• phase II - Expert Teaching Teams
• phase I - workshops to develop methods
• side events at the MOPs
• outreach

Conference Closes First Phase of GMO Guidelines Project

On January 10 and 11, 2005, scientists and policy makers from six continents gathered in chilly Zurich, Switzerland, for the final conference of the GMO Guidelines Project. The project was co-coordinated by Dr. Angelika Hilbeck of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Dr. David Andow of the University of Minnesota in the USA, and funded by a grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

The conference designed as a capstone for the first phase of the project, "gave the scientists involved a chance to see how all the pieces fit together, and how the sections evolved during the course of the three workshops", according to Hilbeck.

The approximately 100 attendees represented participants from each of the three workshops in Kenya, Brazil and Vietnam, the project advisory board, funding agencies, faculty and students from the Institute, and interested parties from around the world. For newcomers, it was an opportunity to see a glimpse of each project component and case study. For the regional groups and scientific section coordinators, it was a chance to savor the accomplishments of the project and reconnect with colleagues.

The two central goals of the project were to create scientifically rigorous risk assessment tools for developing countries that are contemplating the use of GMOs in their agricultural system, and to create a forum for scientific exchange among the developing country scientists involved in the project.

Katharina Jenny, advisory board member and representative for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation gave opening remarks, congratulating the project on past accomplishments and encouraging the expansion of capacity building and collaboration in the next project phase. Francois Pythoud, advisory board member and representative of the Swiss Agency for Environment, Forest and Landscape put the project in the context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the legal framework with which the project was designed to mesh.

The first day of the conference featured the scientists and three case studies from Kenya, Brazil, and Vietnam. Mathilda Okech, Gilbert Kibata, and Josephine Songa presented the case study of Bt maize in Kenya, highlighting the Problem Formulation and Options Assessment (PFOA) and Non-Target sections. The PFOA group designed a process by which a multi-stakeholder group could evaluate the options for reducing maize stemborer damage in Kenyan fields - including GM maize but also push-pull agriculture, a mixed cropping system that repels the stemborers from the productive part of the field and attracts them to the field margins.

The Kenya case study was recently published by CABI and is available for purchase on their website (www.cabi-publishing.org/bookshop). If you are in a developing country and are interested in receiving a complementary copy of the book, please contact evelyn.underwood@env.ethz.ch.

Deise Capalbo, Eliana Fontes, Ana Ciampi, and Celso Omoto presented the case study of Bt cotton in Brazil, highlighting the Gene Flow and Resistance Evolution and Management sections. Brazil is a center of diversity for the cotton genus, and gene flow a major concern. Ana Ciampi described extensive seed and leaf tissue sampling carried out since the project workshop in June 2003. This intensive effort will provide baseline information on the genetic diversity in cottons that is present in Brazil now, and provide a safety net in the event that genetic erosion occurs following the expansion of cotton cultivation or the introduction of new or engineered elite varieties of cotton.

Nguyen Van Uyen, Nguyen Van Tuat, and Tran Thi Cuc Hoa presented the case study of Bt cotton in Vietnam, highlighting the Non-Target and Transgene Expression and Locus Structure (TELS) sections. Vietnam ratified the Cartagena Protocol not long before the workshop in Vietnam in April, 2004, and is in the final stages of completing its biosafety law. Plans for follow-up research are being made.

On the second day of the conference, the scientific sections were presented in greater detail. Case studies and lessons learned were contrasted for the PFOA, TELS, Gene Flow, Non-Target, and Resistance Evolution and Management sections. All of the scientific sections have undergone significant development in the course of the three workshops.

Assembling all of the pieces of the project allowed each section to demonstrate the development of tools and evolution of ideas during the course of the three workshops. "We've now established tools for approaching risk assessment in each of the scientific sections," says Andow. "Applying the framework to the case studies has helped to refine each set of methods." While the framework will still be developed further, the effort of hundreds of scientists at the three workshops has created a set of methods that carries a significant amount of scientific weight.

The conference was closed with remarks and appreciation from co-coordinators Angelika Hilbeck and Dave Andow. They expressed their gratitude for all the hard work performed by the Core Group during the three-year duration of the project.

The co-coordinators and regional coordinators are currently working on follow-up activities in each of the case study countries. These activities are known as Phase II.

Contact information:

Co-coordinator: Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. angelika.hilbeck@env.ethz.ch

Co-coordinator: Dr. David Andow, University of Minnesota. dandow@umn.edu

Latin America Regional Coordinator: Dr. Eliana Fontes, EMBRAPA Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (Cenargen) eliana@cenargen.embrapa.br

Asia Regional Coordinator: Dr. Nguyen Van Tuat, National Institute for Plant Protection. tuat@hn.vnn.vn

Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology and lake Zurich

Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology