The recent grants highlights

• Movimiento Agrario y Popular (Paraguay): fighting for land, health and food sovereignty
• Report on the nuclear lobby in Brussels
• Campaign against the Ilisu Dam
• GMO-free Romania
• Biosafety in Russia

• Report on the nuclear lobby in Brussels

  The following report on the nuclear lobby in Brussels was recently prepared by our grantee "Lobbycontrol". The report is in German, at the end is a summery in English. Please download or read more:
  50-years-euratom.pdf

  
  
  

• Campaign against the Ilisu Dam

  The 1,200 MW Ilisu dam project is planned on the Tigris river in Southeast Turkey. It is a region mainly populated by ethnic Kurds and human rights violations and restrictions to freedom of expression by the Turkish state are common here. Ilisu is Turkey's largest dam project and will create a 313 km2 reservoir. Some 78,000 people will be displaced and the ancient town of Hasankeyf will be submerged as well as hundreds of unexplored archaeological sites. Hasankeyf is a national monument protected by Turkish laws which prohibit any infrastructure activities.  In Turkey, two court cases are questioning the legality of the project on the grounds that the protected status of Hasankeyf has never been lifted. Another case has been filed with the European Court of Human Rights. International law experts also warn that the lack of consultation with  neighboring countries (Syria, Iraq) is a breach of international water law.
  
  Nonetheless, in March 2007, Export Credit Agencies from Austria, Germany and Switzerland approved guarantees worth half a billion Euro for the project. The ECAs tied 150 conditions to their approval which Turkey has, however, not made legally binding. On August 15th, 2007 a bank consortium of Société Générale, Bank Austria Creditanstalt (affiliate of UniCredit Group) and Germany's DekaBank signed contracts with the Turkish authorities to provide loans for the dam.
  
  Over the past year, grassroots has awarded two grants to the "Stop Ilisu Campaign". The monitoring reports by the "Stop Ilisu Campaign" have created immense pressure on the export credit agencies as the it is becoming increasingly clear that the Turkish authorities are ignoring the conditions under which the ECAs awarded their guarantees. Grassroots has also helped support court cases against the project as well as public campaigning work in Germany and Austria. In March 2007, German and Kurdish activists hung a banner with a picture of Hasankeyf  over the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In October, Austrian and Kurdish activists held protest actions in front of the Bank Austria Art Forum under the slogan "Supporting Art - Drowning Culture". In November, the NGO WEED organized protest actions against the DekaBank in 10 German cities.
  
  For more information: www.stopilisu.com

  
  
  

• GMO-free Romania

  Romania with close to 15 million hectares has the second largest agricultural area after France. Therefore, the question of genetic engineering and its application in these areas is of major significance for the other European Union countries as well.

  The General Situation after EU-Accession

  Romania’s entry into the EU abruptly changed the legal situation with regard to genetic engineering. For a long time, Romania was considered the largest area under genetically engineered plant cultivation: until one year before Romania’s entry into the EU, approximately 136.700 hectares were planted with Round-up-ready soy, which translated into about 75 per cent of the entire soy production in Romania. As this kind of plant is not permitted within the EU, its cultivation was immediately prohibited when Romania entered the Union, without any transitional period whatsoever. However, this does not mean that these plants have disappeared from the fields. Some of the genetically-modified seeds remain in the soil, thus assuring a considerable amount of soy harvest contamination. Viewed this way, Romania represents a test case if and to what extent a decontamination of areas once planted with genetically modified plants is possible – and how long this process would take.

  Conversely, entry into the EU has permitted Romanian farmers to cultivate Mon810 corn and BT corn, both of which have been licensed in the meantime. Thus the problem has simply shifted from one plant to another. Simultaneously it is becoming more virulent as corn-growing areas in Romania are significantly more extensive than those used for soy production. 3 million hectares have been planted with (yet) genetically unmodified corn. The food production sector has a large number of corn-processing plants. It remains to be seen if two separate commodity flows for corn cultivation and processing can actually be set up (in case an appreciable amount of GMO corn will be grown). To begin with, no applicable infrastructure is in existence as of now. So far, neither the EU laws concerning labeling nor the monitoring regulations have been implemented, while no independent EU-certified test labs have been set up.

  GMO-free Romania

  Based on this, the grassroots foundation started funding various projects by the Romanian National Federation of Organic Farmers, headed by Dan Craioveanu (in cooperation with the GMO Information Center – InfOMG). Starting in 2005, in addition to political lobbying on community and regional levels, the main project focus has been on efforts of establishing GMO-free cultivation zones. Thus, in the spring of 2006 they succeeded in securing the first GMO-free region of Romania, which has grown to include 14 communities that have declared themselves “GMO-free”.
  
  

  The communities thus pledge

  ·      no cultivation of genetically-modified plants on community fields.

  ·      Use of public discussion forums and educational measures in order to convince other farmers and landowners to keep their fields free from genetically engineered plants.

  ·      Concerted efforts to inform their fellow-citizens and consumers about the risks involved in genetic engineering.

  ·      Application of national platforms to ensure future legal protection of GMO-free agriculture.

  Several closed meetings with local administrations and mayors as well as public meetings took place before a pertinent declaration was signed. Following the declaration, information posters were openly displayed for the public, while additionally, all state agricultural extension services were informed.

  These activities have been extended and now also include four regions of Romania where traditional agriculture and seed propagation are still extensively practiced. In a concerted effort, local NGOs were included in the negotiations in order to establish contact with mayors and the public.

  In addition to regions with preponderantly small-scale farming operations, one region has been won over that had been courted by the genetic engineering industry due to its suitability for extensive corn cultivation (Valcea Region).

