Organizations and scientists from around the world spoke today about their opposition to genetically engineered trees which will be negotiated at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Ninth Conference of the Parties (CBD COP-9) beginning next week in Bonn.

They are demanding that governments at the UN agree to accept the proposal to suspend all releases of genetically engineered (GE) trees into the environment, due to their extreme ecological and social threats.

Camila Moreno, a researcher from Terra de Direitos in Brazil further explained, “there is a clear link between two of the major issues to be discussed at this meeting–agrofuels (biofuels) and GE trees.” She added, “A clear sign of this is the ethanol cooperation agreement being signed by Brazil and Germany.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Brazil, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assured her that so-called second generation biofuels–made from GE trees and other cellulose–would better suit the German market.

“Genetically Engineered trees threaten to contaminate native forests around the world with unnatural and destructive traits such as the ability to kill insects, or have reduced lignin–the substance that enables a tree to stand up straight and withstand disease,” stated Anne Petermann, Co-Director of Global Justice Ecology Project (the North American Focal Point for Global Forest Coalition) and Co-Coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign.

“Escape of these GE tree traits into forests would devastate wildlife, biodiversity and forest-dependent communities. It is for this reason that 137 groups from 34 countries have become members of the STOP GE Trees Campaign to demand a global ban on genetically engineered trees,” she added.

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