Latest Resources

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Regulations of Plant Improvement Act and Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018

Please find here ACB’s comments to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development regarding the recently published Regulations to implement the Plant Improvement Act 2018, and the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, 2018. The Department has taken important steps in these Regulations to ensure that certain groups of farmers are exempt from these corporate […]

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 […]

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 […]

Zanzibar’s draconian seed law in the offing. Case study of unabated corporate expansion and contr...

(Tafadhali bonyeza hapa kusoma kwa Kiswahili) This paper provides a critique of the Zanzibar draft Seed Bill that contains provisions set to undermine the rights of smallholder farmers, by marginalising and criminalising their seed systems, while aiding the corporate entry and control of seed and agriculture systems on the Isles.  Adopting Western-style law making, the […]

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 […]

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 […]