Latest Resources

23 February 2022
African Union endorses draconian, undemocratic and corporate captured policy guidelines for seed ...
Veuillez cliquer ici pour lire la version française The African Union (AU) has endorsed the continental guidelines for the harmonisation of seed and regulatory frameworks and the continental guidelines for the use of biotechnology in food and agriculture in Africa, despite fierce resistance from African civil society. On 16 February 2022, we found out that […]

2 December 2021
Organisations around the world collectively take a stand against UPOV
On this day in 1961, a Geneva-based intergovernmental organisation with six European member States took the first step to colonise seeds. The UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden founded the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), setting in motion a strategy to strip communities’ rights to seeds in favour […]

23 August 2021
African social movements demand that AU suspends undemocratic and pro-industry seed and GMO guide...
For over two decades, and in defence of life and democracy, diverse constituencies in Africa have promoted the rights of small farmers and their seed systems, and have expressed and continue to express concern related to the use and governance of modern biotechnology on the continent. We include smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, hunter/gatherers, indigenous peoples, […]

17 August 2021
Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels
On 13 August 2021, the journal Science published an article titled, Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels, that included ACB executive director Mariam Mayet and research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Andrew Bennie as co-authors. We are honoured to be part of this incredible team of African scientists, conservationists, and community leaders […]

2 August 2021
The violence of agrarian extractivism in Ethiopia
Locusts, state authoritarianism and webs of US imperialism We are pleased to share you with our latest discussion paper in our “Multiple shocks in Africa series”. We show how the locust swarms that hit the Horn of Africa over the course of 2020 were yet another in a series of shocks already battering smallholders in […]

30 July 2021
Seed is power – Reclaiming African Seed Sovereignty: Africans speak out against corporate hegemon...
In rejection of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which held its pre-summit this week, civil society, farmers groups and social movements came together for a global counter-mobilisation that spanned four days, with 15 online sessions. One of the webinars, titled Seed is power: Reclaiming African Seed Sovereignty, featured a presentation: Africans speak out […]

17 May 2021
Harmonisation of seed laws in Africa
Regional and continental integration under the auspices of the African Continental Seed Harmonisation (ACSH) initiative and the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACfTA) The African Union Commission (AUC)’s African Seed and Biotechnology Programme is undertaking a process developing Continental Guidelines for the Harmonisation of Seed Regulatory Frameworks in Africa. The ACB was able to access […]

16 March 2021
Multiple shocks, agribusiness feudalism and the monopolisation of peasant territories: a view fro...
Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español This is the fourth of six publications in the ACB’s multiple shocks in Africa series: ecological crisis, capitalist nature & decolonisation for human and ecological liberation. Given our internationalist commitment, Multiple shocks, agribusiness feudalism and the monopolisation of peasant territories: a view from Ecuador on agrobiodiversity and […]

14 December 2020
SHOCK AFTER SHOCK IN AFRICA: A TALE OF ECOLOGICAL IMBALANCE, THE FALL ARMYWORM INFESTATION AND FA...
We are pleased to present the third discussion paper in our “Multiple Shocks in Africa Series”. Africa is being hit by multiple shocks: COVID-19, locust plagues sweeping across many African countries, droughts and cyclones, fall armyworms (FAW) marching their way through millions of hectares of maize fields, and the already felt impact of the climate […]

9 December 2020
Neo-colonial economies and ecologies, smallholder farmers and multiple shocks: The case of cyclon...
We are pleased to share with you the second discussion paper in our “Multiple Shocks in Africa Series”, Neo-colonial economies and ecologies, smallholder farmers and multiple shocks: The case of cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. (Por favor clique aqui para Português). The paper exposes how the two cyclones that battered Mozambique and […]