(Video interviews below)
Santiago, Chile–Members of the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees from around the world are gathered in Chile for two weeks to investigate the impacts of industrial tree plantations and the potential future impacts of genetically engineered tree plantations–including increasingly severe wildfires, expanding desertification, toxic contamination, and land grabs from Indigenous and forest dependent communities.
(left to right) Ivonet Gonçalves of CEPEDES, Lizzie Diaz from the World Rainforest Movement, Lucio Cuenca from OLCA, man signing paper Jorge Alberto Meza Robeyo is the primary forester officer of the Latin American Regional Office of FAO, Hivy Ortiz from FAO.
The group will meet with students, Indigenous and rural communities, human rights and environmental organizations around Chile to strategize ways to ensure GE trees are not commercially released on a large scale.
This will include protests against the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) bi-annual Tree Biotechnology conference which will take place in early June in Concepción, Chile. This same conference was disrupted for five days in 2013 in Asheville, NC during protests against GE trees.
The delegation will include a daily blog of video, writing and professional photographs.