Good News! CBD governments hit the brakes on gene drives

Dear signatories of the sign-on letter calling for a moratorium on gene drives,

This afternoon at the UN Convention on Biodiversity's COP 14 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 196 governments passed a global decision about gene drives. The decision urges precaution and reinforces as a priority the need to seek free, prior and informed consent or approval from all potentially impacted communities and Indigenous Peoples before even considering environmental release of gene drive organisms.

Specifically, the text places three preconditions before "considering release of gene drives": Governments would need to do thorough risk assessment, ensure risk management measures are in place to "prevent or minimize adverse effects" and ensure to seek consent of "potentially affected Indigenous People's and Local Communities." Since gene drives by design may spread far beyond a release site, the term "potentially affected" should be considered to cover quite a wide area. The decision specifically notes that a release of gene drives may impact the "traditional knowledge, innovation, practices, livelihood and use of land and water” of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. So, crucially, this is a decision that gives the power back to communities to decide whether their lands and territories should be experimented on -- and rightly so.

Moreover, the decision today recognizes that before these organisms are considered for release into the environment, research and analysis are needed, and specific guidance may be useful. That guidance will now be developed through a "Risk Assessment Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group" also established under another decision. The development of that formal guidance is likely to take some years and we hope that responsible states will, of course, wait on that guidance to be developed before considering any approvals. This may also therefore, in practical terms, act as a further brake on the approved releases of gene drive organisms.

While this is not the formal legal moratorium we had all hoped for, we do feel this decision is pretty strong and significant and sets high barriers to the release of gene drives. Most importantly, however, it sets the trajectory of global gene drive governance upon a clear, simple and important principle of justice that even a child could understand: consent. That is, do not mess with someone else’s environment, land and territories without their consent (and without showing it's safe too!).

It should be acknowledged that those working so hard these past two years for a strong decision at the CBD were up against a huge PR campaign backed by Bill Gates, the US Military's DARPA, Agribusiness interests and Facebook-backed Open Philanthropy Project, but our message still got through to policymakers and the public, thanks to the wide civil society outcry against these Exterminator gene drives.

Words agreed on paper are only as powerful as their interpretation and implementation, and gene drive supporters will try to spin this language to their advantage. They will claim as a victory that there was no formal moratorium. In the years to come, they may in practice ignore the rights of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior and informed consent and downplay the environmental risks -- we need as many people and organisations as possible to support the CBD decision and hold governments accountable to protecting our ecosystems, biodiversity and cultures from gene drives. Please do share this news release in your networks and on social media -- a few sample tweets are below for inspiration. You can read the full news release from ETC Group and Friends of the Earth here

Thank you again for all of your work,

Trudi on behalf of ETC Group

Sample tweets:

#Genedrives are a dangerous technology that could devastate ecosystems and agriculture. I support the UN #cop14 decision to put the brakes on gene drives! http://www.etcgroup.org/content/united-nations-hits-brakes-gene-drives

@UNBiodiversity #COP14 decides there should be no release of #genedrives without consent from any potentially affected community. #egyptCOP14 http://www.etcgroup.org/content/united-nations-hits-brakes-gene-drives

Parties at @UNBiodiversity recognize that governments need to update their safety protocols and risk assessment before considering release of #genedrives. #egyptCOP14 http://www.etcgroup.org/content/united-nations-hits-brakes-gene-drives

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Trudi Zundel | Editor/Communications Coordinator, ETC Group

Mobile: +1 (226) 979-0993 | Skype: trudi.zundel

www.etcgroup.org