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 Heike Baumüller.
THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY: INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION AND RESEARCH IN 2004. By C. Ford Runge (Council on Biotechnology Information, 8 December 2004). This report laments the attention given by the international press to opposition to biotechnology and instead points out the increasing adoption and diffusion of biotechnology crops globally. It predicts continued expansion of commercial and scientific possibilities for plant biotechnology in the next decade and beyond. The value of biotechnology crops was approximately $44 billion in 2003-2004 in the five countries — the US, Argentina, China, Canada and Brazil — that account for almost 98 percent of all biotechnology crop hectares and values. Soybeans, cotton, maize and canola continue to account for virtually all of planted biotechnology products.
A CAPABILITIES APPROACH TO TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: USING SEN’S CONCEPTION OF DEVELOPMENT TO RE-EXAMINE THE DEBATES. By Aaron Cosbey, International Institute for Sustainable Development, November 2004. This paper takes the thinking of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and uses it to fashion a comprehensive new definition of sustainable development. It then asks how trade and trade liberalization might contribute to sustainable development so defined, surveying a complex web of potential impacts. It draws important lessons for civil society, developing countries and the WTO negotiations from the analysis.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING REGARDING GMOS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: HOW TO EFFECTIVELY INVOLVE RURAL PEOPLE. (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), December 2004). Published by the FAO as a background document for an upcoming FAO e-mail conference of the same name, this document seeks to provide an easily-understandable overview of public participation in decision-making in developing countries on issues relating to GMOs for food and agriculture. It provides a brief summary of the current state of GMO presence in food and agriculture in developing countries; a discussion of the decision-making areas where the public could be involved; a brief overview of relevant international agreements and some of the details of the challenges of ensuring information access and participation of people in rural areas in developing countries.
"Strategy And Trade Liberalization: Implications For Poverty And Environment In The Phillipines." By Ian Coxhead and Sisira Jayasuriya in ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, 9 (5, 2004) pp 613-644. Poverty and environmental degradation or deforestation in developing countries have common determinants in underlying economic and institutional conditions that determine factor and product prices and incentives for migration and resource-depleting activities. These determinants include property rights failures (open access to forest lands) but also ‘government failures’ in the form of policies that indirectly promote resource use and retard poverty alleviation. A general equilibrium analysis identifies influences that such distortions have on poverty and environment. The results suggest that though reforms would increase poverty in the short term, in the longer run trade liberalisation is poverty reducing. The environmental impact can also be positive, provided liberalised trade is combined with appropriate government action to address market failures.
"Agricultural trade reforms in the Doha Round: a developing country perspective". By Perma-chandra Athukorala in JOURNAL OF WORLD TRADE 38 (5, 2004) pp 877-897. This article examines the reform outcome of the Uruguay Round relating to trade in agriculture, the nature of the unfinished reform agenda and policy choices for the Doha Round, with special emphasis on the position of developing countries in trade negotiations.
"Health Biotechnology Innovation in Developing Countries". By H. Thorsteinsdóttir, U. Quach, D.K. Martin, P.A. Singer and A. Daar in the NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY SUPPLEMENT December 2004 (Vol 22, No. 12s). This special issue of Nature Biotechnology presents the results of an in-depth study of the health biotechnology sector of seven developing nations. It suggests that poorer nations can successfully exploit the biotechnology sector to build their own wealth and improve the well being of their own people. The study is the collaborative product of a group of researchers at the Canadian Program on Genomic and Global Health at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. To access the issue visit
"Intellectual Property: Enhanced: An International Appraisal". By Bonwoo Koo, Carol Nottenburg and Philip G. Pardey in SCIENCE (306, Issue 5700) pp 1295-1297. This article reviews the variety of plant-related intellectual property legislation in place worldwide. The authors discuss direct patenting of plants or plant products (such as seeds), and approaches that allow ‘benefit sharing’ — in which both those who preserve or develop the resource (for example, plant breeders and farmers) enter into a mutually beneficial agreement with those wanting to use the resources (such as researchers). They also analyse the policy of ’sui generis’ systems of protection — created on a case by case basis — that allow plant breeders to control the commercialisation of their plant varieties. The authors also believe that the development of intellectual property rights legislation does not threaten crop research or commercialisation of new varieties in developing countries.
Electronic
WTO WEB-BASED TRAINING MODULE ON THE AGREEMENT ON THE APPLICATION OF SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES. This web-based training module has been developed by the WTO for anyone interested in developing a basic understanding of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures ("SPS Agreement"). The online course includes interactive tests, course material and links to reference documents such as legal texts and other official WTO documents. A chapter is also dedicated to the study of GMOs and the precautionary principle in context to the SPS Agreement. The module is available in English, French and Spanish. For furhter information, contac enquiries@wto.org.
ECOLOMICS INTERNATIONAL. This independent website includes an updated Biosafety section with numerous new documents and analyses. The first Meeting of the Parties of the Biosafety Protocol and the presently ongoing WTO dispute EC-Biotech have resulted in an increased awareness of the importance of biosafety issues for policy discussions and for the development of public international law. The role of precaution, the consumers’ right to information, and the science/technology/law interface are at the centre of this domain. It is rendered particularly dynamic by the difficult interactions between environmental and biotech sciences, economic and political interests, development policies, and regulatory innovation.
Call For Papers
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION 05 CONFERENCE: GLOBAL ‘STATE OF THE ART’ IN SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT/SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN. Organised by an advisory board, the O2 - global network of sustainable designers, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this conference will focus on the global ’state of the art’ in sustainable product/service development and design and will provide an update on worldwide developments. The event will analyse the obstacles and opportunities for sustainable product/service development and design. Papers are welcomed on topics such as product policy, product development processes, supply chain management, product-service-systems (PSS), education and training, tools and techniques, management systems, organisational dimensions, performance measurement and metrics, new business models, newly industrialised and ‘developing’ country perspectives, and case studies. For further information contact Professor Martin Charter, tel: + 44 (0) 1252 892772; fax: + 44 (0) 1252 892747; email: mcharter@surrart.ac.uk.