The International Foundation for the

Conservation of Natural Resources (IFCNR)

IFCNR (pronounced "if nar") is a non-profit foundation that represents a broad range of individuals, academic institutions, corporations, associations, industries, cultures, non-governmental organizations and government agencies bound together by the desire to promote responsible, sustainable, environmentally compatible, and socially just use and conservation of the Earth's natural resources.

IFCNR is an independent foundation espousing the cause of human involvement in the management and scrupulous use of natural resources through a wide range of programs and initiatives.

IFCNR strives to maintain equilibrium, respect, and fairness in caring for the earth's resources.

NEW DIRECTIONS:  Commentary by IFCNR Director David K. Wills

Stephen Boynton incorporated IFCNR, “The International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources” in 1995. I met him in 1997 when I was under siege by the NGO world.

Stephen is sadly, deceased, but in his final days I met with him on several occasions at the farm where he was living in Poolesville, MD. Invariably, even at the end, despite his physical weakness, our talks turned to IFCNR and what he had hoped the Foundation could accomplish and what it would come to represent. He wanted it to be his legacy. Above all, Stephen wanted IFCNR to be truthful. To look at both sides of every issue it took on and ultimately; even if it was not representative of Stephen’s own views, he wanted IFCNR to take a stand based on the truth.  Stephen wanted IFCNR to be a champion of sustainable use of natural resources, specifically to be a champion for sustainable consumptive use.

 Stephen and I became close but very unlikely friends,  When he caught a fish, he liked to take it home and eat it.  I fly fish but then feel real empathy for the fish and carefully release everything I catch. He hunted everything. I hate killing anything and definitely see no “sport” in taking the life of another sentient being.  He supported trapping, whaling, circuses, and the use of animals in with fatal consequences for the animals.  I am a hybrid bunny hugger.  I’m an omnivore and enjoy a good hamburger or plate of sushi.  Still I really think there is no longer ay legitimate argument to support whaling. I think trapping is becoming an archaic activity. You could not have selected two more antithetical individuals in beliefs and practices.

 (Luckily, my long time partner, fellow IFCNR director, and confidant, John Aquilino, Jr. is busy keeping Stephen’s brand of use philosophy alive and well. John is the anti-bunny hugger and gourmet cook of the Foundation.)

 But Stephen and I were bound by a respect for intelligence, an appreciation for history, a love of nature, a desire to see the truth win out as well as an inordinately over-valued sense of the need for fair play. Over a ten-year period we became in the best sense of the word, “friends”. His final, literally his “death bed request” of me, made two days before he died, was that I take over IFCNR and make it something of which he and I would be proud.

 I have been busy the past four years working on sustainable aquaculture projects, putting a son through college and trying to become financially secure. I have not spent any major effort on developing IFCNR.  Now, even with the global melt down of the economy in 2008-2009, I think I have the time and the resources, and for the first time since Stephen Boynton died in 2007, I have the opportunity to take a look at what IFCNR can become.

 The following are a few of my opinions. Feel free to disagree.

 I have worked on both sides of the “use versus non-use” NGO community. In my view, the majority of the NGO community has become far too much like the very corporations they were supposed to be monitoring.  In far too many cases (though not in every case) they have lost focus on their mission and on solutions.  Animal rights groups do not protect animals, but simply litigate and educate for change while millions of innocent sentient lives are lost needlessly.  Environmental groups, who never touch nature, nor are “in touch” with nature, litigate endlessly on behalf of an environment that they neither understand nor embrace.  Sadly, governments are over run with deficits and frankly have become so corrupt that leadership and statesmanship are lost values. The new goals of padding one’s popularity to be assured of re-election and holding on the accompanying benefits that come with elected positions have left the world and its countries with no chance for solution driven efforts. Corporations whose desire for profit has surpassed extreme greed and whose surplus profits are distributed only to a select few at the very top are also in the majority. They rape and take and provide lip service to sustainability and social equity but make no real effort at meaningful change in a world that is in desperate need of compassion, and qualitative improvement.

