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Biodiversity & Genetic Resources
Biological diversity refers to all living organisms, their genetic material and the ecosystems of which they are a part. It is usually described at three levels: genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Genetic diversity is the variation of genes between and within species. Genetic diversity within a species permits it to adapt to new pests and diseases, and to changes in environment, climate, and agricultural methods. Biological diversity is the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and world food security. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (often referred to as CBD or Biodiversity Convention) is a legally binding framework for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and one of the principle fora for negotiations related to access, benefit sharing and the role of indigenous and local communities.
Latest Publications
Type: Other
Date: Jun 26, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jun 26, 2008
Language: English
"Failure as Usual" Food Summit
Download PDF (457 KB) - about 82 seconds on a 56k modemJune 2008
ETC Group Translator
Ciao FAO: Another "Failure-as-Usual" Food Summit
Contrary to the opinion of many, June's Food Summit actually did something. It signaled the beginning of the end for the multilateral system as we know it. Over the next six months the food emergency - and the international institutions designed to address it - could get worse.
The full text offers a line-by-line interpretation of the Food Summit's final declaration.
Issue: During the 3-5 June 2008 World Food Summit, governments patched together sufficient funds to keep the lid on food rebellions for a few months but all the fundamental and long-term institutional and financial problems remain. In Rome, governments opted for a mythical "techno-fix" led by agribusiness in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: May 21, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 21, 2008
Language: English
Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008
Download PDF (111 KB) - about 20 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (4 MB) - about 765 seconds on a 56k modem(PDF2 above contains the complete poster)
News Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
www.etcgroup.org
Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy 2008
The Coalition Against Biopiracy* exposes Hooks and celebrates Cogs
Winners announced at the UN’s Biodiversity Convention in BonnToday the world learned which corporations, governments, institutions and individuals earned a spot in biopiracy’s hall of shame when the Coalition Against Biopiracy (CAB) announced the winners of the 5th Captain Hook Awards at a lunch-time ceremony during the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn, Germany.
“The Maritim Hotel, where the CBD meets this week and next,... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Geoengineering, Human Genomics, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Other, Synthetic Biology, Terminator & Traitor
Type: Communiqué
Date: May 13, 2008
Language: English
Date: May 13, 2008
Language: English
Patenting the "Climate Genes" ...and Capturing the Climate Agenda
Download PDF (766 KB) - about 137 seconds on a 56k modemCommuniqué
May/June 2008
Issue # 99
Patenting the “Climate Genes”…
And Capturing the Climate Agenda
Issue: The world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants that the companies will market as crops genetically engineered to withstand environmental stresses such as drought, heat, cold, floods, saline soils, and more. BASF, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dupont and biotech partners have filed 532 patent documents (a total of 55 patent families) on so-called “climate ready” genes at patent offices around the world. In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviours. The focus on so-called climate-ready genes is a golden... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations
Type: News Item
Date: Mar 07, 2008
Language: English
Date: Mar 07, 2008
Language: English
The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards
Download PDF (320 KB) - about 57 seconds on a 56k modemNews Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
7 March 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
Ahoy, Mates! The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards
*** Please Circulate to Your Networks throughout the Seven Seas ***
What's the most scandalous case of biopiracy[1] in your country? Who's ripping off indigenous knowledge in your community? Which privateer is most egregiously pillaging the global commons for profit? Who's monopolizing your genes or patenting your plants?
Nominate your least favorite pirate for a 2008 Captain Hook Award. All outrageous achievements in biopiracy deserve recognition!
Nominate your most admired biopiracy-resistor for a 2008 Cog... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Cultural Diversity, Intellectual Property & Patents, "New Enclosures", Public / Private Relations
Type: Communiqué
Date: Feb 26, 2008
Language: English
Date: Feb 26, 2008
Language: English
Svalbard's Doomsday Vault: The Global Seed Vault Raises Political/Conservation Debate
Download PDF (228 KB) - about 41 seconds on a 56k modemThe swarm of media attention focusing on today's opening of the Global Seed Vault in Norway's high Arctic may overshadow an even bigger news story. Yesterday, 26 February, the Norwegian government pledged to give 0.1% of money spent on commercial seed sales to support Farmers' Rights, and challenged other governments to do the same. The critical message is that even the most secure gene bank storage is not the ultimate solution. Governments must provide support to farmers to improve local conservation and breeding, and help them obtain access to far away seed accessions. Global food security depends upon a coherent in situ (on-farm) and ex situ (gene bank) strategy. The need to support farmers' on-farm conservation and breeding work is urgent.
