Biosafety Testing Methodologies for Transgenic Plants

• Forschungsstelle: DEZA
• Projektnummer: 7f-01976.02
• Projekttitel Englisch: Biosafety Testing Methodologies for Transgenic Plants

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Cartagena Protocol
Genetically modified plants (GMO's)
Environmental risk assessment (ERA)
tool and guidelines
Brazil
Vietnam
Kenya
need assessement
public sector scientists
IOBC

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

There is wide recognition that the regulatory and scientific capacity for conducting risk assessments of GMOs needs to be strengthened in most developing countries. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of Living Modified Organisms under the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) requires that parties cooperate in the development and/or strengthening of human resources and institutional capacities in biosafety. The project works in three focal countries, Brazil, Kenya and Vietnam, all of which have expressed the need for resources and capacity for environmental risk assessment, and which can act as centers of expertise for their regions.

http://www.gmoera.umn.edu/index.html

Projektziele (Englisch)

The goal of the project is to develop scientific methodologies for the environmental risk assessment of transgenic plants (referred to in the proposal as GMO-ERA). The two central goals for Phase II are 1) to enable the scientists from the focal developing countries to develop and implement independently the environmental risk assessment models that have been jointly developed by the project, including contributing to the regulatory process, and 2) to expand and generalize the use of project products to neighbouring developing countries. The project targets scientists involved in the regulatory process or providing consultation for regulators, scientists generating ERA data, and government regulators.

Abstract (Englisch)

In Phase 1(01.01.02-30.06.05), the project developed methodologies for scientific data collection in support of GMO-ERA and tested them in three project workshops in Kenya, Brazil, and Vietnam, focused on a relevant and current case study crop in each country. This created a focal point for capacity building and collaboration in each country. Each workshop has or will result in an internationally peer-reviewed book volume by CABI Publishers with funding by the GEF STAP and SDC.
Phase 2 (01.05.05 - 31.12.07) of the project will develop teaching tools for the implementation of the developed methodologies in research and regulation. These tools will be consolidated by training scientists involved in the regulatory process in Brazil and Vietnam. In order to achieve this, the main objectives for Phase 2 are:
1) regional capacity building: building expert training teams in Brazil and Vietnam who can train their regulators, consensus and improved planning of GMO-ERA in East Africa, teaching tools suitable for each region, improving GMO-ERA through new linkages and partnerships, and;
2) PFOA tool development and implementation in Brazil in cooperation with Embrapa;
3) broad-based capacity building and stakeholder involvement, including regulatory policy makers, private sector scientists, and civil society organizations.