A Leap Backwards: Biodiversity Loses at UN Convention on Biodiversity
publication date: Fri 27 Jun 2008
Bonn, Germany--Global Forest Coalition [1] is appalled at the lack of political will displayed at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP-9) and the direction the CBD is headed. Although countries in the Africa Group were unified in protecting biodiversity, other countries such as Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Japan blocked most progressive attempts to contain the alarming influence of industry now found in the CBD.
Very disappointedly the CBD now makes it easier for genetically engineered trees to be commercialized, which sets back the gains achieved at the last CBD (COP-8) in Curitiba, Brazil in 2006. [2] Nor did the CBD adopt a correct definition of forests, which should exclude monoculture timber plantations from that definition.
Dr Miguel Lovera, chairperson of GFC said, "This is not a step ahead but a huge step backwards at a time when forests and biological diversity are being lost at alarming rates." Lovera continued, "The CBD did not do much to stop deforestation or protect biodiversity as proven by the GFC report released in Bonn, 'Forests and the Biodiversity Convention', [3] in which 22 countries [4] were independently monitored to evaluate countries' implementation of CBD decisions."
Lovera added, "In addition, although there is good language for Indigenous Peoples' participation in the preamble, there are hardly any measures to ensure this in the implementation process. One bright note, the CBD finally acknowledges that climate mitigation projects can be detrimental to forests and at least requests more research on these issues."
The CBD unfortunately failed to prevent agrofuel expansion. "They apparently are unaware of the litany of documented adverse impacts of agrofuels (biofuels) on biodiversity, food and climate," said Dr. Rachel Smolker, lead researcher and campaigner with GFC and Global Justice Ecology Project. She summarized, "Their decision is littered with references to 'promoting the benefits of sustainable biofuel production' and 'taking account of their full life cycle'. Benefits and sustainability have so far proven completely elusive, especially given the difficulties of accounting for full life cycle impacts." [5]
GFC's Sandy Gauntlett, Chairman of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Coalition (PIPEC) said, "The parties to the CBD are fast becoming the world's largest organization dedicated to opposing equitable social change, with industry playing an increasingly larger role in commodifying the planet's environmental resources." He concluded, "Many of the parties are lining up for their slice of the cake."
One of the most alarming aspects of the direction the CBD is headed was the participation of a pseudo Non-Governmental Organization, PRRI (Public Research and Regulation Initiative), a biotechnology lobby group pretending to represent 'public researchers'. During the CBD, PRRI won the "Captain Hook Award" for the 'worst smoke screen'. [6]
Contacts: Orin Langelle, GFC Media Coordinator 49 (0)176 77187583 (Bonn mobile until 09:00 German time 1 June, and 1.802.578.6980 after 17:00 eastern U.S. time 1 June) English
Simone Lovera, GFC Managing Coordinator, 595-21-663654 English, Dutch, Spanish, German and Portuguese
NOTES: [1] The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) is an international coalition of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations (IPO's) involved in international forest policy. The GFC was founded in 2000 by 19 NGOs and Indigenous Peoples Organizations from all over the world. It is a successor to the NGO Forest Working Group, which was originally established in 1995. It participated in international forest policy meetings and organized joint advocacy campaigns on issues like Indigenous Peoples Rights, the need for socially just forest policy and the need to address the underlying causes of forest loss.
[2] Under Forest Biological Diversity (UNEP/CBD/COP8/WG.1/L3)
http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/GMTrees/COP_Decision_VIII_19.htm
[3] 'Forests and the Biodiversity Convention' can be downloaded http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/paginas/view/28#IM
[4] The countries monitored are Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Samoa and Uganda.
[5] For the latest on agrofuels, please see the GFC and Global Justice Ecology report "The real cost of agrofuels: Impacts on food, forests, people and the climate"
http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/publications/Truecostagrofuels.pdf
[6] 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. To view the award given to PRRI on YouTube http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=8gDzI45mI34
For Immediate Release World Environment Day, 5 June 2008
A Black Day for the Environment: False Solutions to Food Crisis will Escalate Starvation, Accelerate Climate Change and Devastate Biodiversity
Rome, Italy--The Global Forest Coalition, a worldwide coalition of environmental NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations, has called World Environment Day 2008 a black day for the environment, now that it appears the FAO Summit on World Food Security will fail to agree on an immediate halt to all forms of support for agrofuels. Instead, countries like the U.S. seem eager to exploit the current human tragedy for the promotion of a new 'Green Revolution,' which will have devastating impacts on both the climate and biodiversity.
