Latest Resources
26 January 2023
Zimbabwean smallholder farmers show us the way towards alternative food systems
– by Dr Stephen Greenberg These reflections come from attending a farmer exchange in October 2022, hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Zimbabwe, in collaboration with Towards Sustainable Use of Resources Organisation (TSURO) and Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO). The 35 participants, including farmers, non-government organisations […]
7 September 2021
The African Union Green Recovery Action Plan: Securing Africa’s ecological future or deepening im...
Por favor clique aqui para Português Veuillez cliquer ici pour lire le texte français In July 2021 the African Union (AU) released a Green Recovery Action Plan for the continent, in the context of COVID-19 and climate change. The basis of the plan is that a “clean and resilient recovery in Africa will lead to […]
27 August 2021
Guidelines for the Harmonisation of Seed Regulatory Frameworks in Africa: Call for African social...
The African Union (AU) has embarked on a mission towards harmonising seed regulatory frameworks across the continent, beginning with the establishment of a set of Guidelines on seed law harmonisation. The African Centre for Biodiversity, along with other civil society organisations and farmers’ associations from Africa, have actively engaged in the development of these Guidelines. […]
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, […]
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 […]
5 March 2020
GM Potato Push in East Africa
Andean and African farmers condemn digital sequence information of potatoes from centres of origin – opens doors for biopiracy (Passer à la version française) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) Cusco, Peru; Johannesburg, South Africa and Kigali, Rwanda – 05 March, 2020 Billionaire potato overlords on both sides of the North Atlantic want […]
3 February 2020
The GM potato push in Rwanda: With regulatory hurdles in Uganda, is this the industry’s fall back?
Sauter au français To enable the introduction of the first GM crop to be grown in Rwanda – a GM potato variety named ‘Victoria’ – the Rwandan government is fast-tracking the development of a biosafety policy and legal framework. Civil society is deeply concerned about the potential risks of this GM potato variety, which has […]
8 July 2019
Seed and gene banks play a critical role in conserving and sharing indigenous crop seeds
On a trip to Harare for partnership exploration meetings, the African Centre for Biodiversity visited the Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Institute of Zimbabwe. Gene banks such as these are primarily established to conserve the genetic resources that form the basis for all food production. Seed collections start at the level of community seed banks and […]
13 May 2019
Gene drive organisms: What Africa should know about actors, motives and threats to biodiversity a...
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has produced a briefing paper in regard to a new and controversial genetic engineering (GE) technology to produce gene drive organisms (GDOs). These GDOs have been specifically designed to spread an engineered, ‘modified’ genetic trait such as sterility, with the potential to eradicate entire wildlife populations and even species. […]
26 April 2019
Undermining farmers’ rights and seed systems: Why the EAC seed and plant varieties bill must be d...
In this vlog, African Centre for Biodiversity’s (ACB’s) Sabrina Masinjila, based in Tanzania, speaks about the East African Community Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2018 and some of the concerns related to the Bill, as more fully set out in a detailed report and summary. As described in the vlog and our detailed report, Concerns […]