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.
Marseille, France, 6 September 2021 — Thousands of scientists, conservationists, and civil society members are gathered at the World Conservation Union (IUCN) General Assembly this week to negotiate on the most controversial environmental conservation governance policies in its 70 year history. Among the most contentious debates is about new and emerging genetic engineering and the risks this entails to conservation…
“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.
Enabled by new genetic engineering techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9, so-called gene drives are designed to spread new genes throughout the genome of wild animal populations. Their future release could have unforeseeable and irreversible consequences for ecosystems and food webs.
Berlin, 13. November 2020 — The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has published an assessment on whether the currently existing European guidelines for the risk assessment of genetically modified insects are sufficient for the risk assessment of genetically modified Gene Drive insects.
Civil society organisations wrote to the IUCN leadership to express their concern about the Genetic Frontiers for Conservation report.