IFCNR Note: To access the complete series of Interviews on David Wills click on "E-NGO Intel" on the column to the left of this article)

IFCNR - Mr. Wills, in our first interview we gained quite an insight into the amazing story of your life as Vice President for Investigations for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). For nearly two decades yours was a life filled with adventure, intrigue and danger with each episode memorialized in news footage and televised documentaries of undercover exposés on virtually every continent: the illegal primate trade in Southeast Asia, rare bird smuggling in South America, horse slaughter in North America, ivory and rhino horn poaching in Africa.

(Photo-Right: David Wills - right - in Africa with Informant on Ivory Poaching)

That episode of your life ended in a flurry of public controversy as one or more ambitious colleagues set about to sweep you aside from their goal of assuming control of that multi-million dollar NGO. Tell us about the years following HSUS.

DW - After leaving the humane movement I had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

My company, which became Sustainable Resources International, began to develop a clientele of some very large corporations whose business utilized the earth's natural resources or animals.

From 1995 through 2005 I worked with Darden Restaurants, Monsanto, Strauss Veal, the National Fisheries Institute, GAA, and a host of others.

IFCNR - Your embrace of Sustainable Use clients suggests that you chanced your beliefs from your days as an animal advocate.

(Photo right - David Wills - left - with Darden's Dick Monroe - far right - and corporate jet pilots preparing to leave for field assessment survey)

DW - Not at all. My love for animals and appreciation for the natural environment had not dimmed.

What had been tarnished beyond repair was my view of the NGO's who claimed they were the moral arbitrators of right and wrong and that they had the solution(s) to problems of animal and environmental abuse.

I had become convinced that they were not interested in solutions, unless the perception that they had a solution fed their vast fund raising apparatus. Their ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars translates directly into considerable political influence and a very real ability to manipulate public policy, the press and public perceptions. I found that very little if any of those resources are used to directly benefit the lives of animals or the environment.

IFCNR - Corporate America is portrayed by your former colleagues in the humane movement as cold, impersonal and hardly filled with characteristics compatible with compassion for animals or the environment. Likewise, Trade Associations are discredited as shills for corporations equally lacking credibility. Your embracing both seems an unlikely alliance.

DW - A couple of things happened that sort of drove me into a new strategy and a new direction.

The first was meeting two individuals. One was Stephen Boynton with whom I developed a professional relationship and later a deep friendship. The other was when I met my future business partner, John Aquilino, another one of "them" from the other side.

Boynton was an attorney who had represented many of the use groups who had been the "opposition" in my previous years within the humane movement. He introduced me to many of the leaders of these groups and I was struck by the fact that these folks were just people not better or worse than those in the animal rights movement, they just held different opinions.

John was intelligent and, surprisingly to me, he had many of the same values that I held, specifically loyalty and a thirst for answers.

Boynton and Aquilino gave me the idea that I could pursue my interests in animal welfare and environmental activism without having to be caught up in the pathology of the national NGO groups.

IFCNR - What was the second influence?

(Photo left - David Wills and Darden's Dick Monroe admire an impressive Nile perch in Uganda)

DW - The second was a book I read by John Elkington called "Cannibals with Forks" which posited the question "If a cannibal begins to eat with a fork is it progress?" His premise involved the issues of technology, progress and ethics. In short, Elkington examines the theory that asks if technological advances and other scientific breakthroughs necessarily lead to a better world. Of course, the answer is "no".

Elkington's book helped me tie a lot of ideas together. Government lacks the imagination and capability to make the world better. The large national and international NGOs in my view proved themselves to be little more than corporate fund raising machines. Even churches and similar charitable groups are limited in what they bring to the table.

The former depends on taxes for its revenues. Higher taxes mean less giving power to NGOs and other charitable organizations. So that symbiotic relationship is hardly dependable in the long run. That leaves one, very-untapped source: corporations.

Elkington talked about the need for modern 21st century corporations to go beyond the formula of corporate success as simply the financial "bottom line." He argued that a truly successful corporation would have three measures of success: economic success, environmental sustainability and social equity.

The thought struck me that perhaps we could work with corporations to convince them that doing the "right thing" would yield them a better pay off.

IFCNR - You are talking about a word very much in vogue today: "Sustainability." It's used by NGOs and resourced-based industries alike. So it means different things depending on one's point-of-view. How do you define sustainability?

DW - This past year I co-authored a "White Paper" on sustainability entitled "Sustainability Defined: The Theory & Formula for Putting the Theory into Sustainable Practice" in which I equated "environmental sustainability" with a term I coined, "ethical capitalism."