 Perhaps never in history has the world been so in need of a do-over, a new beginning or better yet, a new direction. But in truth, it simply is not going to happen unless common folks, ordinary people get so fed up with the “status quo” at every level, that they begin to gather in force and united in this single cause, begin to force change.

 Bill Maher of late night HBO, who I disagree with on many things, is nonetheless absolutely correct when he says. “America is dumb”. We are dumb and we are getting dumber. Our elected politicians sell us out at every turn, our press lies to us, our employers screw us and we accept it because we feel we cannot make a difference. “What can I do, as one person” is a common lament.  Maybe nothing. Maybe we are all doomed to leave this earth hoping for a better something on the other side. Then again, maybe we can do something. One thing for sure if we don’t try to change things then we have no excuse to offer as to why things don’t change.

 These are just a few of my opinions, my views that have evolved over the past decade building my business and watching how things have progressed here and abroad.

I have been very fortunate.  My current and expired passports document the fact that I have traveled to and worked in close to 50 countries. I have seen firsthand far more ineffective and pseudo fixes to regional and global problems than successes. In the past five years, alone I have been in South Africa, Micronesia, China, Iran and even Saudi Arabia, to name but a few. I am hopefully old enough and finally wise enough and experienced enough to try and see if I can’t with a lot of help from a lot of bright associates and friends work to re-vitalize IFCNR and perhaps do some good.

 So, at the start of the second decade of the new century, IFCNR is going to try and become relevant. We are going to try and offer honest, objective and transparent analysis to many of the vexing questions concerning the environment, individual rights, corporate and government behavior that are asked of us, and that interest or concern us. From time to time we may put our own views out there but by and large we will respond to the questions and needs brought to us.

 We are fortunate in many ways. We are small. We have no substantial cash reserves. We do not have a large number of supporters. We pay no salaries and our overhead other then web site fees and occasional sub-contract work for intelligence research is minimal. We are not wealthy and as such we owe no one anything. Our views and solutions will come from an examination of an issue using hard disciplinary examination and our conclusions will be based on the facts and the logical consequences drawn from those facts, and our extensive global experience. In some cases, we are going to offer our very unique expertise for a fee.

 For a company, an institution, an association, an NGO, or even an individual who donates to IFCNR with a specific need, we can provide the following services:

• We can do an environmental audit.

• We can do a social equity audit

• We can develop a green strategy for your company, group, etc.

• We can teach you how to maximize contributions from your donor base

• We can give you INTEL on adversarial NGO’s and what they want from you

• We can teach you how to make social and political advocacy part of your business plan

• We can audit our business, your system, and your operation and show you your weaknesses and how to “eliminate” them

• We can provide raw resource assessments

Ultimately we can make you invulnerable to outside third party blackmail and extortion

 We have quite a track record, which we can share with you and you can check us out for veracity of our successes. If you look at our last 15 years and the body of our work you will find a very substantive amount of product.

We do not need a large amount of money. Most of the programs we will be undertaking will be funded with funds raised for that specific purpose or we will pay for them ourselves from our own incomes. What we need is a very wide and far reaching number of individual members. This helps us keep our not for profit 501(c) 3 private foundation status. Right now, we need 100, even 200, or more, $25.00 donations and a bunch of individual members, far more then we need a single gift of $25,000. If you don’t understand this contact us and I will personally write back or call you and explain it to you.

So, what am I asking you, a stranger to us to do? We need your support. Read what we say, examine our views. If you agree or find merit in them we would appreciate your financial support and your additions to our base of knowledge. We are not seeking big bucks but a lot of $25.00 and even $50.00 donations, would really help. Of course more money helps but we simply at this point want enough diverse support to keep our not for profit status intact.

Next, we are going to tackle some tough issues. You probably won’t agree with a lot of what we say or propose. We are hoping that you will be glad that someone has the guts and the courage to at the very least lay it out there. What we will offer is the truth as we see it based on the facts, as we understand them. We won’t have to draft an answer or give a solution based on the amount of money someone has donated. That should be worth something to everyone interested in the truth and in solutions.

