Subj:   Stop GE Trees   
Date:   6/3/2005 4:30:43 PM Central Daylight Time   
From:    [log in to unmask] (Jim Diamond)
Sender:    [log in to unmask] (Biotech Forum)
Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</A> (Biotech Forum)
To:    [log in to unmask]
    
    


Forwarding this -- Sierra Club participates in the STOP GE Trees Campaign. 
        posted by Jim Diamond / Genetic Engineering Committee 
            Neil Carman, Ph.D. is our top contact for GE tree issues, 
[log in to unmask] 
-=-=-=-=- 
Global Justice Ecology Project (U.S.) 
STOP GE Trees Campaign (U.S.-Canada) 
EcoNexus (United Kingdom) 
Peoples Forest Forum (Finland) 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           3 June 2005 
CONTACT: Anne Petermann, GJEP, +1.802.578.0477 <[log in to unmask]> 
Participants at Montreal Meetings of Cartageña Protocol on Biosafety Call for 
CBD Moratorium on Genetically Engineered Trees
Montreal, QC, Canada—Today at a press conference on genetically engineered 
trees held during the Second meeting of the Parties to the Cartageña Protocol on 
Biosafety (COP-MOP 2), participants called for the UN Convention on 
Biological Diversity (CBD) to enact a moratorium on the release of genetically 
engineered trees into the environment, including the removal of any outdoor test plots 
currently in existence.
“When speaking about biosafety, we must look at the issue of genetically 
engineered trees and potential contamination of native forests,” stated Dr. 
Ricarda Steinbrecher, Director of EcoNexus,  participating in the COP-MOP 2 as a 
representative of the German Federation of Scientists.  She continued, “If you 
wanted to design a means to scatter a gene far and wide throughout the 
environment, the best way to do it would be to put it in trees, which have lots of wild 
relatives and pollen that travels for hundreds, if not thousands of 
kilometers.  Increasingly scientists agree that risk assessment should not focus on the 
likelihood of a GE tree gene escaping, but on the impact it will have when it 
escapes.”
“We must have a moratorium on the release of GE trees into the environment,” 
stated Hannu Hyvönen, of the Peoples Forest Forum.  “The dangers of GE trees 
contaminating native forests with traits like insect resistance or reduced 
lignin are certain to cause terrible problems in our native forests,” he added.
Countries including China, Chile, Brazil and the U.S. are rapidly advancing 
the commercialization of genetically engineered tree technology despite the 
inherent uncertainties and high risks.  China has already planted more than one 
million trees throughout ten provinces.  Brazil and Chile both would like to 
have commercial plantations by 2006.  The recent mapping of the DNA of the 
poplar tree in the U.S. is helping more rapidly advance some aspects of 
commercialization.
“Industry would have us believe that GE trees are the answer to all of our 
problems, but the fact is, the commercial application of GE trees will cause an 
intensification of the problems we are already seeing from industrial tree 
plantations,” stated Anne Petermann, co-Director of Global Justice Ecology 
Project.  She went on to say, “Global warming will be exacerbated, indigenous and 
rural communities poisoned or forced off their lands, and native forest 
ecosystems irrevocably damaged.  All so the timber industry can claim higher profit 
margins.  A moratorium is a good first step. Global Justice Ecology Project and 
the STOP GE Trees Campaign, however, believe that GE trees must be banned 
globally.”
This is a joint press release from Global Justice Ecology Project, Peoples 
Forest Forum, EcoNexus and the STOP GE Trees Campaign.
################################# 
Orin Langelle 
Co-Director 
Global Justice Ecology Project 
POB 412 
Hinesburg, VT  05461  U.S. 
Office:  +1.802.482.2689 (phone/fax) 
Mobile:  +1.802.578.6980 
Email:  [log in to unmask] 
<A HREF="http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/">http://www.globaljusticeecology.org</A> 


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