Biodiversity activists are offering to pay ‘conservation advocates’ $75 to promote 50% conservation of total land area by 2050 at state-sponsored forum
By Michael Bielawski
The biodiversity/climate activist group Stand Trees is offering to pay $75 to people who will speak in favor of “30 x 30,” the U.N./State of Vermont plan to conserve from development 30% of all land area by 2030, at an upcoming focus group sponsored by the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board.
Standing Trees, founded in 2020 by Zack Porter and other volunteers, follows the teaching of late biologist E.O. Wilson, who taught that “Earth Needs Half” – i.e., that in the interest of biodiversity, humanity should “set aside roughly half of Earth’s land and seas for nature,” its website says.
Also promoting the 30×30 effort, including the focus group, is Nature for Justice, a well-funded international climate group whose “Managing Director, U.SA.” is Burlington City Councilor Zorah Hightower. Its logo appears alongside that of the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources on a Standing Trees flyer outlining how and why to participate.
The focus group is part of the planning process for Act 59, the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act, sponsored by Vermont House Environment and Energy Chair Amy Sheldon, and passed last year by the Vermont Legislature. Citing United Nations findings about species extinction in its opening paragraphs. The law states: “It is the goal of the State that 30 percent of Vermont’s total land area shall be conserved by 2030, and 50 percent of the State’s total land area shall be conserved by 2050. The Secretary of Natural Resources shall lead the effort in achieving these goals. The land conserved shall include State, federal, municipal, and private land.”
The law mandates a statewide Conservation Plan to meet the 30 x 30 and 50 x 50 goals, and allocates $75,000 for “public education and outreach to inform the development of the statewide conservation plan.” Part of the conservation planning process is a ‘conservation advocates focus group’ on either April 8 or April 3 (the paragraph below says April 8, but the registration link says April 3, VDC is seeking clarity.) The following is excerpted from a Standing Trees newsletter:
“Tuesday, April 8th, 6:30 pm: Vermont Act 59 (30×30/50×50) “Conservation Advocates Focus Group.” Now is your chance to weigh in on the upcoming inventory and conservation planning process that will help Vermont strive towards conserving 30% of its landscape by 2030, and put at least 10% of the state’s forests and wetlands on track to grow old. Participants can be compensated $75. Learn more with this fact sheet and register here.”
It is unclear which organization – the state-run VHCB, or Standing Trees, or perhaps another not-for-profit like Nature for Justice – is the primary funding source for the focus group participation. Act 59 allocates a public education/outreach budget. Standing Trees does have a well-known funder of Vermont environmental causes listed as an advisor: Crea Lintilhac, director of the Lintilhac Foundation. According to her Standing Trees bio, she serves on the Boards of Advisors of the UVM Rubenstein School of Natural Resources, “serves as an officer and trustee of environmental advocacy boards in Vermont including VPIRGEF and VTDigger.”
The UN’s “2050 Vision” for “all policies and sectors”
The notion of a “30 by 30” plan is detailed by the United Nations. The UN’s 2022 Convention on Biological Diversity document details “The Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.”
The document lists dozens of initiatives for activists to follow. Efforts should be “designed to be useful and relevant to all biodiversity-related conventions, agreements and processes, as well as other related agreements, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
Equity is referenced 17 times, as well as a “Gender Plan of Action.” One section called the “2050 Vision and 2030 Mission” states that “These mechanisms are aligned with, as appropriate, the planning, monitoring, reporting and review processes under the Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, other relevant multilateral conventions and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the Gender Plan of Action.”
The document implies a climate-focused economy for “all public and private” sectors. It states, “To this end it is necessary to redirect resources harmful to biodiversity to nature-positive activities; align all public and private financial flows with the biodiversity objectives; generate new resources from all sources, private and public, domestic and international…”
It continues that “all policies and sectors” need to be climate-focused.
Burlington City Councilor involved?
