1.Scientists want inclusion of social economic considerations in risk assessment of GM crops
2.No shortcuts to biosafety, says India
3.A people's festival to protest CBD conference

NOTE: The 11th meeting on the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is underway in India. The first part of the CBD is the sixth meeting of the parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from genetic engineering from one country to another.
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1.Scientists want inclusion of social economic considerations in risk assessment of GM crops
Roy Mathew
The Hindu, September 30 2012
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/scientists-want-inclusion-of-social-economic-considerations-in-risk-assessment-of-gm-crops/article3951743.ece

The Third World Network (a non-profit international network of organisations and individuals) and European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) are seeking inclusion of socio-economic considerations in the risk assessment of genetically modified organisms as the Conference of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is meeting here from October 1 to 5. They also want improvements in the existing provisions in the Protocol regarding risk assessment and management.

However, they are not very optimistic that the Parties (nations which are signatories to the Protocol) would agree to their suggestions.

Chairperson of ENSSER Angelika Hilbeck told The Hindu that her organisation would be attending the meeting of Parties as an educator and in that capacity would not be making any interventions. However, it stood for a holistic view to risk assessment. "Right now it is very narrow. It should be more rigorous."

Inclusion of factors such as weeds developing resistance to weedicides (when used in conjunction with crops protected against weedicides through genetic modification), which is currently excluded from the Protocol, was an absolute necessity. There were also other externalised factors such as health effects that needed to be included in the risk assessment. Questions like whether the whole plant or the just the genetically modified protein should be subjected to assessment needed examination. "It is not good enough to just test it like a chemical."

Dr. Hilbeck noted that the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group, set up during an earlier meeting, had drafted Guidance on risk assessment and management. However, several issues were contentious and several of the Parties might not agree to them.

Asked how socio-economic risks like suicide of farmers could be predicted, Dr. Hilbeck said that one could predict whether some segments of the society would not benefit, and the consequences thereof. “The debate (now) is whether such assessments should be made at all.”

She stressed that every country needed institutional mechanisms for risk assessment of genetically modified crops. "If you don't have one, you should examine whether you should allow such technology."

She said that a clearance house was already in existence under the Protocol where countries could deposit information on GM crops and other countries could access that. "Thus the means are there and the Cartagena Protocol is better than other (international) protocols."

However, there was no way round a constituency that did not have the infrastructure. This was the case with some African countries.

However, India had no such constraints and could ensure biosafety. Lim Li Ching of Third World Network told a scientific conference organised here against the background of the upcoming meeting of Parties that the meeting should endorse the Guidance prepared by the expert group. It should be integrated into capacity building activities on risk assessment. The mandate of the group should be extended to develop guidance on new topics of risk assessment and management.

She also suggested that another Ad Hoc Expert Group should be set up to review information on socio-economic impacts of living modified organisms (LMOs) and develop guidelines on socio-economic considerations.

She said that it would also be important for the meeting of Parties to take decision on development of tools and guidance that facilitate implementation provisions of the protocol regarding unintentional transboundary movements of LMOs and assist Parties to detect and take measures to respond to unintentional releases of LMOs.
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2.No shortcuts to biosafety, says India
M Suchitra
Down To Earth, October 1 2012
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/no-shortcuts-biosafety-says-india

Science-based mechanism needed to assess impact of biotechnology, says Jayanthi at inaugural session of Convention on Biological Diversity

The 11th United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) began on October 1 at the International Convention Centre in Hyderabad. In the inaugural function, India expressed the view that there were no shortcuts to biosafety. "Since investments in biotechnology is rapidly increasing, a science-based mechanism is needed to assess the impact of such technologies on biodiversity and the environment," said Jayanthi Natarajan, India’s minister for environment and forests. There should be long-term risk assessment and risk management, she said.

She was addressing the inaugural function of the conference. The first part of the CBD is the sixth meeting of the parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CoP 11-MoP 6). The Cartagena Protocol is an international agreement which aims at ensuring the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms (LMOs), resulting from modern biotechnology, that may have adverse effects on biological diversity and human health. LMOs broadly refer to genetically modified agriculture crops.

The Cartagena Protocol was adopted on January 29, 2000 and entered into force on September 11, 2003. A supplementary protocol, the Nagoya-Kualalumpur Protocol on Liability and Redress, was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, as part of CBD CoP 10.

Nations drag feet over biosafety protocol

“The five-day MoP 6 conference will have deliberations and decisions    for implementing the Strategic Plan adopted in Nagoya regarding biosafety,” said  Braulio Ferriera de Souza Dias, executive secretary of CBD. He also expressed his views that all countries, which have not signed the Cartagena Protocol would eventually become members to this agreement.

