Foundation Funding and the Campaign Against Chilean Salmon Farming

Nov 3, 2026

Summary

A small group of U.S. and European foundations, led by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, funds most of the organized opposition to salmon farming in Chile. The same funders also underwrite the journalism grants behind several high-profile critical stories. Every figure below comes from a public document: foundation grant pages, tax filings, organizations' own websites, or published reporting. Bracketed numbers refer to the Sources list at the end.

The funding is documented on three levels:

Funders. Packard says it has given about $26 million for ocean conservation in Chile since 2008 [1], and it names Chile as one of four priority countries in a $480 million ocean commitment [2]. Pew runs its own in-country Patagonia program. Walton, Oak, Arcadia, Bloomberg, Moore and two Norwegian state agencies fund parts of the same network.

Coordination. Packard and Walton both fund a "Chile Conservation Funders" program that exists to coordinate foundation grantmaking in Chile [3][4]. Pew convenes an eight-member Patagonia coalition that includes two Packard grantees [5].

Grantees and journalism. The money reaches Chilean litigators, policy groups and Indigenous-rights organizations whose work has blocked or annulled salmon-farm permits. Separately, foundation-backed journalism intermediaries (Earth Journalism Network, the Pulitzer Center, Journalismfund Europe and the Outlaw Ocean Project) helped finance reporting published by the New York Times, the Guardian, the Associated Press and Mother Jones.

The documented pattern is journalism grants from intermediaries whose donors also fund the NGOs quoted in the resulting stories. Outlets have disclosed the grants and say their editorial control was independent; their responses are noted below.

The funders

Packard is a central funder of Chile-based advocacy on salmon farming; the others fund overlapping parts of the same network.

David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Los Altos, California). Packard told Inside Philanthropy in 2026 that it has made about $26 million in ocean-conservation grants in Chile since 2008, supporting at least six advocacy groups, and declined repeated interview requests [1]. In April 2024 it announced a $480 million ocean initiative for 2023–2033 focused on four countries: Chile, China, the United States and Indonesia [2]. Its grants to individual Chilean NGOs are in the hundreds of thousands to low millions of dollars each (see "The NGOs" below). Packard is also the principal funder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose Seafood Watch program rates most Chilean farmed salmon "avoid" (detailed below) [11][12].

The Pew Charitable Trusts (Philadelphia). Pew is not mainly a grantmaker in Chile; it runs its own Chilean Patagonia program. Pew says that through the Patagonia Mar y Tierra working group and the Universidad Austral de Chile it gives communities in Chaitén and Guafo the technical support needed to secure Indigenous coastal-marine areas (ECMPOs) [13]. Pending ECMPO applications delay or block competing aquaculture concessions in the requested area [21]. A Magallanes salmon farmers' association alleged in 2024 that Pew supplied more than CLP 1.9 billion through the university toward the Kawésqar National Reserve management plan; Pew called the complaint a ploy to keep aquaculture expanding in the region [14]. Pew and Tompkins Conservation also co-lead the Route of the Parks fund with the Chilean government [15].

Walton Family Foundation (Bentonville, Arkansas). Walton's public grants database lists grants to Oceana "to support sustainable fisheries management in Chile" [16], a 2020 grant of $100,000 to the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity "to foster a community of funders" for marine conservation in Chile and Mexico [4], and three grants to the Pulitzer Center, including $300,000 in 2021 "to support journalism around oceans and fisheries" [31].

Other private funders. Oceana lists Packard, Walton, Oak, Arcadia, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Moore, Marisla and Oceans 5 among foundations that have given it $500,000 or more [17]. Several of the same names fund the journalism intermediaries described below: Packard and Oak support Earth Journalism Network [27][28], Arcadia is Journalismfund Europe's second-largest donor [33], and Packard, Oak, Moore, Bloomberg Ocean Fund and Oceans 5 are listed donors to the Outlaw Ocean Project [36]. Packard also provides core support for Oceans 5 grantmaking through Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors ($2 million each in 2023 and 2025) [24].

Norway's state agencies. Norway is the world's largest farmed-salmon producer and Chile's main competitor [35]. Norad and Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative committed 170 million NOK (about $16 million) over five years from 2023 to the Pulitzer Center for work on rainforests and oceans, among other topics [20]. Norwegian People's Aid, a Norwegian NGO, provided about CLP 500 million (roughly $550,000) to Lafkenche Indigenous communities pursuing ECMPO applications, according to a March 2026 investigation by Chile's public broadcaster TVN; the group's Latin America head said it sees no conflict of interest [21].

