Gene Drives

At the World Con­ser­va­tion Con­gress in Abu Dhabi, the Inter­na­tion­al Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN) nar­row­ly vot­ed against a “pre­cau­tion­ary defer­ment” of the release of genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wild species into nat­ur­al ecosys­tems. How­ev­er, a slim major­i­ty of IUCN mem­bers sup­port­ed a call for “addi­tion­al pre­cau­tion­ary safe­guards” on such releas­es. The Con­gress exposed deep divi­sions with­in the con­ser­va­tion com­mu­ni­ty over whether genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered wild organ­isms should be released into nature.

At the IUCN World Con­gress start­ing tomor­row, 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.