If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or review by the BRIDGES staff to Marianne Jacobsen.
THE STATE OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE WORLD 2003. By the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The new report shows that hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily during the first half of the 1990s the report furthermore shows that the World Food Summit goal of reducing the number of undernourished people by half by 2015 cannot be reached. The report also looks at the impact international trade can have on reducing hunger and poverty in developing countries in particular in relation to economies of scale and production potential.
IMPACTS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPS ON PESTICIDE USE IN THE UNITED STATES: THE FIRST EIGHT YEARS by Charles Benbrook (November 2003) published by the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center. The report is the first comprehensive study of the impacts of all major commercial GE crops on pesticide use in the United States over the first eight years of commercial use, 1996-2003. It draws on official U.S. Department of Agriculture data on pesticide use by crop and state and is the sixth in a series of "Technical Papers" prepared for Ag BioTech InfoNet. The report concludes, inter alia, that the major category of GE crops, corn and cotton engineered to produce the natural insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) in plant cells, continues to reduce insecticide use by 2 million to 2.5 million pounds annually. The increase in herbicide use on HT crop acres, however, far exceeds the modest reductions in insecticide use on acres planted to Bt crops, especially since 2001.
ACCESS AND BENEFIT-SHARING (ABS): AN INSTRUMENT FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION. PROPOSALS FOR AN INTERNATIONAL ABS REGIME. By Gudrun Henne, Klaus Liebig, Andreas Drews, Thomas Plän. (German Development Institute). This study has been prepared as a scientific contribution to the "Second Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing", which will be held in Montreal, Canada, from December 1 to 5, 2003. The authors take as their common starting point the view that the Contracting Parties of the CBD should use the on-going process to develop and implement an international regime to promote and safeguard the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources with a view to increasing the effectiveness of ABS as an instrument of poverty alleviation. As elaborated in this study, ABS can contribute to achieving these goals if the international community takes its political statements seriously and develops an ABS regime that simultaneously supports the goals of the CBD.
EXTENSION: A COMPONENT DESCRIPTION. By Souvanthong, S.; Trethewie, R.; Tuckson, M. (Mekonginfo, 2003). This publication, which forms part of the "participatory village development and sustainable land use system" of the Lao-Swedish Forestry Program (LSFP), sets out to explain the extension procedures and methods practiced in LSFP target areas and to make information available for personnel involved in extension work. It is particularly aimed at supervisors, planners, implementers and policy makers involved in village extension programmes in the region.
UNDERSTANDING LOCAL PERSPECTIVES: PARTICIPATION OF RESOURCE POOR FARMERS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY- THE CASE OF WEDZA DISTRICT OF ZIMBABWE, by Saruchera, M.; Matsungo, O. (Environment Team, IDS Sussex, 2003). This background paper from the IDS "Biotechnology and the policy process in developing countries" project examines the perspectives and participation in agricultural biotechnologies projects of resource-poor farmers in the Wedza district of Zimbabwe. Farmers in this region are faced with tremendous farming challenges that are adversely impacting on their livelihoods. Beyond climatic, soil and other direct farming constraints, the farmers’ options are severely curtailed by lack of material resources and other socio-economic realities that have resulted in, among other development interventions, agricultural biotechnologies pilot studies and projects.
DOMESTICATING GLOBAL POLICY ON GMOS: COMPARING CHINA AND INDIA, by P. Newell (Environment Team, IDS Sussex, 2003). This IDS working paper compares the way in which two leading developing countries in the global debate on biotechnology have sought to translate policy commitments contained in international agreements on trade and biosafety into workable national policy. It is a complex story of selective interpretation, conflict over priorities and politicking at the highest levels of government. It connects the micro-politics of inter-bureaucratic turf-wars with the diplomacy of inter-state negotiations and coalition building. At the same time, the role of business and civil society actors, media and scientific communities, also shows to be key.
PULVERISING POW(D)ER: THE IMPACT INCOHERENT EUROPEAN POLICIES ON DAIRY FARMERS IN TANZANIA AND JAMAICA, by: S. Verwer (Centre for International Development Issues (CIDIN), University of Nijmegen, 2001). The paper examines how Europe’s common agriculture policy (CAP) is operated and influences the livelihoods of dairy farmers in Tanzania and Jamaica in order to demonstrate how European policy can hamper the development of farmers in developing countries. It argues the problems faced by farmers result from an inconsistency between the objectives of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Europe’s development objectives, as defined in the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties (1992, 1996).
