http://www.choike.org a portal on Southern civil societies http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/496.html The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity recognized the unique risks that genetically engineered organisms pose to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity when they adopted the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. A necessary component of a global biosafety regime is rules and procedures on liability and redress. The Fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is set to conclude negotiations on liability and redress when it meets in Bonn, 12-16 May. http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6453.html Certification alone cannot guarantee that agrofuels are being produced sustainably. Creating sustainable levels of demand is the only way of guaranteeing sustainable production. The discussion of biofuels in South America may be helpful in the African context. Attempts to use certification schemes to reduce widespread environmental and social problems caused by growing crops for fuels and animal feed are bound to fail, according to a new report released today by Friends of the Earth groups. http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/693.html In a new report tracking genetically modified contamination worldwide, Greenpeace International and GeneWatch found 39 new instances of crop contamination in 23 countries over the past year. Most of the contamination incidences involved staple crops such as rice and maize, but also included soy, cotton, canola, papaya and fish. The ‘next generation’ of GM crops, designed to produce drugs or industrial products such as plastics, are now being widely grown in experimental trials, with possible serious implications for human health should they contaminate the food chain. http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/4108.html More than 10 years have passed since GMOs were first commercialised in the world, yet out of more than 50 African countries, only South Africa has explicitly taken biosafety decisions to authorise the commercial cultivation and importation of GMOs for the purposes of food, feed and processing.