Burlington City Councilor Zoraya Hightower is working with a group called Nature For Justice (N4J), which is promoting the Vermont 30×30 and 50×50 Conservation Plan.
According to her N4J bio, Hightower has worked on environmental and social justice issues for over ten years – from renewable energy finance in Kosovo and fishery sustainability in the Philippines to curtailing no-cause evictions in Vermont. Zoraya also works as an equity consultant with the Creative Discourse Group and serves on the Burlington Vermont City Council after winning a seat as the first woman of color in 2020.
Paying for testimony legal/ethical?
The notion that paying a person for testimony may present ethical and legal concerns has mostly been studied in court settings. The Bar Association of San Francisco has written on the subject.
They suggest that paying for testimony is a concerning trend. Still, sometimes it can be justified if for example the witness is an expert in a field of study and they need extra preparation to testify.
Nonetheless, they write, “A primary concern is that payment could induce alteration or falsification of evidence to mislead the judge or jury.”
McGuireWoods, a law firm that specializes in legal advice for companies, provides a similar assessment. They write, “The ethics rules clearly prohibit paying money in return for favorable testimony,” regarding a court setting.
The invite to the public forum does not specify that those compensated should have any extra expertise, they just need to be willing to testify. It states, “If you would like to receive compensation for your participation, please provide your mailing address.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Environment, State Government
501c3’s and c4’s working as designed….
More money than they know what to do with
30 x 30 tag is “ fed and state managing nature “ Plainly this is taking over private property rights, water rights, resource rights and placing government control of local, state and national policy as so they deem – all that under constitutional law. The global 30 x 30 initiative was enacted by executive order by Biden in 2021. With that, 30 % , including the state of Vermont, is to be put into governmental controlled management per Joe Biden’s “climate crisis.” as supported by Vermont’s Zoraya Hightower and others inside Vermont. Biden’s Executive Order 14008 on “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” otherwise known as the “30×30” initiative, was signed by Biden on January 27, 2021. Since that time, right here inside Vermont , 30 x 30 is quietly moving forward on succeeding to control 30 % of the land and natural resources rights in Vermont by 2030. Today, the federal government owns approx. 27 percent of Americas land mass ( including resources) Biden decided that 30 percent of each “eco-region” must be under federal land-use management. This includes all natural resources and private land use rights – at the same time as our bio-diverse national parks remain in crisis, and are being severely underfunded and fell into disrepair. The Biden administration does not define actually what “ conserve’ means , nor are there agreed upon metrics. As you think about Vermont preparations to deem what land is to be taken and managed by government, also be informed by reading the UN draft agreement of the 30 x 30 initiative here: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2021/07/a-new-global-framework-for-managing-nature-through-2030-1st-detailed-draft-agreement-debuts/
Climate: The Movie
At some point even the most indoctrinated among us will realize that we are the victims of one of the greatest hoaxes in recent history. And it’s not only the Climate Hoax that’s problematic. Consider the role of big pharma, the Covid scare, and the healthcare industry in general. Consider the military-industrial complex and never-ending wars around the globe. And consider the biggest scam of all, the education establishment, and the public K-12 monopoly. It’s all about controlling taxpayer funding and stifling the exceptional liberty and freedom inherent in free markets.
VDC Readers: We *are* being conned. And yes, certain politicians are complicit. But in the final analysis, it is each of us who is to blame. We are scared stiff that we ought to be responsible for our own outcomes… overwhelmed by the prospect that we, indeed, *can* be responsible … and be successful in the process.
My concern is, however, not that we as a community won’t figure this out. I’m concerned about the inevitable conflict of the process. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. So – again, I want to take this opportunity to express the following observation by ― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
We can get through this. And when we do, I think the resulting level of our well-being will exceed all expectations. We just have to get through this with as little conflict as possible.