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How the funders coordinate

Foundation coordination on Chile is not inferred; it runs through named, funded programs.

Chile Conservation Funders (Consultative Group on Biological Diversity). Packard's grant page for the group, which operates as the Biodiversity Funders Group, lists "core support for the Chile Conservation Funders work program" in 2024 ($200,000, 24 months) and again in 2026 ($332,000, 36 months) [3]. A separate 2024 Packard grant to the same group supports coordinated grantmaking among funders of marine conservation in Mexico [3]. Walton funded the group in 2020 "to foster a community of funders committed to the conservation and resilience of marine ecosystems in Chile and Mexico" [4].

Patagonia Mar y Tierra. Pew announced this working group in December 2018. Its eight members are Aumen, Centro Ballena Azul, Melimoyu Foundation, Omora Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Puelo Patagonia, Terram Foundation and WWF [5]. Terram and Melimoyu are both Packard grantees [8][22]. Pew credits the group with helping draft the ECMPO applications for Guafo and Chaitén [13].

Route of the Parks fund. Pew and Tompkins Conservation co-lead a permanent financing fund, announced with the Chilean government in 2019, for a 1,700-mile network of national parks in southern Chile between Puerto Montt and Cape Horn [15]. That is the same stretch of coast where the salmon industry operates.

Oceans 5. A funders' collaborative housed at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; Packard provides core support for its grantmaking [24]. Oceans 5 is also a listed donor to Oceana [17] and to the Outlaw Ocean Project [36].

The NGOs and their work in Chile

The grantees divide the work: litigators challenge permits in court, policy groups supply data and legislative pressure, and U.S.-based programs shape what American buyers and consumers hear.

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Packard's website shows roughly the last three years of grants; older grants appear in its IRS Form 990-PF filings.

Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA). A Santiago environmental-law organization that brings cases against salmon projects. In 2021 the Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling, won by FIMA, that voided the environmental approval for a Trusal salmon farm inside the Kawésqar National Reserve [18]. In 2025 an appeals court upheld a FIMA-backed ruling that reopened sanctions proceedings against an Australis Seafoods salmon processing plant in Puerto Natales [19]. Packard's 2024 grant of $336,000 funds "legal empowerment and capacity-strengthening" for communities using ECMPOs [6].

Observatorio Ciudadano. An Indigenous-rights organization and Packard's largest Chilean grantee. Packard grants fund a Legislative Observatory for Coastal Communities ($171,000, 2023), expansion of its legal network for Indigenous communities ($226,000, 2024), ECMPO implementation ($588,900, 2023), compliance with Chilean transparency and accountability regulations ($150,000, 2024), and the Chilean Civil Society Platform on Business and Human Rights ($150,000, 2025) [7].

Oceana Chile. The Chilean office of Washington-based Oceana. Inside Philanthropy reports that Oceana was part of the coalition behind a 2023 law requiring salmon farms to disclose antibiotic use, and that it declined to name its largest donors or respond to a Chilean newspaper's report that its lobbyists helped draft a bill to suspend new aquaculture projects for 10 years [1]. Oceana's own website lists its foundation donors [17].

Fundación Terram. A Santiago policy group whose data is widely cited in coverage; the AP's October 2026 story credits Terram for the count of salmon farms authorized in the Guaitecas Archipelago [35]. Terram and Melimoyu are members of Pew's Patagonia Mar y Tierra group [5].

Greenpeace. Packard's grants go to the U.S. Greenpeace Fund, not to Greenpeace Chile [10]. Greenpeace Chile says on its website that sustainable salmon farming does not exist [1]. Its director, Matías Asún, told Congress he could extend any environmental assessment by 2,000 days thanks to the backing of 56,000 donor members, as paraphrased by the Chilean outlet Ex-Ante [23]; the remark concerned environmental permitting generally.

Seafood Watch (Monterey Bay Aquarium). Seafood Watch says two-thirds of Chilean farmed salmon is rated red ("avoid") because of high antibiotic use [12]. Inside Philanthropy describes the program as mostly funded by Packard [1], and Packard's 2023 and 2024 grants to the aquarium include $2.1 million earmarked for Seafood Watch [11].

Indigenous communities. Kawésqar, Lafkenche and other Indigenous communities act as petitioners under Chilean law, including the Lafkenche Law that created ECMPOs [21]. Their applications and lawsuits are their own; the funding questions concern the organizations that finance legal and technical support for them.

