Latest Corporate Expansion Resources

Legal loopholes to allow continued use of highly hazardous pesticides, GM crops On the 27th of February, the ACB submitted substantive objections to the South African government’s attempt to backtrack on its commitments to phase out highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), including glufosinate ammonium (GLA), by way of spurious and potentially unlawful “derogation” regulations. The rise […]

Statement rejecting the Draft Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents published on 5 April 2024, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No 85 of 1993) On 5 May 2024, the Democratic Alliance (DA) staged a protest outside the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) headquarters in Johannesburg. As part of the political […]

This is the main thrust of the open letter we sent to Minister Thoko Didiza today, with Biowatch, Environmental Monitoring Group, the Association for Rural Advancement, and Tshintsha Amakhaya. So far 50 organisations have endorsed the letter.  This letter is intended to push the Department to engage systematically and meaningfully with CSOs, including household and […]

A blog by ACB’s Sabrina Masinjila, Linzi Lewis and Mariam Mayet The crafting of a new global biodiversity framework In 2018, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) embarked on multilateral intergovernmental talks toward crafting a new global deal to curb global biodiversity loss (the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).1 The CBD, adopted in […]

The current state of the planet, and in particular climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, reflect on the legitimacy of environmental multilateralism such as the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). The convergence of the multiple global ecological, climate, and economic crises is not been met with the requisite urgent response and action. Instead, over […]

Where adequate funds will come from to reduce rampant biodiversity loss is crucial to ensuring the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). African countries are demanding that developed countries pay for their ecological debt, and implementation of the GBF, in terms of Article 20 of the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). But how will […]

While the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) attempts to deal with the indirect and direct drivers of biodiversity decline, as outlined by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Global Biodiversity Outlook Reports, it remains glaringly weak, with serious and severe gaps. We wonder, where does the Post-2020 GBF deal […]

On 16 September, African social movements came together to discuss the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which takes place on the 23 September. On this day, the African Union (AU) will be presenting an African “common position”. As social movements in Africa we reject both the UNFSS and the AU’s position, which allegedly […]

Let’s reclaim our food sovereignty and transform the industrial food system! African organisations participating in the global response to the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), including the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), coordinated an online session, as part of the three days of global counter-mobilisation, which took place during the UNFSS pre-summit, from 25 to […]

Indigenous Peoples and Africans are under threat from Recon Africa and Big Oil and Gas Development Permits have been issued to prospect, drill and ultimately extract oil and gas over 8.75 million acres of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and Botswana extending to the south eastern banks of the Okavango River and Okavango Delta. The […]

ACB’s Executive Director Mariam Mayet looks back at the first half of the year We are mired in a world shattering pandemic of unprecedented magnitude and virulence. The architecture of global economic, environmental, human rights and political governance institutions and rules established in the 20th century are in the process of atrophying. The crisis is […]

Click here to read about the Ivory Park #COVID-19 Campaign relief initiative The Ubuntu Project COVID-19 SA lockdown regulations put strain on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities, and loss of income meant many people were unable to buy food. In the early stage of level 5 lockdown, families and small-scale farmers were cut off from […]