Conservation International And its cronies WHAT IS CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL? Conservation International (CI), a so-called environmental NGO founded in 1987, states that its duty is to 'conserve the Earth's living natural heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature'. It operates in over thirty countries, in the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and claims indigenous communities are a threat to the environment, because of their illegal logging, overpopulation and slash-and-burn agriculture. However, in March 2003, Global Exchange convened an emergency delegation to the area and found that the destruction was most pronounced around military encampments, while Indigenous villagers had outlawed slash-and-burn techniques and were practicing sustainable organic agriculture.