Concerning the resignation of Paul Holthus,
With Paul Holthus leaving the MAC for new challenges, I need to make some brief comments on the legacy the MAC has been trying to create in Indonesia and the Philippines. Doing nothing about it will destroy the marine ornamental (MO) industry.
MAC was created to help the industry obtain marine organisms that are properly collected, handled, and shipped. Its goals were supposed to help eradicate waste of these resources, to help conserve, and to help stop the deterioration of the marine environment, providing sustainability for the industry. In return what naturally follows is fair equity for the poorest of the poor in our coastal areas, the marginalized collectors of ornamental fish and other animals needed by the MO trade. The whole cycle when complete benefits the entire chain.
I admire the ability of Paul Holthus to raise funds. That is hard. But, raising funds and doing things the right way with the expected impact is another story. When an organization needs achievements associated with the use of funds, such as those provided by the World Bank GEF under MAMTI, there is an urgent need to claim huge successes. But, in the end the truth will always prevail. Slowly, the importing countries noticed the discrepancies with MAC's claims in newsletters, expensive advertisements, and articles in magazines. People began to ask: "After all these years, where are the high quality MAC Certified fish? Where are the MAC Certified soft and hard corals?"
In the exporting countries where things are really happing, we see the effects of what MAC has done over the past five years. Those who are not blinded are filled with disgust. The collectors and people like myself, who really know the trade and are situated in the field have noticed major discrepancies. There is no need to find out from MAC staff, who seek to protect lucrative salaries and are gagged by their employer.
It is understandable that those in the west that feel something is going wrong, after not seeing MO products flowing through the chain of custody, will only see and suspect a miniscule portion of the volume of resources which have been wasted; what is really happening in the process of certification; and the impacts on the collectors and exporters. This we see and no matter how it is denied we see it.
MAC has created 'for lack of better words' a subculture where things are distorted by grand denials of the truth. Denials that cyanide is being used for collecting MO fish by those who are card-bearing MAC supporters, denials of bad handling and husbandry, denials of high mortality, and useless Collection Area Management Plans (CAMPs) which are just canned outputs based on inadequate training programs. In fact, in the village of Les on the Island of Bali, the MAC's trainings were so bad that the collectors killed many of the MO fish before they were even exported. These kinds of trainings unfortunately have been passed on wherever MAC has conducted its programs.
What is worse is that during the years that MAC taught incorrect methods for collection and handling MO fish, the collectors believed that this was the proper way and that these wrong methods have the tacit approval and blessing of MAC. "So why will they be wrong? They have the money."
All illegal fishing activities have been driven deeper underground. It takes one who really knows the whole aspect and the driving forces in the trade, making it harder to determine and more time to dig out the truth. One just needs to work up the chain to see the whole sordid mess.
Recently I met John Brandt at one of the sites where I was working and I told him what a mess the MAC had created. He nodded in agreement. But who is to be blamed? Being naïve excuses no one, for you are playing with people's livelihoods, which are affected by the environment they rely on. It is the responsibility of senior MAC staff to see to it that there are no adverse effects on the reefs and local communities with what they undertake. It is the responsibility of MAC's Executive Director and other managers to listen, evaluate problems, and then decide after considering the whole approach. Most of all, they must be flexible enough to correct what goes wrong. Unfortunately, the MAC's managers have not performed in this way. They have made bad decisions and refused to admit they were wrong. One cannot force the wrong thing to make it right. The MAC's Executive Director cannot have "yes men" around him that parrot his decisions to give him self satisfaction. But this is the type of organization that has been created.
Well Paul, did I not tell you how things would turn out if you went this direction before I became "persona non-grata"? Farewell to you Paul. I mean no malice. My regret is that you could have really done it right and achieved what MAC set to be achieve. I hope the new challenges would be worth your skills and that you will be able to achieve goals that will affect people's lives and the environment for the better.
As for MAC, if they continue to go on this same path it would be better for them to back out and fold up from this present endeavor and admit that they failed miserably. At least the waste of money will cease. If the MAC can reform under new leadership, maybe honest reforms and real certification can begin to be implemented.
Sincerely,
Ferdinand Cruz
