Genetic engineering challenged at nature conservation congress

Mar­seille, France — On Fri­day, 10.09.2021, the Inter­na­tion­al Union for the Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN)’s World Con­gress vot­ed on a con­tro­ver­sial motion ques­tion­ing the use of genet­ic engi­neer­ing in nature con­ser­va­tion. The IUCN mem­bers approved this land­mark motion, which paves the way for a glob­al dia­logue on the future of new forms of this engi­neer­ing, called syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, includ­ing gene dri­ve organ­isms. Gene dri­ves are a new form of genet­ic engi­neer­ing, which is designed to exter­mi­nate or genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fy entire wild species.

Dr. Ricar­da Stein­brech­er, sci­en­tif­ic advi­sor to IUCN mem­ber ProNatu­ra:

Gene dri­ves have the capac­i­ty to wipe out or alter species for­ev­er, and to sig­nif­i­cant­ly dis­rupt or mod­i­fy the ecosys­tems on which human­i­ty and bio­di­ver­si­ty depend for their sur­vival. Any release of gene dri­ve organ­isms holds the threat to trig­ger eco­log­i­cal domi­no effects with unfore­see­able neg­a­tive con­se­quences.

Due to trav­el restric­tions from COVID-19 and lack of access to vac­ci­na­tions, many mem­bers of the Glob­al South were not able to par­tic­i­pate at IUCN Con­gress.

Ali de Goam­ma Tap­so­ba, Pres­i­dent of Burk­i­na Faso based NGO Terre a Vie:

This is par­tic­u­lar­ly scan­dalous giv­en that it is Burk­i­na Faso’s envi­ron­ment and res­i­dents who are at risk of becom­ing guinea pigs for first ever field tri­als with this dan­ger­ous gene dri­ve tech­nol­o­gy. Civ­il soci­ety groups in Burk­i­na denounce the use of gene dri­ves for pub­lic health or nature con­ser­va­tion. We have our own Indige­nous approach­es to these things and do not sup­port gene dri­ves in our coun­try.

By pass­ing impor­tant amend­ments to Res­o­lu­tion 075, inter­na­tion­al con­ser­va­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tives rec­og­nized that there exist major data and knowl­edge gaps as well as unsolved eth­i­cal, social, cul­tur­al and eco­log­i­cal issues around the tech­nolo­gies devel­oped to genet­i­cal­ly engi­neer wild species. Res­o­lu­tion 075 stip­u­lates that these uncer­tain­ties neces­si­tate the appli­ca­tion of the pre­cau­tion­ary prin­ci­ple and must be tak­en into con­sid­er­a­tion by any posi­tion the IUCN may decide to take on the top­ic. In this regard IUCN mem­bers also agreed to pri­or­i­tize the per­spec­tives, knowl­edge and rights of Indige­nous people’s and local com­mu­ni­ties in their delib­er­a­tions on these tech­nolo­gies dur­ing the com­ing 3 years.

Mareike Imken, co-ordi­na­tor of the Euro­pean Stop Gene Dri­ves cam­paign wel­comes the IUC­N’s com­mit­ment to the pre­cau­tion­ary prin­ci­ple and its inten­tion to fos­ter increased under­stand­ing and debate among its mem­bers around the use of genet­ic engi­neer­ing tech­nolo­gies for nature con­ser­va­tion pur­pos­es:

A broad and inclu­sive IUCN dis­cus­sion process will be cru­cial to raise aware­ness among IUCN mem­bers that the tam­per­ing with nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion­ary rules in the appli­ca­tion of gene dri­ve tech­nol­o­gy will bring about a new dimen­sion of inter­ven­ing with – and irre­versibly chang­ing — the nat­ur­al world that IUCN itself means to pre­serve.

The con­tentious nego­ti­a­tions around this res­o­lu­tion were divide between civ­il soci­ety groups call­ing for the IUCN to not endorse envi­ron­men­tal releas­es of syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy appli­ca­tions, and pro­g­ene dri­ve pro­po­nents who advo­cat­ed for syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy, includ­ing gene dri­ves, to be accept­ed as a tool for nature con­ser­va­tion. One of the gene dri­ve pro­po­nents, IUCN mem­ber Island Con­ser­va­tion, advo­cates to use gene dri­ves to erad­i­cate inva­sive mice on islands.

Dr. Joann Sy from the French NGO POLLINIS:

Gene dri­ve devel­op­ers plan the genet­ic forc­ing of pes­ti­cide resis­tant weeds in order to be sen­si­tive to pes­ti­cides again. This, togeth­er with reports of DARPA’s fund­ing of gene dri­ve research, indi­cate that both cor­po­rate agri­cul­ture and mil­i­tary inter­ests in syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy and gene dri­ves are the main inter­ests dri­ving the tech­nol­o­gy. Con­ser­va­tion pro­pos­als are, in fact, act­ing as Tro­jan hors­es.

Dr. Tom Wake­ford, Europe Direc­tor of ETC Group:

Com­mu­ni­ty groups and researchers need resources to help the IUCN deliv­er what the res­o­lu­tion demands — the full par­tic­i­pa­tion of local peo­ple in the eval­u­a­tion of this poten­tial­ly extreme exter­mi­na­tor tech­nol­o­gy.

Con­tacts:

Mareike Imken, +49 (0) 151–53112969,
Ali de Goam­ma Tap­so­ba, +226 (7) 661‑5060,
Dr. Ricar­da Stein­brech­er, +44 7769 733 594,
Dr. Joann Sy, +33,785334556,
Dr. Tom Wake­ford, +44 7966170713

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