NGOs, scientists, and beekeepers call for IUCN moratorium on genetically engineering nature

At the upcom­ing IUCN World Con­gress start­ing on 9 Octo­ber, del­e­gates will be asked to vote on a motion call­ing for a mora­to­ri­um on genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wild species. The deci­sion will test whether IUCN upholds the Pre­cau­tion­ary Prin­ci­ple and demon­strates lead­er­ship in pro­tect­ing and restor­ing nature – or whether it opens the door to exper­i­men­tal tech­nolo­gies that risk under­min­ing con­ser­va­tion efforts and erod­ing pub­lic trust.

What projects have been proposed so far?

Sev­er­al projects to genet­i­cal­ly engi­neer wild species have been launched or are in devel­op­ment, pro­mot­ed as con­tri­bu­tions to nature con­ser­va­tion. Two have been com­plet­ed, while the rest are in plan­ning.

In the US, devel­op­ers engi­neered the crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered Amer­i­can chest­nut in an attempt to make it with­stand blight. Mean­while, Colos­sal Bio­sciences mod­i­fied grey wolves to resem­ble the long-extinct “dire wolf,” pop­u­larised by Game of Thrones. Both projects have faced strong crit­i­cism for fail­ing to advance nature con­ser­va­tion and for pos­ing risks to exist­ing wild pop­u­la­tions.

Oth­er projects are still in ear­ly stages. These include attempts to mod­i­fy endan­gered frogs and fer­rets to resist pathogens, or to use gene dri­ves to elim­i­nate inva­sive rodents on islands. Colos­sal is also plan­ning addi­tion­al ani­mal engi­neer­ing ven­tures. Yet all of these projects remain spec­u­la­tive, and some­what anec­do­tal rather than adding seri­ous con­ser­va­tion tools. Mean­while, media hype and exag­ger­at­ed promis­es – a hall­mark of genet­ic engi­neer­ing – risk dis­tract­ing from, or even under­min­ing, proven con­ser­va­tion strate­gies.

Technologies remain experimental

Oppo­nents of the mora­to­ri­um have argued that block­ing genet­ic engi­neer­ing of wildlife would deny con­ser­va­tion­ists urgent­ly need­ed tools to meet bio­di­ver­si­ty tar­gets. How­ev­er, such projects take decades – plans to engi­neer the Amer­i­can chest­nut began in the ear­ly 1990s – and their out­comes remain still uncer­tain.

“While tech­niques involv­ing the release of fer­tile indi­vid­u­als into the wild are being pro­mot­ed as solu­tions to urgent con­ser­va­tion chal­lenges, no empir­i­cal evi­dence has been pre­sent­ed to sup­port these claims.” com­ment­ed Guy Reeves, Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­sor at Save Our Seeds. “Rely­ing on such hypo­thet­i­cal approach­es, while over­look­ing the proven suc­cess­es of well-resourced, estab­lished con­ser­va­tion meth­ods, risks under­min­ing both con­ser­va­tion goals and the pub­lic sup­port essen­tial to achiev­ing them.”

Technology developed for more profitable sectors

Among the oppo­nents of a mora­to­ri­um is Colos­sal Bio­sciences, the self-styled “de-extinc­tion com­pa­ny”. How­ev­er, an IUCN spe­cial­ist group has dis­missed Colossal’s engi­neered wolves as irrel­e­vant to con­ser­va­tion: “Cre­at­ing three grey wolf pups with edit­ed genomes in an attempt to resem­ble the extinct dire wolf may demon­strate tech­ni­cal capa­bil­i­ties, but it does not con­tribute to con­ser­va­tion.” It warned that “phe­no­typ­ic prox­ies of the dire wolf” may effec­tive­ly “threat­en the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of extant species, like the grey wolf”.

Despite this crit­i­cism, Colos­sal con­tin­ues to boast that it has “res­ur­rect­ed a species lost to time, demon­strat­ing the pow­er of syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy to reverse extinc­tion and reshape the future of con­ser­va­tion.”

“Com­pa­nies like Colos­sal want head­lines, not con­ser­va­tion,” explains Franziska Achter­berg, Head of Pol­i­cy at Save Our Seeds. “Con­tro­ver­sy fuels their busi­ness mod­el, as media atten­tion attracts fund­ing. Ulti­mate­ly, what they want is to devel­op tech­nolo­gies to sell to more prof­itable sec­tors, such as agri­cul­ture or health.”

A paradigm shift – and a risk to public trust

So far, the IUCN has main­tained a crit­i­cal stance toward genet­ic engi­neer­ing. How­ev­er, amid a back­drop of exag­ger­at­ed claims and promis­es, it remains uncer­tain whether the organ­i­sa­tion will stay the course.

IUCN’s draft pol­i­cy If adopt­ed, could sig­nal a pro­found par­a­digm shift: mov­ing from pro­tect­ing nature to active­ly re-design it.

Sci­en­tists at Germany’s Fed­er­al Agency for Nature Con­ser­va­tion (BfN) have warned: “If per­ma­nent, far-reach­ing and inher­i­ta­ble genet­ic mod­i­fi­ca­tions of wild organ­isms become a real­i­ty and are accept­ed as legit­i­mate instru­ments of nature con­ser­va­tion, the idea of pro­tect­ing nature turns into the idea of re-design­ing nature.”

Will IUCN hold the line?

Back in 2019, IUCN’s lead­er­ship appeared ready to embrace syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy. For­mer Direc­tor Gen­er­al Inger Ander­sen argued: “Humans are increas­ing­ly genet­i­cal­ly repro­gram­ming nature – whether we like it or not. The glob­al con­ser­va­tion com­mu­ni­ty must con­tribute to the respon­si­ble devel­op­ment of syn­thet­ic biol­o­gy appli­ca­tions.”

But at the sub­se­quent Con­gress, IUCN mem­bers vot­ed to delay a deci­sion, call­ing instead for a broad, inclu­sive process to shape an IUCN pol­i­cy on genet­ic engi­neer­ing.

Crit­ics say the debate is being dri­ven by tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ers, not con­ser­va­tion­ists.

“It’s the tail wag­ging the dog,” says Franziska Achter­berg. “Con­ser­va­tion­ists have a proven track record with care­ful­ly devel­oped meth­ods, while genet­ic engi­neer­ing com­pa­nies have lit­tle to show for their promis­es. Inno­va­tion in con­ser­va­tion is impor­tant, but it must pro­ceed with cau­tion and ensure that pro­posed meth­ods can actu­al­ly achieve their goals.”

Growing support for a moratorium

Momen­tum for a mora­to­ri­um is build­ing. Sci­en­tists – includ­ing con­trib­u­tors to the Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Sci­ence-Pol­i­cy Plat­form on Bio­di­ver­si­ty and Ecosys­tem Ser­vices (IPBES) – have warned that releas­ing genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered organ­isms into ecosys­tems could cause irre­versible eco­log­i­cal dis­rup­tions.

In an open let­ter they wrote: “In line with the UN Pre­cau­tion­ary Prin­ci­ple, no release should occur unless and until it can be demon­strat­ed that there are no direct or indi­rect risks to pol­li­na­tors, bio­di­ver­si­ty or ecosys­tems.”

The call is also backed by the Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Bee­keep­ers’ Asso­ci­a­tions and more than 90 NGOs world­wide.

More infor­ma­tion on www.engineeringnature.org.

See our joint press release from Save Our Seeds, Polli­nis (France) and Sun­gi Devel­op­ment Foun­da­tion (Pak­istan).

to top