International organic movement makes headway against GMOs at the IUCN World Conservation Congress
	December 01, 2004 International Organic Movement Makes Headway Against GMOs at the IUCN World Conservation Congress
	Bangkok-Bonn December 1st, 2004. Over 1000 governmental and non-governmental member organizations of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) held their 3rd World Congress from November 17th until 25th.The Union gathers only every 4 years and attracted this time some 4000 participants from over 130 countries to Bangkok/Thailand. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is an IUCN member and participated very actively with a delegation consisting of World Board member Liz Clay (Australia),Vitoon Panyakul (Thailand) and its Director for International Relations Bernward Geier.
	The 3-day conference program offered over 300 seminars, workshops and roundtables. Organic Agriculture was highlighted by a well-attended seminar, which was sponsored and organized by IFOAM under the title "Organic Agriculture and biodiversity: its contribution today and its potential tomorrow”. In addition to the speakers from the IFOAM delegation, the event also featured organic activist Dorota Metera (Poland) from the IUCN regional office in Warsaw and the IFOAM Honorary President Hardy Vogtmann (President of BfN-the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) as speakers. The presentations were followed by a diverse and engaged discussion leading among others to the conclusion that IUCN needs to get more active in organic agriculture issues. Dorota Metera from IUCN supported this request stating "...considering the fact that agriculture and forestry utilize the most land, the impact on biodiversity and nature conservation is fundamental".   IUCN calls for a GMO moratorium   Major parts of the 4-day IUCN general assembly were devoted to dealing with some 120 motions and recommendations. The most controversial motion asking for "a moratorium on the release of GMOs until it can be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt" was supported by IFOAM. There was actually little hope that this motion could pass the hurdle of the governmental member chambers veto right, but it was approved by both the governmental and the NGO chamber with a total of over 70 % yes votes.   IFOAM had submitted a separate motion on "GMOs and biodiversity" requesting IUCN to undertake significant work on the impact of GMOs on biodiversity and to develop a plan of action to guide its members on this issue. After 3 plenary debates, this motion was also finally approved from both chambers, with almost unanimous NGO support (181 Yes and 4 No).   Bernward Geier from IFOAM expressed his excitement about this landmark decisions and breakthrough for the struggle to protect nature and its biodiversity against the invasive impact of GMOs by noting that "... this clear positioning and mandate of IUCN's membership is a strong signal to governments and the genetic engineering multinational corporations that not only the concern, but the opposition to this high risk technology continues to grow. The 2 approved motions also support IFOAM and the worldwide organic movement in their fight for a GMO free world." IFOAM Press Release, Gerald A. Herrmann, Executive Director IFOAM Head Office Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany Tel: +49 228 9 26 50 10 Fax: +49 228 9 26 50 99 Mobile +49 177 55 21 46 0 http://www.ifoam.org, mail to: headoffice@ifoam.org
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