On the occasion of the opening of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, ETC Group releases a new Communiqué, "Svalbard's... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Public / Private Relations
Type: Communiqué
Date: Feb 12, 2008
Language: English
Date: Feb 12, 2008
Language: English
Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine... Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?
Download PDF (1 MB) - about 197 seconds on a 56k modem
Download (2 MB) - about 383 seconds on a 56k modem*also available in French
Communiqué
January 2008
Issue # 97
Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine
Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?
Because governments have failed to govern, the leading multilateral institutions involved in food and agriculture are in deep trouble. Unless governments and international secretariats cooperate, these institutions will be irreparably damaged and the power vacuum OECD states have created over recent decades will continue to be filled by multinational agribusiness and the new philanthro-capitalists.Issue: Food Sovereignty, the political philosophy introduced by Via Campesina, has become a hot geopolitical topic. For the first time in decades, food issues are... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, Corporate Concentration, FAO
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 24, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jan 24, 2008
Language: English
Venter Institute Builds Longest Sequence of Synthetic DNA (that Doesn’t Work)
Download PDF (144 KB) - about 26 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
24 January 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Venter Institute Builds Longest Sequence of Synthetic DNA (that Doesn’t Work)
“It’s not how long – but how wise” cautions ETC Group
ETC Group today renewed its call for a moratorium on the release and commercialization of synthetic organisms, asserting that societal debate on the oversight of synthetic biology is urgently overdue. The renewed call came as J. Craig Venter’s research team announced that it has constructed a bacterial-length synthetic genome in the lab using mail-order synthetic DNA sequences. They’ve named the synthetic genome, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0, and it’s similar to its counterpart in nature, a genital bacterium with the smallest known genome of any free living organism. The announcement is not... Read More
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 14, 2008
Language: English
Date: Jan 14, 2008
Language: English
Organic Pioneer Says No to Nano
Download PDF (135 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modem**Updated January 16th 2008**
ETC Group
News Release
14 January 2008
www.etcgroup.org
Organic Pioneer Says No to Nano
ETC Group Welcomes World’s First ‘Nano-free’ Standard
Now that you can drive your ‘nano’ car, listening to your iPod ‘nano’ while wearing ‘nano’ sunscreen and ‘nano’ clothing, the UK’s largest organic certifier has just introduced the perfect nano-antidote – a ‘nano-free’ standard for consumer products. The Soil Association – one of the world’s pioneers of organic agriculture – announced today that it is has banned human-made nanomaterials from the organic cosmetics, foods and textiles that it certifies. (1)
According to the U.S.-based Woodrow... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology
Type: Communiqué
Date: Dec 17, 2007
Language: English
Date: Dec 17, 2007
Language: English
Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils
Download PDF (456 KB) - about 81 seconds on a 56k modemCommuniqué
November/December 2007
Issue # 96
Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils
In the name of moving “beyond petroleum,” Big Oil, Gene Giants, governments, start-ups and others are forming partnerships that will extend corporate control over more resources in every part of the globe – while keeping the root causes of climate change intact. With grudging recognition that first-generation agrofuels are neither economical nor ecological, investors turn to other life-based technologies, including synthetic biology, for the next alternative fuel fix.