  Another important precedence was set at Sinca Noua community. This community is very open-minded toward organic agriculture. 90 out of a total of 300 agricultural outfits have been certified organic, while more are in transition. Following a lecture by Dan Craioveanu at a community meeting, the mayor and town council decided pass a law prohibiting cultivation of GMO plants on public land (i.e. not just to speak out in favor of a GMO-free region) in order to save organic growers from contamination. Although in Romania – as is the case in the EU – it is not permissible to pass laws prohibiting cultivation of approved genetically modified hybrids, applying divers protective regulations passed in Romania, allows regions with a sizeable number of organic growers to circumvent these rules and keep these communities de facto GMO-free via special township ordinances. As Romania has numerous regions banking on organic agriculture and eco-tourism, this path might serve as a model for other regions.

  GMO Free Zone Sign – entrance Nasaud city	Sinca Noua - traditional field fertilization	Meeting with 30 local authorities from the Bistrita Nasaud County – 25th of January 2006

  
  
  Contact:

  Dan Craioveanu, Clubul Ecologic Transsilvana (member of the National Federation of Organic Farmers), E-mail: dan@ngo.ro

• Biosafety in Russia

  Until 2007, approximately half of the projects sponsored by the grassroots foundation in Central and Eastern Europe have been implemented in Russia and the former Soviet Republics (CIS).

  In order to better coordinate these divers activities, a strategic workshop, funded by the foundation, was held in Moscow in April of 2004 which culminated in the foundation of a new action and communication network: the “CIS Alliance for Biosafety”.

  CIS-Alliance for Biosafety

  The Alliance is an informal coalition of NGOs and individuals involved in anti-GM0 activities and in promoting alternative ways of agriculture in CIS areas. The goals of the Alliance are:

  ·      Creation and promotion of GMO-free zones in the regions;

  ·      Assistance in the creation of efficient biosafety systems;

  ·      Assistance in the introduction of organic farming;

  ·      Lobbying to ban GMOs in baby food;

  ·      Protection of consumer rights to choose (implementation of labeling law);

  ·      Lobbying for CIS civil society interests at both national and international levels.

  So far 21 organizations from nine different countries have joined the Alliance: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Transnistria, Russia, Tajikistan and the Ukraine. Most of these groups have conducted projects funded by the grassroots foundation.

   

  The Alliance’s activities are essentially geared toward public relations efforts. For this purpose an internet portal has been established which up till now has been the only Russian-language website dealing with genetic engineering (www.biosafety.ru); as of the middle of 2007, an English version has been added. In addition to this website, the Alliance’s Moscow office has been dispatching two Newsletters on a regular basis: one directed to Alliance partners and other NGOs critically disposed toward genetic engineering, and the other one for journalists only.

  The Biosafety website is both the most important and most extensive source of information for late-breaking news topics and background material on genetic engineering in Russia (with additional international perspectives), and has also been gaining in importance as an active consumer protection tool. As of 2006 the website has been featuring constantly updated lists of:

  ·      Food production and pharmaceutical companies in violation of human rights – as defined by the Global Exchange Rating.

  ·      Produce for food production containing GMOs as well as a list of companies that deal in these.

  ·      An extensive dossier on biotech companies like Syngenta and their activities in Russia.

  Last year a new section on „GMO-free zones“ was added. Most of the groups sponsored by the grassroots foundation in the past years strive toward making their regions GMO-free by utilizing political lobbying as well as press and public relations efforts for their goals. Activities centered at Moscow, the capital, were of special symbolic value.

  GMO-free Moscow

  Several test series yielded the results that approximately a third of all soy-based food items offered for sale in Moscow contain considerable amounts of GMO without any reference being made on the labels. Food producers prefer to pay small fines, rather than implementing the labeling regulations through extensive incoming goods control systems. In December of 2005, the Moscow administration yielding to pressure from environmentalists and consumer advocates made preliminary suggestions on how to keep Moscow GMO-free in the future. However, officials never followed up this first initiative; therefore, the second Moscow workshop of the Alliance in April of 2006 drafted an open letter to the mayor of Moscow initiating an Alliance campaign to continue this process. This letter and the ensuing discussions between the Alliance and administration representatives led to several laws having been introduced since the summer of 2006, restricting GMO practices in Moscow.

  The law „On Food Safety in Moscow“ promulgated in July of 2006 and tightened in November, stipulates:

  ·      That municipal agricultural holdings refrain from cultivating genetically modified plants, even in (as yet unheard of) cases of responsible state authorities permitting commercial use of GMO organisms.

  ·      That no public funds may be used for purchasing genetically modified food (this applies to Moscow public facilities like schools, orphanages, hospitals, and public administration cafeterias, etc.)

  ·      That compliance with existing labeling regulations will be more stringently checked in Moscow than before, while penalties for violation of these regulations will be increased.

  ·      That all Moscow schools and nursery schools are prohibited from using food products that have been genetically altered.

  In February of 2007, yet another law was introduced in Moscow regulating possible use of voluntary GMO-free labels. The regulation provides for food producers and wholesalers having their products tested for the absence of GMOs at a certified municipal laboratory, which would bestow a “GMO-free label” in case of positive testing. Food bearing this label has been available in Moscow as of July 1, 2007. So far 30 companies with more than 100 brands among them have received the label, while another 100 companies submitted relevant applications within weeks of this date.

  If the „GMO-free Moscow“ project continues in this successful vein, other cities and regions of Russia and their contiguous states might follow suit. The Moscow-based groups of the alliance (the Eremurus Club and the International Socio Ecological Union) have played a significant role in the success of the campaign, while assuring that similar activities in the regions and states of other alliance partners will be initiated and implemented.
  
  
  

  Coordinator of the CIS alliance is Victoria Kopeykina

  CIS Alliance for Biosafety, eremurus@mtu-net.ru or biosafety_ru@yahoo.com