Pambazuka News 499: New technologies and the threat to sovereignty in Africa

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Synthetic biology – the design and engineering of biological components that can be used to construct a variety of biological systems – is a hot scientific topic. But with enormous implications for human health, Gareth Jones and Mariam Mayet ask when the very real ethical concerns associated with the technology will be debated.

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New mapping technologies make it easier to collect data on biodiversity, making biopiracy easier and taking intellectual property out of the hands of indigenous communities. ‘New forms of biopiracy and new strategies for biomass control may mean that the realisation of rights, benefits and justice for indigenous peoples are receding,’ Pat Mooney writes.

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Watch out for the new biomass economy driven by large biotech, chemical, forestry and agribusiness companies, says Jim Thomas. The new biomassters are on a global looting spree of the world’s natural resources to feed the consumption and capital accumulation of the industrialised North.

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Using Norway-based Green Resources Ltd’s plantations as a case study, Khadija Sharife looks at whether clean development mechanism projects like those undertaken by Green Resources in East Africa can actually bring benefits to people on the ground.

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‘The funding of climate change adaptation and mitigation-oriented programmes in Africa has opened up new forms of resource imperialism, extractive investment and land grabbing opportunities, in particular for European and Chinese companies,’ writes Blessing Karumbidza. Land-intensive projects negatively affect the livelihoods of people who rely on land for food and other resources. The case of Idete village in Tanzania, the site of a plantation by Norway-based Green Resources AS, is an exampl...read more

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