UN Biodiversity Talks Favor False Solutions to Biodiversity Crisis
One of the main themes at the UN Biodiversity negotiations was the
'financialization' of nature [2], a way for corporations to plunder
the planet while making profits.
"Financialization is a false solution to biodiversity loss and
climate change. It is a way for corporate polluters to continue
destroying biodiversity and threatening indigenous peoples and local
communities. If UN talks start favoring the financialization of
nature, community and Indigenous peoples' rights will be violated,
leading to mass land grabs,” says Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth
International Coordinator of the Forests and Biodiversity Programme.
Many multinational corporations are lobbying the UN to push their
interests, namely, the financialization of nature, Friends of the
Earth International warns.
“The corporate influence on UN talks is extremely worrying.
Multinational corporations lobby in favor of approaches which have
negative impacts on communities and Indigenous Peoples and do not
protect forests and biodiversity. These are false solutions.
Instead, we need ways to properly protect traditional knowledge and
ownership. For instance we need more community-based forest
governance, which is an effective way for local people to help
protect their forests as well as the climate," Isaac Rojas added.
Synthetic biology, the creation of novel organisms through new
biotechnologies, was another major issue at the UN Biodiversity
Conference.
“Synthetic biology is a false solution that will only benefit
wealthy nations and their corporate partners,” says Eric Hoffman,
food and technology policy campaigner for Friends of the Earth U.S.
“The creation of novel organisms through synthetic biology poses
numerous risks to biodiversity, including but not limited to to
genetic contamination, novel invasive species, and loss of
livelihoods. It is tragic that so far the UN missed the opportunity
to implement a moratorium on the environmental release and
commercial use of synthetic organisms. Synthetic biology has not
even been added to the Convention on Biological Biodiversity’s
agenda. Even so, a relatively weak but small step forward was taken
as the Parties agreed to apply the Precautionary Principle when
dealing with synthetic biology and its potential risks,” he added.
Representatives from more than 192 countries participated in the
Hyderabad UN 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Biodiversity, which seeks to address threats to
biodiversity and ecosystems, including climate change.
Friends of the Earth International acknowledges the great work that
many organizations and social movements, working together as the CBD
Alliance [3], made during the two weeks negotiations. The CBD
Alliance plays an important role in ensuring that civil society,
indigenous peoples, and local communities have a seat at the
negotiation table.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International Coordinator of the
Forests and Biodiversity Programme – Email: isaac [at]
coecoceiba.org or Tel: + 506 8338 32 04 (Costa Rican mobile)
Eric Hoffman, food and technology policy campaigner for Friends of
the Earth U.S – Email: ehoffman [at] foe.org
NOTES TO EDITORS
[1] The UN 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Biodiversity was organised by the The Convention on
Biological Diversity: http://www.cbd.int
[2] The 'financialization' of nature means reducing nature to a
commodity or a derivative to be speculated on in financial markets.
[3] The CBD Alliance website is http://www.cbdalliance.org/
