ECO 70(8) - Thursday, 31 October

High Court in South Africa invokes the Cartagena Protocol’s Precautionary Principle in revoking the approval of Monsanto’s MON87460 maize

Mariam Mayet, Angelika Hilbeck & Eva Sirinathsinghji - In a groundbreaking judgement delivered on the 22 October 2024, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in South Africa, has set aside the commercial approval of Monsanto/Bayer’s so-called “drought tolerant” genetically modified maize, finding that three layers of decision makers failed to adhere to the precautionary principle embedded in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. ...

Bring “Peace” into CBD’s “Peace with Nature”: A Call from Okinawa, Japan

Hideki Yoshikawa, Okinawa Environmental Justice Project & Masami Mel Kawamura, The Informed-Public Project -

The COP16 slogan “Peace with Nature” holds signifi-cant meanings in areas affected by war, armed conflict, and militarization. They destroy biodiversity and ecosystems, create pollution, and exacerbate climate change under the pretext of ensuring national interests and security. In many of these areas, these destructive forces are closely linked to systemic discrimination against Indigenous peoples and local communities, leading to serious human rights violations. Thus, to make “peace with nature,” we need a global mecha-nism to assess, prevent, and mitigate their environmental impacts. We must also address and overcome the political and social dimensions allowing such environmental destruction. We hope CBD can take a leading role in this endeavor. ...

Collision between Global Biofuels Push and Biodiversity Protection

Peg Putt, Biomass Action Network of EPN International - It is well understood that the climate and biodiversity crises are interdependent, each contributing to the other. Hence care should be taken that responses to climate change do not exacerbate the biodiversity crisis, a prime example being the large-scale deployment of intensive monoculture bioenergy plantations. Reliance on large scale biomass and BECCS for energy and net zero damages nature and the climate and increases global emissions. ...

CBD Alliance statement at the meeting with the UN Secretary General

We are here in Cali fighting for life on Earth. But our hearts are overflowing with grief for all the lives lost in wars and conflicts. We stand in solidarity with Palestine, and all those impacted. The blatant disregard for international law puts multilateralism at risk - it erodes trust among nations, and this echoes through these halls.

The trillions squandered on wars that also destroy biodiversity is the most grotesque manifestation of political, economic and military power. The unfettered power of the global North, corporations and elites is driving the worst harms to our fragile planet. Fossil fuels, mining and industrial logging spiral us into dangerous tipping points. The same powerful interests then peddle false solutions and techno-fixes, despite existing CBD decisions on geoengineering moratoria. This must stop. ...