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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