Alert: Stop Release of 1st Temperate GE Tree (Plum)
Global Justice Ecology Project

The US Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments between now and July 17, 2006 on a petition that would allow commercial growing and marketing of the first genetically engineered (GE) plum trees. If approved, this would remove all regulatory oversight of this GE variety, a virus-resistant plum tree known as the Honey Sweet Pox Potyvirus Resistant plum. This would open the door to GE varieties of many other related stone fruits, such as peaches, apricots, cherries and almonds, that are susceptible to the same virus. Ironically, this virus is not even found in the US today according to the USDA, and is certainly not a significant agricultural problem here.

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"We're practically in a play"
IMC BRAZIL

With this sentence, Fernando Mathias, from the Social-Environmental Insitute, sums up the indecision of the Biological Diversity Convention (CDB-COP8) on the matter of access to genetical resources and division of benefits. According to him, the conflict of interests between countries that hold genetical resources (underdeveloped) and countries that hold the tecnology to explore them (developed) is being moved to foruns where developed countries are stronger, like Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Reinforcing the tesis of the ending of CDB's competences, the president of the US, George W. Bush, has sent to the american congress a law project for a 50% reduction on the amount of resources sent to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). GEF is responsible for maintaining CDB, which is in serious danger of becoming unviable in case the project is aproved.

Biosafety agreement reached in Curitiba
from www.haerlin.org/bsp

It was with relief but mixed feelings that the delegates and observers of the Biosafety Protocol meeting in Curitiba welcomed a last minute agreement on the contentious issue of identification and documentation of international shipments of GMOs in food, feed and for processing. After 4 days of intensive negotiations, which went into 6 a.m. in the morning of Friday in the "friends of the chair" drafting group and lasted until 8 p.m.
in the plenary a deal was found that does improve the previous interim provisions but fall short of what the large majority of countries wanted. The last watering down of the text, orchestrated by the US and industry, was carried out by Mexico and Paraguay.

[ IPS Biosafety Protocol Alive, but Restricted | Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of Biosafety Protocol | Greenpeace: Better than nothing | Biotech Trade Watch: 2f5032d Video of last negotiations, Interview with Li Lim Lin (TWN) on results | Friends of the Earth: International Safety Laws Agreed ]
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Commercial interests win in the MOP3
CURITIBA: MOP3COP8 (translated by COP8/MOP3)

After a week marked by the deadlock of labelling GMO loads, the Cartagen Protocol parties´ conference (MOP3) reached a consensus through the proposal of "contains GMOs". The agreement was achieved with the inclusion of an addendum proposed by Mexico, who was blocking the negotiations together with New Zealand and other countries. The result can be considered as a victory by the biotechnology transnationals, seen that the time defined to regulate it was extended from four to six years, and the obligatory identification of GMO exports and imports on the market between members (those who adopted the Protocol) and those non-members (those who haven´t adopted the Protocol) was eliminated. This way the final document allows GMO importations from non-signatory countries of the Protocol, such as the USA. The USA, despite his non-ratification of the protocol, has sent a strong delegation to create a lobby of his interests.

Until 2012 the identification of GMO or conventional loads will depend on the technical capacity of each country. Altogether, the global community will have to wait six years to know accurately what circulates through the national frontiers. According to the protocol, nations that don’t have the capacity to do so, will receive assistance to implement the labeling rules until the stipulated time. To Greenpeace, "the responsibility of the MOP3´s small advance devolves mostly on the biotechnology multinationals, agrobusiness and the GMO exporting countries, such as Canada, USA and Argentina, which once more were able to turn an UN environmental conference into a space of pure commercial interests.

The failure of the MOP3 served as a preliminary of what is going to be the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB COP8), which will also be held in Curitiba, on March 20-31. The CDB tends to make international coordination efforts to preserve and carry on the planet´s biodiversity. CDB and COP8´s most polemic issues will be: distribution of benefits derived from the use of genetic resources; the terminator seed moratory; biodiversity´s preservation and use and the implementation of Working Programs of Protected Areas, Forests, Coastal and Marine Biodiversity inside the fixed time (2010 to forests and 2012 to marine and coastal areas).

While the biotechnology transnationals get to impose their interests, approximately a thousand Via Campesina’s farmers continues to occupied the Syngenta Seeds´ GMO experimental camp, in Santa Teresa do Oeste, PR. The camp is illegal, because it´s on a damping zone of the Iguaçú Park, where the plantation of GMOs is not allowed. However, the a local judge (from the city of Cascavel), Fabrício Priotto Mussi, conceded a threshold of eviction favorable to Syngenta Seeds, ordering the evacuation of the land in five days. The judge fixed a daily fine of R$100,00 to each member of the occupation in case the court order doesn’t get complied on the settled deadline. Although, the farmers decided to remain there until the federal government shuts down all the corporation’s activities.