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Genetically Engineered Trees

 

Since 1999 GENET collects and distributes information on various topics in the field of genetic engineering in agriculture, food production and health. With this "Special Topic: GE Trees" GENET aims at providing an overview about the worldwide debate on genetically engineered trees, based on our archives.

 

Databank Query 1: "trees" as key word in the GENET-news text

 

You will find a selection of publications in the section "Research & Reports". To get more information about the different stakeholders in the debate, please follow the internet links to selected actors in the civil society and industry sectors. Finally, the page "GE Trees and the CBD" introduces you into the international debate about a moratorium on GE trees that is ongoing at the Convention for Biological Biodiversity.

GENET-news articles

2006-11-16 |

Organizations around the world demand ban of genetically engineered trees from Kyoto Protocol

WASHINGTON - November 15 - World Rainforest Movement and Global Justice Ecology Project have presented a demand to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Nairobi, Kenya to ban the use of genetically engineered trees under the Kyoto Protocol. GE trees have been proposed for use in plantations developed as climate sinks or for biofuels.

2006-11-06 |

Taiwan looks to capitalize on its flora, fauna and build biotech industry

Algae and fish scales are turned into skin-care products. Herbs are made into health foods. Evergreen trees are cultivated to make anticancer drugs. Though Taiwan has had some success in turning the island's great variety of flora and fauna into commercial products, experts say it has a long way to go before it emerges as a biotechnology powerhouse. With limited government support for research and a poor record of cashing in on laboratory breakthroughs, it is still struggling to create a name for itself in an increasingly competitive field, they say.

2005-06-22 |

Ban demanded on release of genetically engineered trees

Participants at BioDemocracy 2005, the alternative conference to the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s yearly gathering, are demanding a ban on the release of genetically engineered trees into the environment.
Genetically engineered trees are already being researched in the field, and industry is moving rapidly toward commercialization without regard for the predictable and inevitable impacts they will have on ecosystems and communities.

2005-06-20 |

Advances and future perspectives in fruit tree transformation

Conventional breeding of temperate fruit trees is constrained by their extensive reproductive cycle with long juvenile periods, complex reproductive biology, and high degree of heterozygosity. As the commercial production of transgenic annual crops becomes a reality in many parts of the world, the question remains whether genetically engineering fruit trees will find commercial application.

2005-06-07 |

Groups Call for UN CBD Moratorium on GE Trees

Today at a press conference on genetically engineered trees held during the Second meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 2), participants called for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to enact a moratorium on the release of genetically engineered trees into the environment, including the removal of any outdoor test plots currently in existence.

2005-05-28 |

Genetic modification seen as future of Thai rubber industry

Genetically modified rubber trees could be the future of the Thai rubber industry, producing high quantities of latex, according to one of Thailand’s principle agricultural firms. As one of the world’s main rubber-producing nations, Thailand is keen to boost rubber production and ensure equitable prices for its farmers. And although GM products have been opposed for human consumption, the Charoen Pokphand group, one of the country’s largest business empires, is confident that the government will give the go-ahead for the cultivation of GM rubber in the future.

2005-04-17 |

Superfast GM trees may help tropical reforestation and reverse the ecological damage!

»Each year the natural forest area cleared worldwide equals the size of Portugal - five times the size of Israel,« says Dr. Stanley Hirsch, CEO of CBD Technologies, a bio-tech startup in Rehovot. »In Southeast Asia - in countries like Indonesia - the trees are not only cut down, but millions of acres of them are burned to make way for agriculture. The ecological damage is immense.« CBD has found a solution: The company has developed a unique technology that accelerates tree growth and could halt the destruction of the rain forests. The technology is based on a gene called »cellulose binding domain,« which was discovered by Prof. Oded Shoseyov of the agriculture faculty at Hebrew University in Rehovot and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

2005-04-12 |

More GE trees »no threat« to environment in China

Increased planting of genetically engineered (GE) trees will pose no threat to the environment, Chinese scientists have claimed. Speaking yesterday, experts and officials agreed that the use of modified poplar trees is bound to increase as the country sees surging demands for timber. They insisted the transgenic poplars have already undergone strict safety analysis before being commercialized. »There are many natural and artificial »restraints« in China to prevent the GE trees from imperiling bio-safety,« Lu Mengzhu, a chief scientist with the Chinese Academy of Forestry, said yesterday.

2005-04-04 |

Genetically modified trees in Chile: A new forest conflict

El Hacha (The Axe) is a song written by Patricio Manns and performed by Inti Illimani on their release Arriesgaré la piel; its final lines refer to deforestation: »The forest comes before Man, but desert follows him.« Without a doubt, deforestation has seriously affected the balance of forest ecosystems worldwide, making understandable the fear that paralyzes those who are aware of this issue; fear that is expressed in different ways, such as in this song. A second phenomenon negatively affecting the survival of forests is the creation of extensive single- crop forest plantations, and in particular, current concerns about new plantations of genetically modified trees.

2005-04-04 |

GE trees: No solution to climate change

In December 2003, at the ninth Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP- 9), government representatives agreed the rules under the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism for tree plantations as carbon sinks. One of the decisions reached at the meeting allows genetically engineered (GE) trees to be used as carbon sinks under the Kyoto’s clean development mechanism. COP-9 »formulated rules for capturing new subsidies for industrial forestry projects that will accelerate global warming, disempower activists trying to tackle it, promote genetically-modified monoculture tree plantations, reduce biodiversity-and violate local people’s rights to land and forests worldwide,« as Larry Lohmann of The Corner House, a UK-based solidarity and research group, put it.(3)

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GE Trees: NGOs and Social Movements

 people's Forest Forum

The Global Ban on GM Trees Campaign was released by three Finnish non-governemental organisations in January 2004. The open petition protested decicion made in UN Climate change meeting in Milano to include transgenic trees in their climate toolbox. This desicion violated the biodiversity and biosafety agreements and prozesses.

 Stop GE Trees Campaign

The Stop GE Trees Campaign is a national and international alliance of organizations that have united toward the goal of prohibiting the ecologically and socially devastating release of genetically engineered trees into the environment. Global Justice Ecology Project coordinates, administrates and fundraises for the campaign. World Rainforest Movement, based in Uruguay, is the Southern Hub for the Campaign and has materials in Spanish and Portuguese.

 Genetically Modified Trees

Information by the World Rainforest Movement

  • WRM publications on GM Trees
  • Articles published in WRM bulletin
  • WRM special bulletin on GM Trees
  • Video "The Silent Forest"
  • Other relevant information
  • Links

GE Trees: Biotechnology Industry and Science

 Institute for Forest Biotechnology

The Institute promotes the responsible use of biotechnology in forest trees.  We advance the societal, environmental, and economic benefits biotechnology can bring to forests around the world.  The Institute of Forest Biotechnology (IFB) is the only non-profit organization to address the sustainability of forest biotechnology on a global scale.

 ArgorGen

Trees are the world’s most plentiful and versatile source of renewable materials and an important resource for bioenergy. ArborGen is dedicated to improving the sustainability and productivity of purpose grown working forests, providing more wood on less land while preserving native habitats in all their diversity and complexity for future generations.

 Tree Biosafety and Genomics Research Cooperative

The goal of the Tree Biosafety and Genomics Research Cooperative (TBGRC) is to conduct research, technology transfer, and education to facilitate beneficial uses of genetically engineered trees in plantations. The TBGRC seeks to test and develop select innovations, based on progress in molecular biology and agricultural biotechnology, that will ultimately have commercial value to wood-growing and horticultural industries. Research is presently focused on poplars as scientific models for genetic engineering and functional genomic studies.