Ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15 and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in Montreal over 140 civil society organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas have issued a joint manifesto exposing alarming risks of environmental releases of genetically engineered gene drive organisms which could lead to irreversible ecological consequences and drive entire species into extinction.

Gene drives use new genetic engineering techniques such as CRISPR-Cas to forcibly spread new genetic information within the genome of populations and entire species of organisms in nature, including traits that can cause their extinction. The signatories of the manifesto are urging national governments at COP15 to resolve critical legal, environmental, biosafety and governance issues as well as fundamental ethical and cultural questions before considering any environmental release of gene drive organisms.

The call for a global moratorium is consistent with demands at previous occasions including at COP13 in Cancun and COP14 in Sharm El-Sheikh. “This controversy will not go away“, said Barbara Pilz, who coordinates the international Stop Gene Drives campaign. “We will continue to fight for a global moratorium on this pretentious concept of reprogramming and extincting entire species in nature.”

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