Latest Resources
6 October 2022
Global Biodiversity Framework and its implications for Africa
Le Cadre Mondial pour la Biodiversite et ses implications pour l’Afrique The African Centre for Biodiversity and Third World Network hosted a webinar in two sessions/ Le Centre Africain pour la Biodiversité et Third World Network vous invitent à un webinaire en deux session Thank you to all those who attended the fruitful webinar yesterday. Merci […]
19 September 2022
ACB comments on the Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South AfricaR...
Please find here ACB’s submission to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment regarding the recently published Draft White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity, 2022. The current conservation model and practice are founded on historical colonial practices, entrenched in apartheid, of over-exploitation and exclusion of African people. Historical inequalities have remained […]
14 September 2022
Breaking from the rest of the continent
South Africa moves towards recognising smallholder farmers’ Right to Seed and farmer seed systems – but the road ahead is still long By Linzi Lewis, ACB Research and Advocacy Officer & Mariam Mayet, ACB Executive Director After much anticipation, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) published draft Regulations to implement the Plant […]
27 July 2022
Playing chess with the world’s biodiversity. The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and Afri...
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 […]
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 […]
22 June 2022
The failure of multilateralism – and rise of corporate capture of the CBD
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 […]
22 June 2022
Who will fund biodiversity conservation, and its implications for Africa?
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 […]
21 June 2022
Where is agricultural biodiversity in the Post-2020 GBF?
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 […]
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 […]
18 March 2022
25th Meeting, 49th Regular Session of Human Rights Council – Presentation of the Special Rapporte...
“The type of seed system you decide to support will determine your ability to tackle hunger, famine and nutrition.” In his report and presentation at the 49th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), on 14 March, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, outlined two types of seed […]