If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy for review by the BRIDGES staff to Malena Sell.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN BIOFUELS: GOOD FOR DEVELOPMENT? AND GOOD FOR ENVIRONMENT? By Annie Dufey (IIED, January 2007). Biofuels have been promoted as a means of creating jobs and wealth in developing nations, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the industrialised world, where demand for biofuels is set to skyrocket to meet ambitious targets. This report calls for international trade barriers, especially subsidies, to be relaxed to enable developing countries to reap the benefits of the biofuels trade, and for certification schemes to take account of the real environmental and social conditions in such countries. The current trade regimes are not fit for encouraging synergies and sorting out trade-offs. Any benefits from biofuels trade could be undermined if the sector continues to expand without improved policies and international coordination. To access the report visit http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=11068IIED.
THE GENE REVOLUTION: GM CROPS AND UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT. Edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (Earthscan, December 2006). The high-yield selective breeding of ‘the Green Revolution’ of the 1960s and ’70s is now being overtaken by ‘the Gene Revolution’ - the development and spread of GM crops across the world. With over 90 million hectares already under cultivation and 60 countries conducting research, GM is reviled by some as a vast Pandora’s Box and corporate sell-out, while hailed by others as the necessary technological solution to stagnating agricultural output, ballooning populations, climate change and drought. Sandwiched in between are developing and transitional countries where the need to feed vast populations and to compete against the US in international markets are compelling reasons to get on the GM bandwagon. This book seeks to bridge the gap between the ‘naysayers’ and ‘cheerleaders’ to provide an examination of the realities, complexities, benefits and pitfalls of GM adoption in developing countries that are desperately fighting poverty while trying to stay afloat in the hyper-competitive global economy. It includes an assessment of the GM reality in China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, the US and the EU, and the consequences of GM crops for billions of people as the monetary and technological divide between rich and poor widens. For further information see http://shop.earthscan.co.uk/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/751/.
RESULTS FROM THE FAO BIOTECHNOLOGY FORUM: BACKGRAOUND AND DIALOGUE ON SELECTED ISSUES. By J Ruane and A Sonnino (FAO Research and Technology Paper 11). This 152-page report presents the background and summary documents from a series of six moderated e-mail conferences hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 2002 to 2005, relating to agricultural biotechnology for the crop, forestry, animal, fisheries and agro-industry sectors in developing countries. To access the report visit ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0744e/a0744e00.pdf.
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