 If this does not appeal to you or does not ring true don’t bother to write a check. We will do this in any case. If the facts change and new information comes to light we will evolve and indeed revise or even change our views and our solutions. If you can send a few bucks we appreciate it. If not, give us your feedback. Contact us at ifcnr@cs.com.

 New information, a different perspective, give us something we missed but just be civil and keep it polite, and if possible keep it constructive. We are trying to help a world we see as increasingly lost. We are not claiming to have all the answers but we are trying to search for them.

 As for me I have a very controversial background. Go to davidkwills.com and get my side of things or just “google” it and get my enemies side of things. Either way the truth is probably in the middle. I am old enough and comfortable enough that I no longer let slander and libel upset me.

 So, what does this mean? It means simply that IFCNR is going to try and be a different kind of NGO. We are going to try and be solution driven. Let me give you an example. IFCNR is going to start to deal with issues and offer what we think logic and the facts support as solutions or at the very least first steps toward solutions.

 Example: Global warming or Climate Change or just plain “pollution,” call it what you wish. IFCNR’s view is that “it is happening”. We may not embrace the near religious zealousness of some, but, you don’t have to be a member of MENSA to know 6 billion plus people driving cars, using air conditioning, raising cows and in general pushing every invention of the industrial age to plus capacity is having an impact on our ecosystem and usually not for the better. We live in a closed system. Where we eat and where we shit, are the same place. Time to work on it.  IFCNR may not have any answers yet but this is going to be a priority issue we are going to examine the facts closely and try and make some rational suggestions on what could help without hurting the people and the animals and the planet.

 We are going to examine and look at controversial issues about our oceans, wild or capture fisheries, whaling, sealing, biotechnological issues, hybridization, agricultural issues, aquaculture, third party certifications and labeling, alternative energies, cloning, sustainability, eco-tourism, medical research, creationism and evolution, and much more. In short anything that affects the natural resources of this planet, and the humans and other species on it. We are not going to lobby, support a candidate, even make political statements (unless it is inadvertent) but we are going to take a hard look at the various aspects and data on each issue we choose to tackle and we are going to try and sort the “wheat from the chaff” and toss in some pragmatic solutions. We will attempt to be a resource for anyone engaged in any of these issues and hopefully contribute something positive to the debate and hopefully perhaps even a solution or two.

 We are hoping you will help us by supporting us financially and in the process we hope we can help you and the planet upon which we all depend. We are going to commit to telling the world what we thinks it needs to hear not want it wants to hear. I am not sure how this will evolve but it will be interesting.  Oh and one final important qualification, we are going to do everything ethically, in the light of full disclosure with no agenda that we are not willing to explain. That alone, if we can keep to that modus operandi as a guiding principle will be evolutionary in and of itself.

Mission:                       To communicate, educate, evaluate, and advocate for the environmentally sound,

                                     ethical, socially just, and sustainable use of Nature's resources.

Motto:                          "A Part of Nature, Not Apart From Nature"

Areas of Interest:       Wild Ecology

                                    Agricultural Ecology

                                    Fisheries/Aquaculture

                                    Biotechnology (Medical/Agricultural)

                                    Cultural Biodiversity

                                    Sustainable Use Issues

                                    Development Initiatives

                                    Communications Among Nations

                                    Ethical Advocacy

Structure:                    501 (c) (3) - Non-profit, private foundation

                                    Established in 1995 in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA

Location:                     13329 Query Mill Road

                                     North Potomac, MD 20878

Key Personnel:          

                                    W. Richard Monroe - USA (Governor)

                                    R. J. Feldman, Esq. - USA (Governor)

                                    Dr. Cynthia Botteron - USA (Advisor)

                                    David K. Wills - USA (Director)

                                    John D. Aquilino - USA (Director)

Accounting & Financial Comptrollers

                                  LaPointe & Company, PC

                                          11820 Parklawn Drive, Suite 540

                                          Rockville, MD 20852

                                          301.770.1230