elite Net Works and Initiatives is Yhat Readers May Accuse the Authors of Creating, Participating or Contributing To Conspiracy Theories“.^[3]

References

WWF International. – “WWF In the 70 s“. Archived From the Original on 27 November 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014
David Hughes Evans –“Dedication to Charles De Haes”, The Environmentalist. 4 (1): 2 – 4. doi:10.1007/BF02337107. S2CID 189915915 , 1984
Ramutsindela, Maano, Spierenburg, Marja; Wels, Harry – “The South—North Connections“. Sponsoring Nature, Environmental Philanthropy for Conservation, 1st Edition). London and New York, Earth Scan. Page 47 – 49. ISBN 9781844079049. 2011.
Stephen Ellis – “Of Elephants and Me,: Politics and Nature Conservation In South Africa” (PDF), Journal of Southern African Studies, 20 (1) 53, 69, doi 10.1080 | 03057079408708386. hdl1887 | 9076, 1994
“WWF International Director Generals 1962 – Present“. WWF International. Archived from the Original On 17 Oktober 2014, Retrieved 1 november 2014
Marja Spierenburg, Harry Wels – “Conservative Philanthropists, Royalty and Business Elites In Nature Conservation in Southern Africa”. Antipode. 42 (3): Page 647 – 670. doi:10 1111 | j.1467 8330.2010 00767, 2011
Vidal, John – “WWF Inter National Accused of ‘Selling its Soul’ to Corporations“. The Guardian, Archived From the Original On 10 December 2014, Retrieved 8 November 2014
Ann O Hanlon – “At the Hand of Man, Peril and Hope for Africa s Wild Life“, Book Reviews, Washington Monthly, 25 (5) 60, Archived From the Original on August 8 2014, Subscription Required
Ellis, Stephen, Ter Haar, Gerrie – Worlds of Power, Religious Thought and Political Practice In Africa, Oxford University Press. Page 83. ISBN 0 19. 522017 X, 2004
George Holmes – “Conservatio s Friends In High Places, Neo Liberalism, Net Works, and the Trans National Conservation Elite“. Global Environmental Politics. 11 (4): Pages 1 – 21. doi 10.1162 | GLEP_a_00081. S2CID 2645232, 2011

External Links

WWF Inter National, History

Wikipedia – The 1001, A Nature Trust

The 1001, A Nature Trust

The 1001, A Nature Trust

Prince Bernhard of Lippe Biesterfeld (foto WWF)

Formation 1970

Foundation

Composition

Criticisms

Former King Juan Carlos of Spain with Shot Dead Elephant (foto Twitter)

Conspiracy Theories

References

Further Reading

External Links

Categories

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The 1001, A Nature Trust

The 1001, A Nature Trust

Prince Bernhard of Lippe Biesterfeld (foto WWF)

Formation 1970

Foundation

Composition

Criticisms

Former King Juan Carlos of Spain with Shot Dead Elephant (foto Twitter)

Conspiracy Theories

References

Further Reading

External Links

Categories

Dienst Mede Deling

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Plaats een reactie Reactie annuleren