The ability to preserve and conserve the Earth's wild resources - its wildlife, its wild and pristine rivers, its wild lands and vast oceans - is directly related to our success at eliminating sources of pollution and environmental degradation. Sustainability depends on our ability to channel human behavior away from destruction and towards conservation.

(Photo right - David Wills at elephant orphanage in Kenya)

An Ecuadorian shrimp farmer brought home a very important point with his analysis of environmental degradation when he said: "Poverty is the worst form of pollution." An individual, family, village or nation struggling to survive sees the last rhino and the last fish in the sea as meals. The last mangrove tree is just a source of firewood for the night.

Handouts from governments or charities are not sustainable. But, the capital-driven corporate world brings the potential to create real jobs that pay real wages into the equation. Where the quality of life improves, suddenly you see health and education levels rise and the dawning of the realization that Nature's resources can be used in a way that meets the needs of present and conserved so they also meet the needs of future generations. That's sustainability.

IFCNR - How can you tell if a corporation is truly motivated by ethical capitalism versus one that simply mouths platitudes about sustainability in hopes of creating a greater market share? Aren't all corporations focused on one thing: turning a profit?

DW - First off, there's nothing wrong with making a profit. The anti-capitalism attitudes held by too many in the NGO world are pretentious and self-delusional. If business didn't make a profit charitable donations would dry up and NGOs would be forced to close their doors. No profits, no taxes. So NGOs, government and business are in the same boat. They all depend upon profits for their very existence.

Economic prosperity is the essence of sustainability. Every business looks beyond the present to chart a course allowing it to compete in the marketplace for years and decades to come. To be sustainable that prosperity must extend to everyone involved in bringing a sustainable product to the market place.

IFCNR - Can you give examples of both your successes (if any) and your failures?

DW - During those years, I continued my globe trotting adventures traveling to countries such as Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Panama, Vietnam, Venezuela, Chile, Iran, Kazakhstan, and many more.

I gravitated in most cases to the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in large part because they were areas that represented the worst of human disrespect and destruction of the earth's environment.

(photo - right: David Wills in Iran examining sturgeon taken from the Caspian Sea)

I did some very evolutionary work, including working with developing a plan to allow Caspian Sea sturgeon to be harvested sustainably; developing an artesianal lobster fishery in Madagascar: assessing and improving a multitude of shrimp aquaculture farms around the world; working to improve the conditions for veal calves in the USA; developing a commercial carp fishery in Croatia for the International Finance Corporation a division of the World bank; working with the world's only farmed conch farm in the Turks and Caicos: developing a fisheries management plan which utilized artificial habitats for lobster in the Bahamas: and developing a proposed plan for Namibia's national aquaculture industry.

Two real success stories involve Strauss Veal, now Strauss Brands and Darden Restaurants. (See separate interviews with Dick Monroe of Darden Restaurants Inc. and Randy Strauss of Strauss Brands Inc.)

(photo - left - David Wills with spiny lobster in Federated States of Micronesia)

The whole focus of my work during that ten-year period was to try and convince company leaders and CEOs that an ethical form of capitalism was not only in their and their shareholder's interests but that it was the right thing to do.

The good news is that working with certain enlightened individuals within certain corporations allowed us to have some dramatic successes. The bad news is that corporations have no souls and any success or progress was for the most part dependent on a key individual. Once that individual left through retirement or restructuring or whatever, the "progress" disappeared.

IFCNR - How did what you offered the corporate and/or association world differ from PR or Advertising agencies provide or were you just trying to be a "Wise Use" PR firm?

DW - Many of the corporations only wanted a PR spin. PR firms slap a press release Band-Aid over an open sore. We went far beyond any such superficial fix you would find in corporate PR or advertising.

For those few unique leaders in specific companies that really cared, we taught them that 1) some times the "antis" were right and what the corporation was doing was wrong, and 2) that to "fix" a problem you had to understand the problem and accept ethical responsibility for corporate actions in the future.

IFCNR - Where did IFCNR fit in?

DW - IFCNR became a very important vehicle during those ten years. The foundation that Boynton established as a defender for the "Use" groups evolved into an objective foundation that looked for solutions not fund-raising material.

If you look at the papers and the international forums in which I participated from 1995 through 2005 you will see that we tackled everything from fisheries issues to the international fur trade, from sea turtles to sturgeon. IFCNR took positions that in some cases supported the "Use" groups but in others supported the "non-Use" groups.

(See list of publications elsewhere)

Boynton's vision was more myopic. He saw "Use" as the objective and the foundation as a means to find ways to always justify that use. My involvement with IFCNR changed the emphasis to the point of view that if we are to use animals and the earth's resources then the methodologies had to be cruelty free, sustainable, and truly (not just lip service) compassionate.

A good concrete example of the philosophical differences between Boynton and me was the whaling issue.