BIODIVERSITY FOR (BIO)TECHNOLOGY UNDER THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: BIOPROSPECTING PARTNERSHIP IN PRACTICE, by Jorge Cabrera Medaglia. The importance of biotechnology for food, agriculture, human health, environmental protection, etc, has been outlined by diverse studies and emphasized by entities such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme. At the same time, the access and acquisition of these technologies is especially complex due to their proprietary character, basically because of the existence of intellectual property rights such as patents and plant breeder’s rights. In the great majority of cases, transnational firms are the owners of these rights due to their financial capacity to destine important resources to the research and development of new products and biotechnological processes.
MINING AND CRITICAL ECOSYSTEMS: MAPPING THE RISKS. By Marta Miranda, Philip Burris, Jessie Froy Bincang, Phil Shearman, Jose Oliver Briones, Antonio La Viña, Stephen Menard. This report is the culmination of a 2-year research effort aimed at identifying environmentally and socially vulnerable areas at risk from mining. The report aims to provide a methodology that companies, governments, and civil society groups can use to develop a set of standards for environmentally responsible mining, or the identification of areas that should be placed off limits from mineral development–so-called "no go" zones.
"The dynamics of European Union biodiversity policy: interactive, functional and institutional logics" by Susan Baker in ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS 12 (3, 2003): 23-41. Adopting a multi-level governance approach, this article explores the interactions between the international CBD regime, the European Union and the member states in relation to biodiversity conservation policy. The European Community signed the UN Convention on Biodiversity in 1992. Between 1993 and 1998 EU the biodiversity policy was rather ad hoc. The 1998 Biodiversity Strategy provides a more strategic response. Early biodiversity conservation efforts were hampered by member state persistent non-compliance with key legislation. Increasingly, however, collective action is the norm, being driven by the functional logic of nature conservation and by the institutional logic of the CBD. However, collective action is nonetheless constrained by the EU system of environmental governance. The result is a structural stress, which has the cumulative effect of enhancing the complex interdependencies that exist between these multi-level actors.
2003 IUCN RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES. By IUCN (November 2003). The IUCN Red List is an annual accord of the worlds threatened species. The Red List includes extinctions since 1500 AD and is compiled based on data and research compiled by IUCN’s Species Survival Commission, which is a network of more than 7.000 experts. This year the experts added another 2.000 new entries to the list summing up to 12.000 threatened species. Invasive Alien Species have been identified as one of the main threats to species survival.
WHOSE REALITY COUNTS?: PUTTING THE FIRST LAST (2003 Edition) by Robert Chambers (ITDG Publishing, 2003 May). In this sequel to Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Robert Chambers argues that central issues in development have been overlooked, and that many past errors have flowed from domination by those with power. Development professionals now need new approaches and methods for interacting, learning and knowing. Through analysing experience - of past mistakes and myths, and of the continuing methodological revolution of PRA (participatory rural appraisal) - the author points towards solutions.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE FTAA: TIME TO LISTEN. By Kevin P. Gallagher (November 2003). The eyes of the world will be watching Miami next week when Western Hemisphere trade ministers revisit negotiations for what could be the largest regional trading bloc in the world: the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The big question is whether Miami will be a repeat of recent world trade talks in Cancun. For US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, this is no small concern, as twelve of the 21 developing countries that opposed US trade policy in Cancun are part of the FTAA negotiations. If the US wants to see progress on trade, they will have to listen to the concerns of its southern neighbours.
SEVEN MYTHS ABOUT NAFTA - AND THREE LESSONS FOR LATIN AMERICA. Produced by Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chávez. (Science, Technology and Development Program (PROCIENTEC), El Colegio de México) (November 2003). As Latin America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere gathers in Miami for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial this week, its time to look at the reality behind the myths about the impact of NAFTA on Mexico: 1. The GDP growth rate in Mexico has remained stagnant since 1983. NAFTA did not change that. Since NAFTA was approved average per capita GDP growth has been 1%, which is similar to the slump of the 1930’s, and much less than the 3.4% increases during the period of 1945-1980. 2. Mexico has a permanent trade deficit. The myth of Mexico as an export giant evaporates when we consider that, next to the surplus with the US, there is a booming trade deficit with Asia and Europe which increased by 600% and 400% respectively since 1994, when NAFTA was enacted. For further information, see: www.colmex.mx/centros/cee/procientec. Or contact: a_nadalpcyt@yahoo.com.mx
SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENTS: TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE TRADE POLICY IN THE HEMISPHERE. By Kevin P. Gallagher & Hernán Blanco (April 2003). "Sustainability Assessments (SAs) of trade agreements are under-utilised tools that could add substantial value to discussions about the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Defined as analyses of the potential social and environmental benefits and costs of proposed trade agreements, SAs are gaining widespread use by governmental and nongovernmental organizations alike."