Latest Resources
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
12 July 2019
Burkinabé Bounty connects the resistance of smallholder farmers on the African continent
Burkinabé Bounty connects the resistance of smallholder farmers on the African continent Sabrina Masinjila, ACB’s Outreach and Advocacy officer based in Tanzania, organised a group of farmers to attend a screening of this film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. She reflects on the experience. The role of art and music to express cultural and […]
4 March 2019
Failure of Monsanto’s drought tolerant maize pushed on Africa – confirmed in US
The ACB shares with you a blog written by ACB’s Sabrina Masinjila and Anne Maina from Biodiversity and Biosafety Association (BIBA), Kenya A recent United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report confirms what independent biosafety scientists, and African civil society, have been stating all along: Monsanto’s drought tolerant (DT) maize (MON87460) does not work! The […]
18 June 2018
Agroecology points the way towards resilience against climate change
This week the water-stressed city of Cape Town hosts the bi-annual Adaptation Futures conference, where scientists, business leaders, and practitioners from the world of development and agriculture will come together to engage in ‘dialogues for solutions’ to the multifarious problems wrought by our rapidly changing climate. As actors with different perspectives design modes of collaboration, […]
4 June 2018
The debate on GMOs in Africa rages on, this time in Tanzania
A heated public debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) ensued during a seminar organised by MVIWATA – a network of smallholder farmers – in Morogoro, Tanzania. The meeting took place on 12 May 2018 and was attended by more than a hundred people, including parliamentarians and high-level government officials. The event, which was intended only […]