Report: Who Owns Nature
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Archive of All Our Publications: 1979 to Present
New Website Feature:
Archive of All Our Publications: 1979 to Present
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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: News Item
Date: Apr 17, 2009
Language: English
Date: Apr 17, 2009
Language: English
Terminating Food Sovereignty in Ecuador? President opens door to Terminator seeds
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News Release
April 17, 2009
www.etcgroup.org
Terminating Food Sovereignty in Ecuador?
President opens door to Terminator seeds
On February 18, 2009, the Ecuadorian Congress approved a new Law on Food Sovereignty, which, among other important points, declared the country “free of transgenic crops and seeds.” However, in spite of vocal popular opposition, the legislation left the door open to approvals of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in “exceptional” cases. Now, President Rafael Correa has proposed several changes to the legislation – in what is known in Ecuador as a partial-veto – and sent it back to the Congress. The president's changes dangerously weaken the law and open the door to Terminator seeds.
Terminator technology is designed to make “suicide... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Terminator & Traitor
Type: News Item
Date: Mar 30, 2009
Language: English
Date: Mar 30, 2009
Language: English
LAST CALL FOR GEO-ENGINEERING SUBMISSIONS / PIE-IN-THE-SKY CONTEST DEADLINE: APRIL 1 2009
Download PDF (81 KB) - about 14 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group News
30 March 2009
www.etcgroup.org
LAST CALL FOR GEO-ENGINEERING SUBMISSIONS
PIE-IN-THE-SKY CONTEST DEADLINE: APRIL 1 2009
There are just two days left to submit your very own wacky geo-engineering scheme to the first-ever international Pie-in-the-Sky contest sponsored by ETC Group, which closes this Wednesday, April 1. Contestants have their work cut out for them to surpass the outlandish schemes the real geo-engineers are concocting: sulfates in the atmosphere, mirrors in the sky, iron in the oceans, whiter clouds, fake trees. While preposterous, these schemes are being seriously debated by politicians, pundits and carbon-offsetters the world over and are poised to receive more research dollars and more air time in high-level international meetings. Practical, crucial measures – like reducing our dependence on fossil... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Geoengineering
Type: News Item
Date: Mar 20, 2009
Language: English
Date: Mar 20, 2009
Language: English
“Wartmongers” Thwarted as Bumpy Pumpkin Patent Goes Flat
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Update
March 20, 2009
www.etcgroup.org
“Wartmongers” Thwarted as Bumpy Pumpkin Patent Goes Flat
Last month, ETC Group reported on a patent application(1) under examination at the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) in which Siegers Seed Company of Holland, Michigan, claimed invention of a “warted pumpkin...wherein the outer shell includes at least one wart...” On February 13, the USPTO put its 9-page verdict in the mail(2) rejecting all of the application's 25 claims.
“The good news is that the USPTO rejected all claims in the warty pumpkin patent application,” says Silvia Ribeiro from ETC Group's Mexico office. “And also that in her... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents
Type: News Item
Date: Feb 02, 2009
Language: English
Date: Feb 02, 2009
Language: English
Message to USPTO: Squash the Patent on Bumpy Pumpkins; there's plenty of prior (w)art
Download PDF (366 KB) - about 65 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
2 February 2009
www.etcgroup.org
Message to USPTO: Squash the Patent on Bumpy Pumpkins; there's plenty of prior (w)art
On December 4, 2008, while most folks in the United States were eating the last slices of pumpkin pie left over from Thanksgiving dinner, the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) published patent application US20080301830A1 on a Warted pumpkin, “invented” by the Director of Sales & Marketing at Siegers Seed Company in Holland, Michigan, USA. The patent application claims a “warted pumpkin...wherein the outer shell includes at least one wart associated with the outer shell of the body.”
“The claims made by these Michigan 'wart hogs' are outrageous,” says Pat Mooney of ETC Group. “Characteristics vary more... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biopiracy, Public / Private Relations
Type: Communiqué
Date: Jan 23, 2009
Language: English
Date: Jan 23, 2009
Language: English
H(a)LF a Loaf: Finally, in Madrid, a High-Level Forum considers Governance
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Download PDF2 (496 KB) - about 89 seconds on a 56k modemTo Download the full report, click on Download PDF for Print-Quality version. Download PDF2 for Screen-Quality version.
