[monkeywire] Maui Ape Preserve Plan Faltering

Kevin Walter krw at jimmyhiggins.com
Wed Apr 13 10:21:05 EDT 2005


http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/09/ln/ln06p.html

Maui Ape Preserve plan faltering

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

More than a decade after the Gorilla Foundation announced it was moving 
to Maui, an ape preserve has yet to materialize and the project remains 
$3 million short of its fund-raising goal.

Now the California nonprofit is facing new setbacks: the wavering 
commitment of longtime benefactor Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and a 
couple of lawsuits by former workers that could damage its image and 
finances.

"We were moving along, but there have been so many distractions 
lately," said Mary Cameron Sanford, a member of the Gorilla Foundation 
board and former ML&P chairwoman. "I'm just as anxious as anyone else 
to get them over here."

In 1994, Maui Pine granted the Woodside, Calif.-based Gorilla 
Foundation a long-term lease on 70 acres of former pineapple land near 
Mahinahina. The foundation's plan was to bring Koko the gorilla and her 
friends to a climate better suited to their African roots and to 
establish a preserve for other endangered gorillas.

Koko is the star of an ongoing experiment in ape-human communication. 
The Gorilla Foundation claims that the animal has an American Sign 
Language vocabulary of more than 1,000 words.

'An awkward fit'

ML&P's chief executive, David Cole, has informed Gorilla Foundation 
head Francine "Penny" Patterson that the proposed ape sanctuary is "at 
best an awkward fit" with the company's plans.

In a letter sent to Patterson last year, Cole said the company decided 
to focus its efforts on Native Hawaiian values, including "our love and 
care for our host land and culture."

"Our big question: How does providing a home for African mountain 
gorillas on Maui reinforce our malama 'aina and ho'ohanohano values?" 
he wrote.

Cole, the Hawai'i-raised executive who was hired to run the company in 
2003, said protecting endangered species is important to ML&P, "but our 
endemic species are where we will concentrate our investments." Cole, 
who sits on The Nature Conservancy's board of trustees, added that he 
would be unable to endorse the program to the University of Hawai'i, 
which was considering a research tie-in at the time.

Art center uproar

Since taking over ML&P, Cole has been re-examining the company's vision 
and its holdings. He recently came under fire for deciding to sell the 
home of the nonprofit Hui No'eau art center to a Mainland couple. The 
resulting uproar in the community caused the buyers to back off.

Whether the Gorilla Foundation would ignite the same passions is 
doubtful, because it lacks the art center's historical and cultural 
ties to Maui.

Cole was traveling on the Mainland and could not be reached for 
comment, but ML&P Vice President Warren Suzuki said that while the 
preserve doesn't fit into the company's vision, the lease will be 
honored.

In another setback that could affect fund raising, three former Gorilla 
Foundation employees filed two lawsuits last month claiming they were 
pressured to expose their breasts to indulge Koko's curiosity about 
nipples.

Allegations, denials

Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, both of San Francisco, claim they were 
subjected to sexual discrimination and then wrongfully terminated after 
reporting health and safety violations at Koko's Woodside compound.

The two women, seeking damages totaling more than $1 million, also 
claim the nonprofit failed to pay for overtime and provide rest breaks.

The women never undressed, but another woman, Iris Rivera, 39, claimed 
she revealed her breasts to Koko seven or eight times last summer. 
Rivera, an administrative assistant at the foundation, quit last month.

In a statement posted on the Web site for the Gorilla Foundation, the 
group denies the allegations and says it will prove that the firings 
were "entirely lawful" and unrelated to any matters raised in the 
lawsuit. Rivera's lawsuit is dismissed as a "copycat" suit.

Lorraine Slater, the foundation's development director, said yesterday 
that the foundation continues to look forward to its move to Maui. 
Slater said neither the litigation nor ML&P's waning support are 
obstacles or distractions to fund raising.

"We don't view it that way," she said. "It's business as usual here."

Slater said the Gorilla Foundation has raised only $2 million toward 
its $5 million Maui Ape Preserve goal.

Sanford said she's disappointed with Cole's lack of support and the 
legal problems, but the lease is still good and she's hopeful a move 
can still be accomplished. Hundreds of thousands of dollars already 
have been spent on the site, she said, including construction of 
foundations and a water reservoir.

"It's frustrating," said former state Sen. Avery Chumbley of Maui, 
another Gorilla Foundation board member. "I would have hoped they would 
have been here a long time before now."
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