Nature is not a testing lab

Will the glob­al nature con­ser­va­tion com­mu­ni­ty embrace genet­ic engi­neer­ing as just anoth­er “tool in the con­ser­va­tion tool­box”? Ahead of its upcom­ing World Con­ser­va­tion Con­gress tak­ing place from 9 to 15 Octo­ber in Abu Dhabi, the Inter­na­tion­al Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN) is debat­ing exact­ly that.

But such a move would be both naïve and dan­ger­ous. Genet­ic engi­neer­ing projects in nature con­ser­va­tion are exper­i­men­tal, far from viable, and their con­se­quences can­not be reli­ably pre­dict­ed or con­trolled.

Nature needs pro­tec­tion, not genet­ic exper­i­ments.

Exist­ing reg­u­la­tions — both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al — are whol­ly unpre­pared to deal with the release of genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wolves, self-spread­ing vac­cines, or gene dri­ve mos­qui­toes designed to wipe out entire pop­u­la­tions.

Once released into the wild, genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered organ­isms can­not be recalled. Nature has no undo but­ton.

At a time when ecosys­tems are already frag­ile and under increas­ing pres­sure, these inter­ven­tions pose unac­cept­able risks — and could seri­ous­ly erode pub­lic trust in both sci­ence and con­ser­va­tion.

The release of genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wild species must be stopped — now. And who, if not the glob­al con­ser­va­tion com­mu­ni­ty, is bet­ter placed to sound the alarm?

👉 Call on gov­ern­ments and the IUCN to adopt a mora­to­ri­um on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wild species at the IUCN World Con­ser­va­tion Con­gress this Octo­ber!

Sign our peti­tion here