Boynton felt as long as certain species of whales had sustainable numbers of individuals there was nothing wrong with harvesting (killing) them. My position was and is that whales, like elephants and chimpanzees and dolphins and a few other species due to their intelligence or their cultural relationship to humans or other factors made any use of them prohibitive with very few exceptions.

IFCNR - That certainly sounds like you brought the Foundation into closer alignment with your past colleagues in many ways. How do you account for the continued controversy surrounding IFCNR?

DW - I have always believed a good indicator of success in any area of social activism is that you make some enemies when you stir things up or hit too close to home. Well, IFCNR and myself in particular continued to draw the wrath of the animal rights groups and now we also managed to make some enemies in the "Use" side as well.

IFCNR - Can you be more specific?

DW - Under IFCNRs banner, John Aquilino wrote a book called a "Guide to Influential NGOs"; which sold over 10,000 copies and immediately drew the wrath of the major animal and environmental rights groups.

IFCNR dared tread on sacrosanct NGO soil by pointing out fundamental problems with the present wording of the Endangered Species Act and other NGO sacred cows like the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the fact that at international venues, the U.S. delegation often sided with extreme NGOs on issues clearly contrary to U.S. policies.

Congressman Richard Pombo, then chairman of the House Committee charged with environmental matters took a very maverick position by traveling to forums such as CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to see firsthand the workings of those organizations. NGOs hated that and branded him an enemy of the environment.

IFCNR found itself being accused of improperly paying travel expenses for Congressman Pombo and facing government audits to determine if any wrongdoing actually occurred. Despite the IRS audit proving the charges groundless and that I had no personal financial dealings with Pombo, the allegations still reside on various activist web sites on the Internet as well as inaccurate renditions of my past history with HSUS.

By early 2003 I had come to the conclusion that despite some truly wonderful successes changing corporate America was a personal goal that may have been right but given our resources it was simply unrealistic.

I decided I had to do something different. I had to build a company that could demonstrate that the triple bottom line of economic success, environmental sustainability and social equity could succeed and on a global scale.

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Publications & Reports:

White Papers:

*Sustainability Defined : The Theory and Formula for Putting the Theory into Practice 2007

*Protesters at the Door - A Narrowly Focused View of NGO Inter-Relationships 2006

*North American Veal at a Crossroads: Crisis, Stasis, or Opportunity 2005

*Avian Influenza: A Worldwide Cause for Concern 2004 with Dr. Cynthia Botteron

*The Food Industry's Challenge: Developing Brand Loyalty versus Promoting Industrial Credibility 2004

*Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD: A Review in Plain Language of a Complex and Perplexing World Health Issue 2003

*Sea Turtles: Polices, Perceptions & Precautions 2003

*An Analysis of the Practices, Perceptions & Potential of the U.S. Veal Calf Industry 2002

*A Review of the Air Shipping Mortality & Social/Environmental Utility of the Domestic (USA) Bird Breeding Industry 2002

*The Growing Controversy Surrounding "Industrial" Fisheries: Implications for Global Efforts to Reduce Hunger

*Saving Sturgeon Worldwide: Trade or No Trade *Third Party Certification: A Question of Trust

*Challenging the Precautionary Principle as it Applies to Bycatch 1998

*Challenging Current Sea Turtle Management Policies 1998

Assessments:

*Southern Madagascar Crayfish Fishery Assessment

*Assessment of Bahamas Lobster Fishery

*Analysis of Potential Madagascar Shrimp Aquaculture

*Sturgeon Conservation/Caviar Production in Iran & Kazakhstan

*Carp aquaculture operation in Croatia

*Conch mariculture project in Turks and Caicos Islands.

Essays/Presentations:

*Essays on Wildlife Issues Vol. 1

*Essays on Fisheries Issues Vol. 1

*Essays on Renewable Resources Vol. 1

*The Consistency Principle

*The role of Ethics in 21st Century Corporations

*Replacing Bias with Reality

Documentaries:

"From Pachyderms to Penaeus" - On the importance of shrimp aquaculture

"Destroying the Myth" - Assessment of foothold trap use "The Circle of Life" - The relationship of death & dying to sustainability

Strategic Plans:

- Ballot Issues Coalition Campaign Strategy: 2000 and Beyond

Handbooks:

-Guide to Influential Environmental and Animal Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) 1st & 2nd Editions

-Guidelines for Defining & Determining the Sustainability of a Panularid Fishery - Andrew Gude

Species Reports:

- Lobster

- Swordfish

- Salmon

- Alaskan Pollack

- Pacific Pollack

- Squid

- Sharks

- Grouper

- Sea Turtles

- Tuna

- Shrimp

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Part III of the David Wills story to be continued.