Issue: The main (and much-needed) goal of the Madrid High-Level meeting is to reorganize the intergovernmental management of food and agriculture. At the last food crisis in 1974, OECD states savaged the UN’s unified system and carved it into four warring factions. In the midst of today's food crisis, the four remain underfunded, weakly governed and dismayingly competitive. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the International Fund for... Read More
Issue: The main (and much-needed) goal of the Madrid High-Level meeting is to reorganize the intergovernmental management of food and agriculture. At the last food crisis in 1974, OECD states savaged the UN’s unified system and carved it into four warring factions. In the midst of today's food crisis, the four remain underfunded, weakly governed and dismayingly competitive. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the International Fund for... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, CGIAR, FAO
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 15, 2009
Language: English
Date: Jan 15, 2009
Language: English
For Immediate Release: "Next Generation Biofuels": Bursting The New "Green" Bubble; Letter challenges unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry
For Immediate Release January 15, 2009
"Next Generation Biofuels": Bursting The New "Green" Bubble
Letter challenges unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry
United States--A diverse alliance of organizations published an open letter [1] today in the U.S. and internationally warning of the dangers of industrially produced biofuels (called agrofuels by critics). The letter explains why large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants such as corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, or so-called agricultural and woodland waste threatens forests, biodiversity, food sovereignty, community-based land rights and will worsen climate change. With the... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Human Rights / Farmers' Rights, Intellectual Property & Patents, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 13, 2009
Language: English
Date: Jan 13, 2009
Language: English
LOHAFEX Update: Geo-engineering ship plows on as Environment Ministry calls for a halt
Download PDF (119 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
January 13, 2009
www.etcgroup.org
LOHAFEX Update:
Geo-engineering ship plows on as Environment Ministry calls for a halt
Amid a growing storm of protest stretching across four continents, the Federal Environment Minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, has reportedly called for the German research vessel, RV Polarstern, to halt its controversial ocean fertilization experiment.(1) However, the geo-engineers on board appear to be ignoring the Minister's call. Already at sea, they are heading full steam for their intended dumping site.
Last week, ETC Group and our allies in Germany, India and South Africa reported on an Indo-German research expedition, codenamed LOHAFEX, which was about to breach the global moratorium on ocean fertilisation established through the UN Convention on... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Geoengineering
Type: News Item
Date: Jan 08, 2009
Language: English
Date: Jan 08, 2009
Language: English
German Geo-engineers Show Iron Will to Defy Global UN Moratorium
Download PDF (119 KB) - about 21 seconds on a 56k modemGerman Geo-engineers Show Iron Will
to Defy Global UN Moratorium
to Defy Global UN Moratorium
A controversial climate-engineering expedition – flying the German flag – set sail from South Africa, in defiance of a United Nations agreement signed by 191 nations and brokered by Germany last May. In response, civil society groups are calling on governments and the UN to take action.
The RV Polarstern, a German research vessel owned by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research of Bremerhaven, Germany, left Cape Town on 7th January 2009 to begin a large scale geo-engineering experiment known as LOHAFEX. The LOHAFEX voyage, approved by the... Read More
Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Geoengineering
Type: Communiqué
Date: Nov 12, 2008
Language: English
Date: Nov 12, 2008
Language: English
Who Owns Nature?
Download PDF (7 MB) - about 1196 seconds on a 56k modemWho Owns Nature? 
In this 100th issue of the ETC Communiqué we update Oligopoly, Inc. – our ongoing series tracking corporate concentration in the life industry. We also analyze the past three decades of agribusiness efforts to monopolize the 24% of living nature that has been commodified, and expose a new strategy to capture the remaining three-quarters that has, until now, remained beyond the market economy. To download the full 48-page report, click on 'Download PDF,' above.
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Human Genomics, Intellectual Property & Patents, Synthetic Biology
Type: News Item
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
As Extreme Genetic Engineers Gather in Hong Kong, Critics Warn of Corporate Grab on Plant Life: SynBio 4.0 = SynBio-4-profit
Download PDF (138 KB) - about 25 seconds on a 56k modemETC Group
News Release
9 October 2008
www.etcgroup.org
News Release
9 October 2008
www.etcgroup.org
The Last Straw?
As Extreme Genetic Engineers Gather in Hong Kong,
Critics Warn of Corporate Grab on Plant Life
SynBio 4.0 = SynBio-4-profit
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biological Warfare, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
Type: Other
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Date: Oct 09, 2008
Language: English
Commodifying Nature's Last Straw? Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Post-Petroleum Sugar Economy
Download PDF (414 KB) - about 74 seconds on a 56k modem
Download PDF2 (3 MB) - about 522 seconds on a 56k modemPeak oil, skyrocketing fuel costs and climate crisis are driving corporate enthusiasm for a “biological engineering revolution” that some predict will dramatically transform industrial production of food, energy, materials, medicine and all of nature. Advocates of converging technologies promise a greener, cleaner post-petroleum future where the production of economically important compounds depends not on fossil fuels – but on biological manufacturing platforms fueled by plant sugars. It may sound sweet and clean, but the so-called “sugar economy” will also be the catalyst for a corporate
grab on all plant matter – and destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale.
grab on all plant matter – and destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale.
Click on the 'Download PDF' icon above to download ETC Group's 12-page report, Commodifying Nature's Last Straw? Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Post-Petroleum Sugar Economy. (PDF2 above is a higher resolution file.)
Categories: BANG/Convergence, Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Biotechnology, Corporate Concentration, Synthetic Biology
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
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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