"The rapid expansion of large-scale unsustainable agriculture that is being promoted at this Summit will lead to massive deforestation, thus contributing significantly to climate change," warns Dr. Miguel Lovera, the chairperson of the Global Forest Coalition. "In a country like Paraguay we have seen how the expansion of large-scale agro-industrial monocultures like soy has displaced small farmers and Indigenous Peoples, destroyed their forests, and contaminated their water resources with agro-chemicals, with devastating impacts on the health, welfare, and nutrition of rural communities."
It is widely acknowledged that the current food crisis has been caused by a combination of factors: climate change, a history of corporate-led globalization of food production and trade, increased consumption of meat and dairy products and the rapid expansion of agrofuels.
"Considering these factors, the one quick measure Heads of States could have taken to save the lives of many of the thousands of people currently starving, is to call for an immediate halt of all subsidies and other kinds of support to agrofuel production," stated Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project, and the lead agrofuel researcher for the Global Forest Coalition. Dr. Smolker concluded, "By failing to take this emergency measure, countries like the U.S. have made it clear that their main allegiance is to the agro-industrial interests that are capitalizing on the current crisis to promote their biotechnology, agro-chemicals, artificial fertilizers and other false solutions to the food crisis. This model of industrial agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, deforestation, rural depopulation as well as starvation. The 'solutions' being proposed by FAO will only worsen the situation. Food production, land and water rights must be put back into the hands of people, not corporations if we are to find a true solution to this crisis."
Climate change will have a particularly devastating effects in regions like Africa and the Pacific, that are already suffering disproportionately from the current food crisis. "By the end of this century 15 out of 27 nations in the Pacific will either no longer exist or will be totally uninhabitable," alerts Sandy Gauntlett, chairperson of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition. He ends, "The reality of agrofuels is that it is an economic measure that allows big industry to peddle psychological relief to the European and American consumer while the Pacific drowns and slowly starves."
For more information, please contact:
Orin Langelle, media coordinator, Global Forest Coalition, 1.802.482.2689 (office), 1.802.578.6980 (mobile)
In Rome, Italy: Dr. Rachel Smolker, tel: 39 333 211 8630 (English)
In Asunción, Paraguay: Dr Miguel Lovera, tel: 595-21-6636543 or 595-971-201957 (English, Spanish, French, Portugese and Italian)
Very disappointedly the CBD now makes it easier for genetically engineered trees to be commercialized, which sets back the gains achieved at the last CBD (COP-8) in Curitiba, Brazil in 2006. [2] Nor did the CBD adopt a correct definition of forests, which should exclude monoculture timber plantations from that definition.
Dr Miguel Lovera, chairperson of GFC said, "This is not a step ahead but a huge step backwards at a time when forests and biological diversity are being lost at alarming rates." Lovera continued, "The CBD did not do much to stop deforestation or protect biodiversity as proven by the GFC report released in Bonn, 'Forests and the Biodiversity Convention', [3] in which 22 countries [4] were independently monitored to evaluate countries' implementation of CBD decisions."
Lovera added, "In addition, although there is good language for Indigenous Peoples' participation in the preamble, there are hardly any measures to ensure this in the implementation process. One bright note, the CBD finally acknowledges that climate mitigation projects can be detrimental to forests and at least requests more research on these issues."
The CBD unfortunately failed to prevent agrofuel expansion. "They apparently are unaware of the litany of documented adverse impacts of agrofuels (biofuels) on biodiversity, food and climate," said Dr. Rachel Smolker, lead researcher and campaigner with GFC and Global Justice Ecology Project. She summarized, "Their decision is littered with references to 'promoting the benefits of sustainable biofuel production' and 'taking account of their full life cycle'. Benefits and sustainability have so far proven completely elusive, especially given the difficulties of accounting for full life cycle impacts." [5]
GFC's Sandy Gauntlett, Chairman of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Coalition (PIPEC) said, "The parties to the CBD are fast becoming the world's largest organization dedicated to opposing equitable social change, with industry playing an increasingly larger role in commodifying the planet's environmental resources." He concluded, "Many of the parties are lining up for their slice of the cake."
