A4: GMOs and biodiversity – what ecological threats?

GMOs must not have detrimental effects on the environment. This obviously depends on the different eco-systems they will be introduced to or they might reach. What kind of detrimental effects are taken into account. What concepts are there to define and to monitor environmental damage?

Speakers

Presentations

  • Brian Johnson: Novel crops – what are the ecological risks?
  • Ingo Kowarik, Robert Bartz and Uli Heink: “Ecological damage“ in the field of green genetic engineering 

Background Papers

Environmental Report – 2004 Ensuring Environmental Protection Capacity Chap. 10 Genetic Engineering of the Summary, German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU)

GMOs and Biodiversity – Background Paper, Dr. Ulrike Doyle, German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU), Berlin

Risk, Hazard, Damage – Specification of Criteria to Assess Environmental Impact of Genetically Modified Organisms, Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Specialist Group on Gene Ecology (Hannover congress, 2003) 

A moratorium on the further release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), World Conservation Union resolution, 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress, Bangkok 17-25 November 2004

World Conservation Union’s policy on GMOs