Genetic engineering of wild species? IUCN at a crossroads

“Should nature con­ser­va­tion­ists back genet­ic engi­neer­ing of wild species in order to counter the impact of human activ­i­ty?” This is the ques­tion that IUCN mem­bers will face at the IUCN Mem­bers’ Assem­bly in Mar­seille. Res­o­lu­tion 075 up for vote will define “IUCN Prin­ci­ples on Syn­thet­ic Biol­o­gy and Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion“, which will lay the foun­da­tion to devel­op an IUCN pol­i­cy on Syn­thet­ic Biol­o­gy for Nature Con­ser­va­tion to be adopt­ed by the next (2024) Mem­bers’ Assem­bly. The IUCN’s posi­tion will pro­vide an impor­tant sig­nal to the high­ly con­test­ed reg­u­la­to­ry and gov­er­nance dis­cus­sions cur­rent­ly tak­ing place under the UN’s Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­si­ty (CBD).

Read our brief­ing here