I also want to take this opportunity to offer up (preempt) the inevitable skepticism on the Climate movie from the climate grifters.
https://skepticalscience.com/climate-the-movie-a-hot-mess-of-cold-myths.html
Watch the movie. Then read these skeptical points – carefully. The skeptics assertions actually support the contentions made by the IPCC scientists in the Climate movie.
The point is that the Climate Movie documentary is threatening the global cabal in a big way, and the globalists are going to do everything they can to distort the actual facts (with sophistry) and confuse you. Prepare yourselves. Think for yourselves.
Hey Jay,
I tried to get the movie to show up like you did, well done. We need to keep posting this over and over, because nobody in Vermont is going to be exposed to this otherwise….it’s that science thingy people struggle with.
Nobody reads….movies are a great way for people to learn what’s going on, otherwise they’ll listen to VPR, thinking they are getting unbiased “news”….
Well done, well done.
$75.00 to push an agenda some might not agree with, or even understand it’s implications. Should be illegal, but definitely is unethical. If you can’t get people to speak out on merit, perhaps there are other issues that are a concern for people. For me (personally) it’s about government control. We are a Constitutional Republic which means the elected government is put in place BY The People to represent their interests. Freedom is lost when a government controls the action of the people, or create unconstitutional laws to give government more control that the Constitution actually allows them to have.
Ahh…but 75 bucks a head is nothing for false testimony. We may even find that tax dollars received by “conservation advocates focus group” got there by way of a grant or award from our benevolent legislators- and out tax dollars are paying for this. The past 4 decades have seen Vermont’s demographic and politics swing so far left, that this is now acceptable and demanded. “they” must have their way, they must save the planet from whatever the cause du jour is today.
It is always important to remember the ultimate goal of the ‘climate change™’ promotors is not an energy system that changes the global climate. The goal of the ‘climate change™’ group is to create a carbon trading system; a new financial mechanism (a global tax program) to control human activity on a world-wide basis. Those “promoters” will stop at nothing to attain their goals.
This hoax was kicked off by the George Floyd event, which was an excuse to start the BLM protests and riots, which were also aimed at stopping the reelection of Donald Trump. You notice that BLM and Antifa stopped protesting the second Biden was elected. These protesters were also paid to go from place to place. The United Nations was connected with this, as many of its documents stated that it had to address police violence and racism in the US. George Floyd’s brother actually attended and spoke at a UN meeting via Zoom. The United Nations, and World Bank declared 3 pandemics were occuring simultaneously, and provided funds to fight the COVID-19, systemic racism and hate speech. Grants then allowed schools to hire DEI staff as well as money for equity programs. None of this was accidental or random. The plan continues to move forward because the Biden administration supports the United Nations 2030 Agenda, just like our legislatures and governor.
History is a never-ending story.
Actually, this ‘hoax’ began more than 30 years ago with the publication of The First Global Revolution (1991) – A REPORT BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CLUB OF ROME.
“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.”
And the current ‘globalist cabal’ (e.g. the 2030 Agenda) began more than 100 years ago, during Woodrow Wilson’s administration, with the League of Nations, followed later by the Bretton Woods monetary policy in 1944 and the creation of the United Nations.
The George Floyd tragedy is but a playwright’s single line in the umpteenth act of a far larger narrative describing our struggle to maintain the liberty and freedom established by our Declaration of Independence and U. S. Constitution.
I suggest not losing sight of the forest for the trees. Be it Climate Change, Covid, Jan 6, George Floyd, Rodney King, MLK, RFK, or JFK, globalists inevitably distort these tragedies to further their totalitarian objective over liberty, freedom, and free markets.
Whatever the specific circumstance that has your attention at any given point in time…. Resist Globalism!
