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 Sarah Mohan .
IS THE WTO IS THE ONLY WAY? SAFEGUARDING MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS FROM INTERNATIONAL TRADE RULES AND SETTLING TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT DISPUTES OUTSIDE THE WTO. By Adelphi Consult, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace, October 2005. This report aims at initiating a debate within governments and inter-governmental organisations on alternatives to the WTO for clarifying the legal relationship between global trade rules and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), and settling trade and environment disputes. It shows that there are effective and viable ways to safeguard environmental agreements from trade rules outside the WTO, notably through the International Court of Justice and the United Nations.
SOWING AUTONOMY: GENDER AND SEED POLITICS IN SEMI ARID INDIA. By Carine Pionetti (IIED), 2005. This publication focuses on women’s roles in saving and reproducing seed in the drylands of the Deccan Plateau, in South India. Detailed farmers’ accounts of why seed-saving is essential emphasise the interconnectedness between self-reliance in seed, crop diversity and nutrition. By extension, the realms of food culture and religious rituals (which entail the use of traditional crops) are also linked to seed autonomy. What is most significant about the intertwining of seed-saving, crop diversity and nutrition is that these three realms are largely under women’s control. However, the processes of industrialisation and institutionalisation in the seed sector are undermining the very basis of autonomous seed production.
THE DIGITAL DUMP: EXPORTING REUSE AND ABUSE TO AFRICA. By the Basel Action Network (BAN), October 2005. This report exposes the escalating global trade in toxic, obsolete, discarded computers and other e-scrap collected in North America and Europe and sent to developing countries by waste brokers and so-called recyclers. The report focuses on Nigeria, in western Africa, but says the situation is similar throughout much of the developing world.
GUIDELINES FOR APPLYING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE TO BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. By the Precautionary Principle Project - a joint initiative of Fauna & Flora International, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, ResourceAfrica and TRAFFIC, July 2005. These Guidelines represent the first set of guidance for the precautionary principle in biodiversity conservation and NRM. They aim to inform and assist decision-makers, policy-makers and managers in interpreting and applying the principle. Whether the context is protected areas, ecosystem services, trade in wildlife, invasive species or fisheries, decision-makers must grapple with poor or incomplete data, inherent unpredictability, and ignorance. These Guidelines seek to provide clear, coherent guidance to address this situation.
THE WATER FOOTPRINT OF COTTON CONSUMPTION. By A.K. Chapagain, A.Y. Hoekstra, H.H.G. Savenije and R. Gautam, September 2005. The consumption of a cotton product is connected to a chain of impacts on the water resources in countries where cotton is grown and processed. A recent report by UNESCO-IHE and the University of Twente, the Netherlands, shows the ‘water footprint’ of worldwide cotton consumption, identifying both the locations and the character of the impacts. The study shows that the worldwide consumption of cotton products requires 256 Gm3 of water per year. Given the general lack of proper water pricing mechanisms or other ways of transmitting production-information, cotton consumers have little incentive to take responsibility for the impacts on remote water systems.
WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS ON MORAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED AND CLONED ANIMALS. By Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, October 2005. In January 2005, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology hosted a workshop to explore moral and ethical aspects of genetically engineering and cloning animals. Participants and attendees included animal biotechnology researchers from academia and industry, representatives from the biotechnology and food and agriculture industries, consumer and animal welfare advocates, ethicists and federal and state regulatory officials. Over the course of two and one half days, the assembled group discussed the moral and ethical issues relative to genetically modified and cloned animals and whether those issues differ from the questions raised in regard to conventional animal breeding, production and use.
FORESTS AND FLOODS: DROWNING IN FICTION OR THRIVING ON FACTS? By the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), 2005. This report states that there is no scientific evidence linking large-scale flooding to deforestation. It is a timely analysis that should prompt a close examination of the many issues involved in a major flood event -and an abandonment of the myth that deforestation is the root cause. The report comes as major floods around the world are taking place, particularly in the Asian lowlands, Eastern and Central Europe and Central America.
FOOD AND NUTRITION BIOTECHNOLOGY: ACHIEVEMENTS, PROSPECTS, AND PERCEPTIONS. By A. Sasson, 2005. This paper from the United Nations University provides an encompassing perspective on the state of play with regard to food and nutrition biotechnology. Rather than draw specific conclusions and provide recommendations, this paper seeks to address current issues, debates, and perspectives with regard to the foods we eat and the role of biotechnology.