United Nations AHTEG report on GURTs: Some conclusions
The “Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group report on the potential impacts of genetic use restriction technologies on smallholder farmers, indigenous and local communities” (AHTEG report)
found that the potential negative effects of GURTS (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies or Terminator) far outweigh the positive impacts thus requiring the ongoing implementation of the precautionary principle to insure the rights, safety, and food security of Indigenous and local communities are not threatened.
The AHTEG report found that GURTs [Terminator] may have negative impacts on Indigenous peoples, including (among others):
1) May reduce and limit traditional seed exchange practices;
2) May reduce the knowledge and local innovation capacity of local and indigenous communities for crop improvement, threatening local food security;
3) Could precipitate the loss of local knowledge, reduce or negatively affect local agrobiodiversity, and result in a deterioration of indigenous knowledge systems;
4) Could displace traditional farming systems and the social, cultural and spiritual dimensions associated with them;
5) May cause seed dependency or crop failure through the potential misuse of unintentional use of GURTs seeds;
6) Could negatively and irreversibly create changes in the environment caused by geneflow or other problems with environmental containment; and
7) The use of GURTs as a form of biological intellectual property protection could facilitate the appropriation and enclosure of some elements of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources in a permanent and irreversible manner.
The AHTEG report (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/6) can be seen at www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=sbstta-09&tab=1