Foundation-funded journalism

At least four widely circulated critical stories were financed in part by journalism intermediaries whose donors also fund the NGOs those stories quote. The grants were disclosed, but the overlap in funders usually was not.

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New York Times, August 2024. The story was bylined by Casey Smith and Lucy Meyer, with John Bartlett contributing, and disclosed that a grant from Internews' Earth Journalism Network supported early reporting [25]. Inside Philanthropy reports the two were Berkeley journalism graduate students whose travel EJN paid for [1]. Smith told the Chilean Salmon Council each reporter received about $1,000 toward plane tickets and disputed that EJN funded the reporting as a whole [25]. A Times spokesperson said the journalists have no affiliation with EJN and that the piece was reported and edited independently [25][26]. The story quotes Oceana Chile's Liesbeth van der Meer and cites Seafood Watch's "avoid" rating [25].

Pulitzer Center, June 2023. Jessica McKenzie, a Pulitzer Center grantee, reported the story while traveling on a nine-day expedition with Centinela Patagonia, a new advocacy group surveying salmon-farm impacts in Los Lagos [30]. Pulitzer says its ocean, fisheries and coastlines journalism is supported by the Walton Family Fund, Norad and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's science education department [29]. Walton's database shows a $300,000 grant to Pulitzer in 2021 for oceans and fisheries journalism, plus $250,000 in 2022 for Mexico fisheries coverage and $300,000 in 2024 [31], and Norway committed about $16 million in 2023 for rainforest and ocean work, among other topics [20]. No public document ties either funder to this specific story.

The Guardian and the AP, 2025–2026. Journalismfund Europe gave Italian freelance journalist Elena Basso and photographer Adriana Thomasa €10,000 on Feb. 27, 2025 (grant ENV1/2025/659) for an investigation of Chilean salmon [32]. Journalismfund lists the resulting stories in RSI, the Guardian, El Salto, Il Fatto Quotidiano, openDemocracy and El País [32]. Basso's October 2026 AP story on the Guaitecas Archipelago carries an editors' note that it was supported by Journalismfund Europe [35]. Arcadia gave Journalismfund €1,949,886, second only to the European Union [33].

New York Times Magazine, October 2026. Ian Urbina, a former Times reporter who runs the nonprofit Outlaw Ocean Project, published the flagship story of a five-year, 70-plus-reporter investigation into the fishmeal and fish oil used in aquaculture feed [38]. The Outlaw Ocean Project says most of its funding comes from foundations and names Packard, Oak, Moore, Bloomberg Ocean Fund and Oceans 5 among its major donors [36]. Packard's 2024 grant was $450,000 over 36 months for general support [37]; no public grant is earmarked for the feed investigation.

Five published resources

Setting the Record Straight on Salmon Feed for The New York Times (Farmed Salmon Facts, Oct. 27, 2026). Ricardo García Holtz, chief executive of the salmon producer Camanchaca and chair of the Chilean Salmon Council [1], responds to the Times's October 2026 reporting on fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture feed. He argues that salmon feed is now mostly plant-based, with fishmeal at 5–8% of the diet; that in 2025, 35% of the world's fishmeal and 57% of its fish oil came from byproducts and discards; and that Camanchaca cut the wild fish needed per kilo of salmon by 36% in 2024. He concludes that the Times articles were written by people who are ignorant or ill-intentioned and funded by foreign organizations opposed to industry in Patagonia [39].

"Yanqui Go Home": Chilean Salmon Farmers Say U.S. Foundations Are the New Colonialists (Inside Philanthropy, Marc Gunther, May 12, 2026). Gunther reports Packard's own figure of about $26 million in Chile ocean grants since 2008, notes that Packard declined interviews, and argues that the foundation-funded reporting in the Times, Mother Jones and the Guardian relied heavily on activists and academics backed by the same foundations [1].

The Arrogance of the Packard Foundation (Marc Gunther, The Best Laid Plans, June 3, 2026). A commentary follow-up contrasting Packard's stated values (listening to diverse perspectives, accountability, partnership with communities) with its refusal to meet Chilean industry leaders or answer press questions. Gunther cites Packard's 2024 tax return ($350 million in grants, $52 million in operating and administrative costs) and broadens the argument into a critique of endowed foundations as largely unaccountable [40].

Gray Lady for Hire (The Firebreak, 2024). An investigative commentary arguing that the Times's August 2024 Patagonia story grew out of Earth Journalism Network. It documents that both bylined reporters took an EJN-run course at UC Berkeley, that one listed a 2019 EJN grant, and that sources quoted in the story share funders with EJN. It quotes the Times's statement that the reporters had no EJN affiliation, and traces the Times's ties to EJN back to a 2010 workshop [26].

