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GM Forest Trees – The Ultimate Threat

Genetically modified (GM) forest trees do not attract the same immediate health concerns as GM food crops. But in reality, they pose an even greater threat because they impact directly on natural forests that are essential for the survival of our planet. Dr.Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins.

GM trees are designed for large monoculture plantations anathema to the bio-diverse natural forest ecosystems. Local people’s names for industrial tree plantations are revealing. Eucalyptus is the "selfish tree", because eucalyptus plantations remove nutrients from the soil and consume so much water that farmers cannot grow rice in neighbouring fields. Mapuche Indigenous People in Chile refer to pine plantations as "planted soldiers", because they are green, in rows and advancing. In Brazil, tree plantations are "green deserts", and in South Africa, "green cancer". Throughout the Global South, organisations and networks are actively opposing industrial tree plantations on their land. GM trees will intensity both the problems of industrial plantations and the opposition from indigenous peoples.

A joint report by the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) and Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) says that the scientists claiming to "improve" trees by genetic modification are in reality working to "improve the profitability of the businesses" funding their research (http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/GMTrees/text.pdf). It continues:

But from a biological perspective there is no improvement whatsoever. Is a tree with less lignin better or worse than a normal one? It is clearly worse, given the resulting loss of structural strength which makes it susceptible to extensive damage during wind storms. Is a herbicide-resistance tree an "improvement"? It is not, for it allows extensive herbicide spraying that affects the soil on which it stands, at the same time as it destroys local flora and impacts on wildlife. Is a flowerless, fruitless and seedless tree of any use to living beings? It does not provide food to myriad species of insects, birds and [other] species that depend on these as food. Is a tree with insecticide properties an improvement? It is a dangerous hazard to many insects species, which are themselves part of larger food chains.