Of interest is Dr. Michael Nehls M.D, Ph.D ( works in prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s) Nehls latest book “ The Indoctrinated Brain” or “How to Successfully Fend Off the Global Attack on Your Mental Freedom” Nehls level of research shows that the Covid mRNA vaccine spike protein bound to our brains hippocampus to wipe out autobiographical memory. With that, the widely broadcast new story agenda easily fills in that brain space. Perhaps so……. watch a short video here: https://rumble.com/v3ylvh4-dr.-michael-nehls-mrna-injections-erase-autobiographical-memory-in-hippocam.html Dr. Nehls site is here: https://michael-nehls.com
Rent-a-mobs have been a thing for a while now, a tool used mostly by the political left. But one must ask…where does is that money coming from to purchase this faux-populism? Some ultimately is from taxpayers through grand funding and some from donors, wealthy or otherwise. Vermont has always been known as a cheap place for special interests to buy legislation (or legislators), either more directly through lobbying or by this style of indirect, phony advocacy. The demo-prog legislators do the bidding of the VNRC, VPIRG, CLF and other eco-lobbyists by imposing expensive, inconvenient and generally ineffective policies (like their attempt to double the drink container deposit and expand it to more products). The lobbying organizations then put it in their promotional material that “your contribution went to strengthen Vermont’s ……. laws, see how effective we are at saving the planet”? And then their donors send them more money. It’s a vicious cycle. The social services expansion organizations like the Public Assets Institute use the same tactics. The way to end it is to stop voting for these jackass legislators and stop donating money to these groups that hate decent, productive, responsible people and use us as pawns for their globalist aspirations. Our pathetic political situation could be reversed in ONE election cycle but your typical Vermont democrat is so obsessed with toeing the woke line and with virtue signaling that they do it even in the privacy and anonymity of the voting booth.
Follow the money.
Mammon is the great snare that entraps those who cannot see and cannot hear, willfully ignorant, as Upton Sinclair said, “you cannot make a man understand something his paycheck depends on not understanding.”
With the economic coup in place, if you don’t pay with your soul, you don’t get paid. Trying to live outside the system of mammon used to be possible…but now those very lifestyles Vermonters sought to live simply simply to live, and live and let live, are demonized, and made illegal, which all of the UN Agenda 2021/30/50 is doing.
We in Vermont cannot function without the fiduciary incentives coming into the State since our governors sold their souls to the devil, and now, blithely serve him.
It is possible (One Small Town dot org, and UBUNTU for instance) make the middle man, and the fascists obsolete.
But people are afraid of change… and most under 50 think this is how the world is supposed to be…having stopped reading at all, where the Truth still lies.
The earliest Christian models had believers in Christ living in the Ubuntu way… still a model for peace, love and Truth…but even then, attacked and decimated by those who profited from debt slavery and food and home insecurity.
One person at a time, where we live… and committing to something else…ourselves… gets us where are supposed to be. Courage, strength and endurace required to live in Truth, doing what we are supposed to be doing: uplifting each other.
ASRO TURF
Vermont is king on the ASTRO TURF, all these people are paid, all the people running this whole scam in Montpelier are paid to cause us problems and work directly or indirectly for the United Nations……
NGO’s
Non-Profits
Lobbyists
PAC’s
Everybody in Government knows it’s easy to get stupid stuff passed in Vermont, because we have total sell outs and a completely compliant and manipulated press.
Cheap congresswomen can be bought in Vt for a million dollars…..circa FTX…..circa….Ukraine….circa tax payer funded Ukranian money laundering scheme.
ASTRO TURF Vermont is completely astro turf…
VPIRG….totally pay for the all the bs they do too.
astroturf…that’s the clever phrase I was looking for…
When real widespread grassroots support cannot be found…
Thank you for resurrecting it.
i have a bridge t sell you in baltimore //// francis scott key bridge//// follow the money trail/// this was no accident////
Saw this quote on x…
Everything you read makes sense if you simply translate “experts” as “crazy people”.
this would make a better slogan than Get Real………
“Experts say”… holds the same credibility as “studies indicate”…it depends who is doing the study.
What a crock. When exactly did the state of Vermont sign on for the UN2050 agenda? When? Another reason why the undoctrinated are fleeing the state!! Keep showing the movie!