The Nagoya Supplementary Protocol deals with liability for damage that can arise from LMOs and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and most of the Cartagena parties, including India, have not ratified the Nagoya Protocol on biosafety. Out of the 164 countries that signed the Cartagena Protocol, only 50 have signed the supplementary protocol. And just three countries have ratified the Nagoya Protocol.

Though Natarajan reiterated India’s commitment to ensuring biosafety and addressing the socio-economic issues arising from modern technologies, she was silent on the ratification of the liability protocol. “It is not easy to strike a balance between new technologies and biosafety,” said the minister in the conference. She said the government is thinking of formulating legislation for biosafety.

About 2,000 delegates from more than 150 countries, including heads of governments and policy makers, are participating in the biosafety conference. MoP 6 will conclude on October 5. The main part of the CBD, the Conference of Parties 11 (CoP 11) will be held between October 8 and 19. The discussions in this segment will review the progress in implementing the decisions taken in the previous CBDs and measures for taking forward the implementation. The focus will be conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and access and benefit-sharing. Another main topic is raising financial resources for implementing the CBD decisions.

A high-level meeting to adopt decisions will be held between October 8 and 19.
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3.A people's festival to protest CBD conference
M Suchitra
Down To Earth, September 29 2012
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/people-s-festival-protest-cbd-conference

*Non-profits to represent united resolve to protect the country’s natural wealth and bio-cultural heritage from powerful economic interests

As a protest against the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD-CoP 11) scheduled to begin in Hyderabad from October 1, a group of farmers, non-profits and people’s movements from across the country will hold a People’s Biodiversity Festival from October 13 to October 16.

Based on the theme Unity for Diversity, the festival will be a defiant celebration of India's rich biodiversity of crops, flora and fauna and its vibrant bio-cultural heritage.

"In stark contrast to the CBD and the increasing commodification of genetic resources and knowledge, the People's Biodiversity Festival will present people's voices in united resolve to protect our immense natural wealth and rich bio-cultural heritage, free from the ravages of powerful economic interests and monopolistic Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)," says a press release issued by the organisers on September 28.

The CBD was born two decades ago as a promising international treaty aimed at conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of its benefits. “But somewhere along the way, CBD has lost its track and is gravely compromised and dominated by industrial lobbies,” says D Narasimha Reddy, environmentalist and policy analyst. It has already bent backwards to accommodate their interests at the cost of the basic needs of people, he adds.

The organisers pointed out that MNCs promote unsustainable monoculture of genetically-modified (GM) crops and commercial hybrids, grown with high inputs of increasingly expensive and scarce fossil energy, chemicals and water, leaving a trail of toxicity and greenhouse gases. "But what we actually need is ecological farming with locally accepted, open-pollinated seeds, for sustainable and wholesome yields," says G V Ramanjaneyalu of Centre for Sustainable Development.

Recently, the organisers pointed out that the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) offered MNCs 400,000 varieties of germplasm, including drought-tolerant rice, heat-tolerant wheat and salinity-tolerant crop varieties.

The CBD discussion on the access-benefit sharing has been reduced to how big companies and research organisations can access to the biological resources, they say. "How the local communities can access the biological resources in their region is not discussed much," points out Uma Shankari of Rashtriya Raithu Seva Samithi, an organisation working for the welfare of farmers. Even when India is a signatory to CBD, the national biological diversity rules do not make prior informed consent (PIC) of the local communities mandatory for accessing their biological resources. “The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) can decide access to bio-resources in consultation with the state boards. Consent of local communities comes nowhere in the scene,” says Sagari Ramdas, director of Anthra, an organisation of women veterinary scientists working in the field of livestock development in the wider context of sustainable natural resource use.

As part of the festival, about 60 stalls by different groups will display several thousand varieties of crop seeds. Indigenous breeds of livestock will also be on exhibition, as also books, ecological products, traditional crafts and indigenous foods. A rice mela with several traditional rice varieties from different parts of the country will also be organised as part of the festival.

Festival's focus:

*Safeguarding the rights of farmers, adivasis, pastoralists, forest-dwellers, hill folk, fisher folk and future generations

*Promoting and supporting holistic and bio-diverse ecological agriculture and forestry for local needs and health

*Conserving and regenerating natural wealth, sustainable livelihoods and traditional knowledge

*Adopting a people's manifesto for biodiversity as a collective, open-source heritage, free of private Intellectual Property Rights; and reclaiming farmers' crop varieties from institutional germplasm banks

*Local, regional, national and global networking for policy correction and collaboration