| Issue: In OECD countries, massive government incentives and subsidies – estimated to be as high as US$15 billion/year – are stoking... Read More |
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Nov 01, 2007
Language: English
Date: Nov 01, 2007
Language: English
Farmers Call for Suspension of Seed Treaty
Download PDF (116 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemFor immediate release – endorsed by the civil society and farmers’ organizations present at FAO
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Farmers Call for Suspension of Seed Treaty
Governments fail to meet minimal Treaty obligations UN conference told
Farmers’ organizations who were invited to attend a United Nations meeting on the Treaty that governs the exchange of crop seeds for research and plant breeding late yesterday told the assembled governments that the Treaty would have to be suspended. Speaking on behalf of 30 farmers’ and other civil society organizations, Ibrahima Coulibaly of ROPPA (regional farmers’ organization of West Africa) said that, “the Treaty, hosted in Rome by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), must halt the exchange of crop germplasm – the critical... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents
Type: News Item
Date: Oct 31, 2007
Language: English
Date: Oct 31, 2007
Language: English
UPDATED: The World's Top 10 Seed Companies - 2006
Download PDF (136 KB) - about 24 seconds on a 56k modemThe World’s Top 10 Seed Companies - 2006
UPDATED: World’s Top 10 Seed Companies
Based on 2006 Seed Revenues
| Company |
2006 seed sales US $ millions |
| 1. Monsanto + Delta & Pine Land (US) pro forma | $4,476 |
| 2. Dupont (US) | $2,781 |
| 3. Syngenta (Switzerland) | $1,743 | ... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Corporate Concentration, Intellectual Property & Patents
Type: News Item
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Suicide-Seed Sequel: EU’s “Transcontainer” Turns Terminator into Zombie
Download PDF (142 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modem
Download (142 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modem* also available in french*
ETC Group today releases “Terminator: The Sequel,” a Communiqué reporting on new research related to “suicide seeds” and other genetically modified (GM) seed technologies that pose unacceptable threats to farmers, biodiversity and food sovereignty.
Today ETC Group reports on a new crop of genetic engineering technologies that are being promoted as a biosafety solution to the unwanted spread of transgenes from GM crops, trees and pharmaceutical-producing plants. In practice, these technologies, if commercialized, will allow the multinational seed industry to tighten its grasp on proprietary seeds and to restrict the rights of farmers.
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, FAO, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor
Type: Communiqué
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Date: Jun 13, 2007
Language: English
Terminator: The Sequel
Download PDF (1 MB) - about 205 seconds on a 56k modem* also available in french*
Despite the fact that governments re-affirmed and strengthened the United Nations’ moratorium on Terminator technology (a.k.a. genetic use restriction technology [GURTs]) in March 2006, public and private sector researchers are developing a new generation of suicide seeds – using chemically induced “switches” to turn a genetically modified (GM) plant’s fertility on or off.
Issue: Under the guise of biosafety, the European Union’s 3-year Transcontainer Project is investing millions of euros in strategies that cannot promise fail-safe containment of transgenes from GM crops, but could nonetheless function as Terminator, posing unacceptable threats to farmers, biodiversity and food sovereignty. Terminator technology – genetic seed... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Public / Private Relations, Terminator & Traitor
Type: News Item
Date: Jun 07, 2007
Language: English
Date: Jun 07, 2007
Language: English
Patenting Pandora’s Bug: Goodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia! J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World’s First-Ever Human-Made Life Form
Download PDF (143 KB) - about 26 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (155 KB) - about 28 seconds on a 56k modemPatenting Pandora's Bug
Goodbye, Dolly...Hello, Synthia!
J. Craig Venter Institute Seeks Monopoly Patents on the World's First-Ever Human-Made Life Form
ETC Group Will Challenge Patents on "Synthia" - Original Syn Organism Created in Laboratory
Ten years after Dolly the cloned sheep made her stunning debut, the J. Craig Venter Institute is applying for a patent on a new biological bombshell - the world's first-ever human-made species. The novel bacterium is made entirely with synthetic DNA in the laboratory.
The Venter Institute - named for its founder and CEO, J.... Read More
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biotechnology, Geoengineering, Intellectual Property & Patents, Nanotechnology, Other New Technologies, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: May 31, 2007
Language: English
Date: May 31, 2007
Language: English
Bill to Ban Terminator Introduced in Canada
Download PDF (84 KB) - about 15 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (76 KB) - about 14 seconds on a 56k modemNews Release
ETC Group
May 31, 2007
www.etcgroup.org
Bill to Ban Terminator Introduced in Canada
A bill to prohibit field testing and commercialization of Terminator seed technology was introduced in the Canadian Parliament today. Terminator refers to plants that are genetically engineered to render sterile seeds at harvest - a technology that aims to maximize seed industry profits by preventing farmers from re-planting harvested seed.
"Canada needs to pass this bill into law because genetic seed sterilization is dangerous and blatantly anti-farmer - suicide seeds threaten to intensify corporate control over Canadian agriculture and offers no benefits for farmers," said Colleen Ross of the National Farmers Union.
Initially developed by the US Department of Agriculture and... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Corporate Concentration, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Terminator & Traitor