英国纽卡斯尔大学周四因将“可持续发展教授职位”授予安南特·安巴尼（Anant Ambani）而受到批评。安巴尼是亚洲首富的儿子，同时也是印度一家陷入丑闻的野生动物保护机构的所有者。
Britain’s Newcastle University faced criticism on Thursday for awarding a sustainability professorship to Anant Ambani, the son of Asia’s richest man and owner of a scandal-hit giant wildlife centre in India. Vantara, which calls itself the world’s largest rescue centre, last month announced a major reset of its procedures following concerns about its rapid and vast acquisition of animals from around the world, including endangered species.
这家自称全球最大野生动物保护机构的“Vantara”上个月宣布，由于对其从世界各地（包括濒危物种）大量收购动物的行为存在质疑，将全面重新调整其运营流程。
Newcastle University said on September 14, it awarded the professorship of practice in sustainability to Ambani “in recognition of his significant contributions to advancing a more sustainable future”.
纽卡斯尔大学于9月14日表示，授予安巴尼这一教授职位是为了“表彰他对推动可持续发展所做出的重大贡献”。该校表示：“Vantara的工作与该校在全球生物多样性保护领域的领先研究高度契合。”
“Work at Vantara closely aligns with the University’s world-leading research on global conservation and biodiversity targets,” the university in northern England said. It also noted his role as an executive director at Reliance Industries, a retail and oil conglomerate headed by his father and billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani.
该校还提到，安巴尼同时担任印度零售和石油巨头穆克什·安巴尼（Mukesh Ambani）旗下企业“Reliance Industries”的执行董事。
“Newcastle University is really stooping low here and making a mockery of sustainability,” Lyla Mehta, a researcher at the Institute of Development Studies affiliated with the University of Sussex, said on social media on Thursday.
苏塞克斯大学发展研究所的研究员莱拉·梅塔（Lyla Mehta）在社交媒体上批评道：“纽卡斯尔大学的这种行为实在低俗至极，简直是在嘲笑可持续发展的理念。”她此前对《卫报》表示：“大学本应成为质疑权力、督促企业承担责任的地方，而不是为这些企业提供学术上的‘合法性’。”
“Universities are supposed to be places that question power and hold corporations to account, not give them academic legitimacy,” Mehta earlier told The Guardian, which first reported the story. Wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra questioned the characterisation of Vantara, a sprawling 1,416-hectare (3,500-acre) facility, as a conservation site.
野生动物保护专家普erna Singh Bindra对将这座占地1,416公顷（3,500英亩）的“Vantara”称为“野生动物保护机构”的说法提出质疑：“那其实只是一个圈养动物的动物园罢了。真正的保护工作应该是在野生动物的自然栖息地中进行。我们需要在野外保护它们，而不是把它们关在动物园里。”她补充说：“大学的责任应该是培养和指导新一代的环保工作者。”
“It’s a captive facility, a zoo. So how is this conservation? We need to protect wild animals in their natural habitats, not zoos,” Bindra said. “When we’re talking about a university, you’re nurturing, mentoring, skilling a generation of conservationists,” Bindra added.
“但你们却改变了整个保护生物的观念——从‘在自然栖息地中保护动物’转变为‘将动物集中饲养在动物园里才是保护动物’的观念。”Vantara公司一直否认自己有任何不当行为。
“But here you are changing the entire paradigm of conservation from protecting them in their natural habitat to one that says that accumulating animals in zoos is conservation.”Vantara has consistently denied any wrongdoing.