Press Conference: Monday, 8 October 2012, 11am Bioeconomy as Main Promoter of Financialization of Nature

As the 11th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 11) opens in Hyderabad, India, a diverse alliance of concerned environmental organizations highlight two massive new threats to biodiversity: the “bioeconomy” and the financialization of nature.

October 8th, 11am-12pm, Hitex 3 media room at the CBD Conference

 

Global Forest Coalition and Biofuelwatch will hold a press conference this morning to provide further information of the main threats that accompany the proposed ‘bioeconomy’, both ecological and social.

Today’s press conference launches a compilation of a number of new reports that address the growing threat of the bioeconomy. Due to these serious concerns, the above-mentioned groups denounce the bioeconomy for both its latent threat of using plant and other biomass as a substitute for fossil fuels (bioenergy and other), as well as for its promotion of the “financialization of nature”. Speakers include Dr. Rachel Smolker, co-director of Biofuelwatch, Simone Lovera, director of the Global Forest Coalition and Isaac Rojas, coordinator of the Forest and Biodiversity campaign of Friends of the Earth International.

“Bioenergy and the bioeconomy in general, supported by government mandates and subsidies, especially in Europe and the US, are now a driving force behind global deforestation and the expansion of industrial monocultures (both crops and trees), exacerbating the worsening food crisis and land grabs, and also providing rationale for the development of dangerous technologies such as synthetic biology and genetically modified trees”, expressed Dr. Rachel Smolker from Biofuelwatch.

Meanwhile, initiatives to “protect” biodiversity through the “financialization” of nature, threaten to put it at the mercy and vagaries of market forces. As well, these approaches undermine the rights of indigenous peoples and communities who are successful stewards of biodiversity as noted by several new reports where various aspects have been highlighted.

Contact:

Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition (on location in Hyderabad), +31.615.345.379

Anne Petermann (US), Global Forest Coalition and Global Justice Ecology Project +1.802.578.0477

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8 Oct, 2012
Posted in Press releases, Forests and Climate Change