One of the most alarming aspects of the direction the CBD is headed was the participation of a pseudo Non-Governmental Organization, PRRI (Public Research and Regulation Initiative), a biotechnology lobby group pretending to represent 'public researchers'. During the CBD, PRRI won the "Captain Hook Award" for the 'worst smoke screen'. [6]
Contacts: Orin Langelle, GFC Media Coordinator 49 (0)176 77187583 (Bonn mobile until 09:00 German time 1 June, and 1.802.578.6980 after 17:00 eastern U.S. time 1 June) English
Simone Lovera, GFC Managing Coordinator, 595-21-663654 English, Dutch, Spanish, German and Portuguese
NOTES: [1] The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) is an international coalition of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations (IPO's) involved in international forest policy. The GFC was founded in 2000 by 19 NGOs and Indigenous Peoples Organizations from all over the world. It is a successor to the NGO Forest Working Group, which was originally established in 1995. It participated in international forest policy meetings and organized joint advocacy campaigns on issues like Indigenous Peoples Rights, the need for socially just forest policy and the need to address the underlying causes of forest loss.
[2] Under Forest Biological Diversity (UNEP/CBD/COP8/WG.1/L3)
http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/GMTrees/COP_Decision_VIII_19.htm
[3] 'Forests and the Biodiversity Convention' can be downloaded http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/paginas/view/28#IM
[4] The countries monitored are Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Samoa and Uganda.
[5] For the latest on agrofuels, please see the GFC and Global Justice Ecology report "The real cost of agrofuels: Impacts on food, forests, people and the climate"
http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/publications/Truecostagrofuels.pdf
[6] 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. To view the award given to PRRI on YouTube http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=8gDzI45mI34
For Immediate Release World Environment Day, 5 June 2008
A Black Day for the Environment: False Solutions to Food Crisis will Escalate Starvation, Accelerate Climate Change and Devastate Biodiversity
Rome, Italy--The Global Forest Coalition, a worldwide coalition of environmental NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' Organizations, has called World Environment Day 2008 a black day for the environment, now that it appears the FAO Summit on World Food Security will fail to agree on an immediate halt to all forms of support for agrofuels. Instead, countries like the U.S. seem eager to exploit the current human tragedy for the promotion of a new 'Green Revolution,' which will have devastating impacts on both the climate and biodiversity.
"The rapid expansion of large-scale unsustainable agriculture that is being promoted at this Summit will lead to massive deforestation, thus contributing significantly to climate change," warns Dr. Miguel Lovera, the chairperson of the Global Forest Coalition. "In a country like Paraguay we have seen how the expansion of large-scale agro-industrial monocultures like soy has displaced small farmers and Indigenous Peoples, destroyed their forests, and contaminated their water resources with agro-chemicals, with devastating impacts on the health, welfare, and nutrition of rural communities."
It is widely acknowledged that the current food crisis has been caused by a combination of factors: climate change, a history of corporate-led globalization of food production and trade, increased consumption of meat and dairy products and the rapid expansion of agrofuels.
"Considering these factors, the one quick measure Heads of States could have taken to save the lives of many of the thousands of people currently starving, is to call for an immediate halt of all subsidies and other kinds of support to agrofuel production," stated Dr. Rachel Smolker of Global Justice Ecology Project, and the lead agrofuel researcher for the Global Forest Coalition. Dr. Smolker concluded, "By failing to take this emergency measure, countries like the U.S. have made it clear that their main allegiance is to the agro-industrial interests that are capitalizing on the current crisis to promote their biotechnology, agro-chemicals, artificial fertilizers and other false solutions to the food crisis. This model of industrial agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, deforestation, rural depopulation as well as starvation. The 'solutions' being proposed by FAO will only worsen the situation. Food production, land and water rights must be put back into the hands of people, not corporations if we are to find a true solution to this crisis."
Climate change will have a particularly devastating effects in regions like Africa and the Pacific, that are already suffering disproportionately from the current food crisis. "By the end of this century 15 out of 27 nations in the Pacific will either no longer exist or will be totally uninhabitable," alerts Sandy Gauntlett, chairperson of the Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition. He ends, "The reality of agrofuels is that it is an economic measure that allows big industry to peddle psychological relief to the European and American consumer while the Pacific drowns and slowly starves."
For more information, please contact:
Orin Langelle, media coordinator, Global Forest Coalition, 1.802.482.2689 (office), 1.802.578.6980 (mobile)
In Rome, Italy: Dr. Rachel Smolker, tel: 39 333 211 8630 (English)
In Asunción, Paraguay: Dr Miguel Lovera, tel: 595-21-6636543 or 595-971-201957 (English, Spanish, French, Portugese and Italian)
