Latest Resources
9 October 2012
Open Letter to AGRI SA: Response to its unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of GM maize in SA
Snippet from the letter below. The ACB read with interest an article published in the Business Day (2nd October, ‘AgriSA backs gene-modified maize’), in which you argue that the curtailment of cultivating GM maize in South Africa would lead to lower yields, higher maize prices, and an increase in the use of agricultural pesticides. You […]
16 February 2011
Response to the Environment Green Paper 2010
The ACB has submitted comments on the Department of Environmental Affairs’ National Climate Change Response Green Paper. Read here.
17 April 2010
An Open Letter to Oxfam America
Sent from the following concerned groups: African Center on Biodiversity, South Africa (Mariam Mayet, Executive Director) Bharatiya Krishak Samaj/Indian Farmers Association, India (Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President) Center for Food Safety, U.S. (Debi Barker, International Director) CNOP (Coordination Nationale des organizations Paysannes/ National Coordination of Peasant Organizations), Mali (Ibrahima Coulibaly, President) Grassroots International, US (Nikhil Aziz, […]
7 February 2010
Request to approach SpungtaG2 appeals board as Amicus Curiae
At the Executive Council: GMO Act meeting of 21st July 2009, the decision was taken to deny the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) permission to release genetically modified potatoes onto the market. The decision was not published on the Department of Agriculture’s (DAFF) website until the 14th of October 2009. We are aware that the ARC […]
26 January 2010
Joy as Pelargonium patent revoked
The Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) has today revoked a patent granted to Dr. Willmar Schwabe (Schwabe) in its entirety. The patent was opposed by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) from South Africa acting on behalf of a rural community in Alice, in the Eastern Cape, in collaboration with the Swiss […]
12 August 2009
Formal complaint to the Compliance Committee of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
Our complaint is in regard to the non-compliance of the South African Government to this treaty The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) is a South African NGO deeply concerned with biosafety in South Africa and on the African continent. We have, over the years, been involved in the revision and improvement of South Africa’s biosafety […]
6 May 2008
Rural Community of SA stand up against Pelargonium Patents & Biopiracy
A rural community in South Africa stands up against pelargonium patents and biopiracy. The Alice community, living in the Eastern Cape area of South Africa, in close collaboration with the African Centre for Biosafety, and supported by the Berne Declaration (Switzerland), the Church Development Service (EED) and “Kein Patent auf Leben” (Germany), has challenged two […]
27 July 2007
Rural Communities Express Dismay: “land grabs” fuelled by Biofuels Strategy
More than sixty people met in Durban on March 5th 2007, to discuss the South African government’s Draft Industrial Biofuels Strategy, which is open for public comment until the end of March. The undersigned NGOs, individuals, farmer organisations and rural communities from KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga who attended the workshop, express our extreme […]