This is the second in a series of articles to answer questions concerning Ontario's Lands for Life, renamed: "Ontario's Living Legacy."  Last time, we discussed such things as alternative sources of information.  This article provides an historical background. As you will see, Ontario's Living Legacy is not an isolated altruistic Canadian initiative.

The origins of what is today's "conservation movement" dates back to 1826 with the formation of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).  Men like Sir Julian Huxley, the first Director of UNESCO and Sir Frank Chappell, former General Commanding Officer of the British Army served in an executive capacity with the ZSL.  Interestingly, these men and other ZSL executives have been at the pinnacle of the British Intelligence Establishment.

The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in  London in 1830.  It sponsored major colonial expeditions such as Livingstone's and Sir Richard Burton's forays into Africa.  Sir Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics (the study of or the belief in the improvement of the human species by discouraging the population of undesirable races or those seen to be genetically deficient) was a powerful force on the RGS during the 19^th century.  According to a November, 1997 Special Report in 21st Century Science & Technology, the boards of ZSL and RGS are "almost indistinguishable" from that of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) founded by Prince Philip in 1961. Today, the ZSL, RGS and WWF also share Galton's eugenics ideology.

Next came the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society (FFPS), founded in 1903. Today, FFPS has a panel of 108 "honorary overseas consultants in 70 countries and maintains a liaison with most other conservation bodies.  FFPS is the mother organization of the Eugenics Society and of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).  The IUCN is the single most powerful non-governmental organization within the United Nations system and influences virtually every UN department. 

FFPS was founded as an arm of British imperial policy under the guise of conservation.  Its executive body included Lords Milner, Cromer, Curzon and Grey -- all founding members of the Rhodes Trust and the British Round Table.  Lord Milner headed this group of men who had Cecil Rhodes' vast fortune at their disposal.  This wealth enabled them to carry out Rhodes' internationalist dream of world dominion. The Milner Round Table manifests itself today in Britain's Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Canadian Institute for International Affairs; and America's Council on Foreign Relations.

Georgetown University professor, Carroll Quigley described the Round Table and its branches in his book, The Anglo-American Establishment, published in 1981 saying, "No country that values its safety should allow what the Milner group accomplished -- that is, that a small number of men would be able to wield such power in administration and politics, should be given control over the publication of documents relating to their actions, should be able to exercise such influence over the avenues of information that create public opinion, and should be able to monopolize so completely the writing and the teaching of the history of their own period."

Some of the most visible and understood actions of the "conservation" movement in North America are seen in the accomplishments of former U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt and the man who most influenced him, Gifford Pinchot.  Pinchot was trained under the British in India where they maintained large administrative regional units of the British forest service called "conservancies."  The resources in these conservancies were safeguarded for the use of British interests.  In his autobiography, Breaking New Ground, Pinchot describes how he and William McGee of the Smithsonian Institution dreamed up the concept of "Conservation of Natural Resources" as the basis of a social movement under their direction.

As an outgrowth of a fledgling eugenics or population reduction movement which took root in the early 1900s, Roosevelt was persuaded to prevent further human settlement and development of the western states. Roosevelt made Pinchot the first Director of the U.S. Forest Service.  In 1908, Roosevelt employed what came to be known as the "conservation swindle." They employed Pinchot's "Conservation of Nature" social movement and an immense public relations effort to stop unwanted westward settlement.  Through agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, they set aside vast areas of the resource-rich western states for a select few to whom the new settlement rules did not apply.  These lands were given over to the benefit of the very wealthy such as the Weyerhauser Family and J.J. Hill, friend and business associate of Canada's Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona) of  Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) fame.

Next time, we will discuss the Wildlands Project, a conservation plan established by two employees of The World Bank for the re-wilding and depopulation of rural North America. Wildlands is based on a philosophy of returning all land to its natural state and preventing most human activity.  Wildlands, which advocates the creation of vast bio-regions, much of which would be off limits to humans,  has been adopted as part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program. MAB incorporates the philosophy of the UN's Convention for Biological Diversity. In the United States, Wildlands is referred to as the "Man and the Biosphere (MAB)" program.  The same program directed, promoted and supported by the Canadian branch of the World Wildlife Fund is called "Endangered Spaces"; in Alberta, Canada and other western provinces, it is called "Special Places". In the Canadian province of Ontario, Wildlands is now called "Ontario's Living Legacy."

Are you beginning to get the picture?