Latest Resources
3 March 2023
GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR BIOSAFETY AND BIODIVE...
– By ACB Research and Advocacy Officer Sabrina Masinjila & Executive Director Mariam Mayet For several years, the ACB has engaged at multiple levels with the development of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). In the lead up to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conservation’s fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15), held in Montreal, Canada in […]
25 July 2022
The battle over regulation of new breeding techniques in South Africa
– A blog by ACB Director Mariam Mayet Snapshot In October 2021, the South African (SA) government determined that the regulatory and risk assessment framework that exists for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will also apply to new breeding techniques (NBTs), which make up a host of new genetic engineering technologies. This decision appears to follow […]
28 April 2022
The financialisation of malaria in Africa: Burkina Faso, rogue capital & GM /gene drive mosq...
(Veuillez cliquer ici pour lire en français) The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) hereby publishes a new research paper, titled, “The Financialisation of malaria: Burkina Faso, Rogue capital & GM/gene drive mosquitoes.” This paper seeks to understand the financialisation of malaria as a vehicle for rogue capital in a context of a weakened state (through […]
8 March 2022
Coalition demands a ban of Bt Cowpea in Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries
A coalition of non-governmental organisations, farmer groups and research experts from various African countries call on the Nigerian government to revoke the permits granted by Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) to the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria, for the commercial release of genetically modified (Bt) Cowpea (PBR-Cowpea). This call was made yesterday in […]
18 June 2021
Wandile Sihlobo’s technocratic support for GM and related technology misses the mark
Southern African civil society responds to false claims about benefits to food and nutrition security The African Centre of Biodiversity joins a collective of civil society organisations to endorse Glen Ashton’s calling out of chief economist of AgBiz, Wandile Sihlobo, on his May articles in Business Day and Project Syndicate, which promote the continued use […]
26 March 2021
Genome editing: new wave of false corporate solutions for Africa’s food systems. Forewarnings of ...
(Por favor clique aqui para Português) (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) African food sovereignty movement’s victory over, and continued resistance against, the biotech industry Despite two decades of biotech industry-backed lobbying, funding, relentless propaganda and backroom deals, supported by neo-colonial philanthropy-capitalists, such as Bill Gates; this machinery has very little to show. Only 2.9 […]
22 January 2021
Tanzania cancels GMO trials again: Urgent need to uphold ban, disrupt false solutions and neo-col...
In a totally unexpected move, the newly appointed Tanzania Agricultural Minister, Prof Adolf Mkenda, in mid-January 2021 announced the cancellation of research trials involving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country and the decision to put in place extra biosafety scrutiny of imported genetically modified (GM) seed. The decision was taken by the Minister in […]
5 October 2020
Genome editing — The next GM techno fix doomed to fail
Regulatory issues and threats for Africa Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español Genome editing risks aggravating the problems of industrial agriculture, prolonging a model that threatens both human health and the environment, and further opens up African food systems to hegemonic […]
2 September 2020
Push back against risky and unsafe RNAi GM cassava cultivation in Kenya
An unproven genetically modified (GM) RNAi cassava variety is yet another staple food crop, after maize and banana, on the biotech industry’s agenda for commercial cultivation in Kenya. The brazen lack of safety tests contained in the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation’s (KARLO’s) application for cultivation, and disregard for adherence to biosafety best practise […]
29 May 2020
Profiteering from health and ecological crisis in Africa: The Target Malaria project and new risk...
Cliquez ici pour le français The ACB shares this research paper with you, of the wave of ‘Trojan horse’ second-generation genetic engineering strategies targeted at, inter alia, malaria in Africa, at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is fracturing the myth that global health expertise is the domain of North America and Europe. Global health […]