Smells Fishy: NYT Accused of Printing Article Paid for and Sourced by Green Groups (NewsBusters, Nicholas Fondacaro, Oct. 14, 2024). Based on documents the outlet says it obtained from the Chilean Salmon Council, the piece reports the Council's complaint to the Times about the same August 2024 story. It quotes reporter Casey Smith saying each reporter got about $1,000 for plane tickets and that most of the reporting was independent of the grant, quotes the Times's communications director, and reports that standards editor Susan Wessling said she would look into the concerns [25]. No outcome of that review has been reported.

Sources

1. Marc Gunther, "Yanqui Go Home": Chilean Salmon Farmers Say U.S. Foundations Are the New Colonialists, Inside Philanthropy, May 12, 2026.
2. Casey Farmer, Packard Foundation Pledges $480 Million to Ocean Conservation, Kanebridge News, Apr. 29, 2024.
3. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Consultative Group on Biological Diversity.
4. Walton Family Foundation, grants database: Consultative Group on Biological Diversity.
5. Pew Charitable Trusts, Coalition Seeks Stronger Land and Marine Conservation in Chilean Patagonia, Dec. 4, 2018.
6. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente.
7. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Observatorio Ciudadano.
8. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Fundación Terram.
9. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Oceana.
10. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Greenpeace Fund.
11. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation.
12. Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Farmed salmon in Chile.
13. Pew Charitable Trusts, In Chile, Indigenous Management of Coastal Areas Improves Marine Conservation, July 28, 2020.
14. Christian Molinari, Chilean salmon-farming association accuses The Pew Charitable Trusts of impropriety, SeafoodSource, Apr. 15, 2024.
15. Pew Charitable Trusts, To Protect Patagonia's World-Class Parks, Chile Turns to Public-Private Partnership, May 10, 2019.
16. Walton Family Foundation, grants database: Oceana.
17. Oceana, Foundation Donors.
18. FIMA, Corte Suprema mantiene rechazo a salmonera que pretendía instalarse en la Reserva Nacional Kawésqar, July 22, 2021.
19. FIMA, Salmonicultura case archive.
20. Pulitzer Center, $30 Million in New Funding Support for the Pulitzer Center, Sept. 21, 2023.
21. Salmon Business, Chile: report alleges Norwegian NGO funding to groups blocking salmon projects, Mar. 23, 2026.
22. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Fundación Melimoyu.
23. Ex-Ante, Quién es Matías Asún, el activista que amenaza proyectos de inversión y que lidera Greenpeace Chile, Dec. 8, 2024.
24. Packard Foundation, grantee page: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
25. Nicholas Fondacaro, Smells Fishy: NYT Accused of Printing Article Paid for and Sourced by Green Groups, NewsBusters, Oct. 14, 2024.
26. The Firebreak, Gray Lady for Hire, 2024.
27. Internews, Earth Journalism Network program document listing funders (GlobalGiving).
28. Earth Journalism Network, Future Oceans: Disruptive Innovation for Marine Conservation (series funded by Packard).
29. Pulitzer Center, Ocean and Fisheries Reporting grants.
30. Jessica McKenzie, Patagonian Paradise Lost? The Environmental Hazards of Farming Fish in a Warming World, Pulitzer Center, June 21, 2023.
31. Walton Family Foundation, grants database: Pulitzer Center.
32. Journalismfund Europe, The Toxic Case of Chilean Salmon (grant ENV1/2025/659).
33. Journalismfund Europe, Donors.
34. Journalismfund Europe, Environmental Investigative Journalism programme.
35. Elena Basso, Chileans push to protect oceans that have been hurt by intensive salmon farming, Associated Press via ABC News, Oct. 28, 2026.
36. Outlaw Ocean Project, Due Diligence: Donors.
37. Packard Foundation, grantee page: The OO Project Inc.
38. Axios, 5-year probe by a journalistic nonprofit: "Dirty secret behind the farmed fish you eat", Oct. 11, 2026.
39. Ricardo García Holtz, Setting the Record Straight on Salmon Feed for The New York Times, Farmed Salmon Facts, Oct. 27, 2026.
40. Marc Gunther, The Arrogance of the Packard Foundation, The Best Laid Plans, June 3, 2026.
41. Global Investigative Journalism Network, Earth Journalism Network: Funding and Training Cross-Border Reports on the Environment.