IPS World News / By Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON, May 4 (IPS) -- Following the outcries against genetically
engineered crops, environmental groups are beginning to take aim at plans
underway to alter the genes of trees grown for pulp and paper products.
While forest-related biotech research is still in its infancy compared
with that taking place in agriculture, field trials of GM trees have
proliferated around the world during the second half of the 1990s.
Now environmentalists are starting to pay attention to research links made
between large biotechnology companies and the paper and pulp industry to
develop faster growing trees that could be designed to work together with
herbicides.
Ecologists worry that the drive for profit is causing these companies to
overlook the overall impact genetically modified trees could have on the
complex workings of ecosystems.
The economic incentive for these companies to produce trees more quickly
cannot be overemphasised, say groups which estimate the value of the
world's total annual timber harvest is in excess of 400 billion dollars.
Environmentalists fear, for example, that new GM traits -- such as herbicide resistance -- could possibly spread to other trees through
cross fertilisation. This could cause certain trees to take over
ecosystems and cause other native species to go extinct.
"We feel that this is a very dangerous trend in industrial forestry and a
real threat to bio-diversity, forest ecosystems and the planet," says
Patrick Reinsborough, outreach co-ordinator for the California-based
Rainforest Action Network.
Last April, Monsanto Company (expected to merge with Pharmacia Upjohn),
hooked up with International Paper, Westvaco Corporation (both based in
New York) and the New Zealand -- based Fletcher Challenge Forests to form
a forestry biotechnology joint venture.
The four companies will contribute 60 million dollars over five years to
produce and market tree seedlings that they say will improve forest health
and productivity.
Researchers will focus on altering the genetic traits of tree species
commonly planted by the forest industry worldwide, such as eucalyptus,
poplar, radiata pine, loblolly pine and sweetgum trees, say the companies.
Besides increasing the growth rates of tree, they plan to also focus on
making these trees tolerant to certain herbicides, much like Monsanto's
'Round-up Ready' soy beans which are genetically designed to survive
sprayings of an herbicide it manufactures.
They say they will also aim to improve the fibre quality and uniformity to
increase efficiency in paper and wood products manufacturing processes.
"Increasing the productivity of tree plantations safely and sustainably
will help meet the world's wood and fibre needs without increasing
pressure on native forests," says a statement released by Westvaco.
But environmental groups say that just like biologically modified corn and
soy, not all the possible impacts of genetically altering trees have been
adequately studied and tested.
"The use of genetically engineered trees intensifies the many concerns
about the use of genetically engineered crops," says Rebecca Goldburg, a
senior scientist with Environmental Defense, a Washington-based group
critical of the technology.
Since trees grown uniformly on plantations for paper and pulp are often
nearby natural native forests, environmentalists fear that cross
pollination will be very likely.
Goldburg says that pollen from trees are known to travel great distances
by the wind.
"Buffer zones" of 50 or so metres -- intended to shield traditional crops and native trees from genetically modified pollen -- as advocated by biotech companies are inadequate given that pollen from some pine trees have been known to travel hundreds of kilometres, she says.
One of the proposed gene altering strategies to increase tree growth rates
involves shutting off the tree's ability to reproduce so that all the
organism's energy goes towards development instead of fertility. If traits
affecting reproduction escape to wild trees whole species could be
jeopardised, warn groups.
"The risks of genetic pollution in our remaining native forests are
irreversible and potentially one of the greatest threats to bio-diversity
ever," says Mick Petrie, a campaigner with the Native Forest
Network (NFN), an advocacy group based in the state of Vermont.
According to NFN, companies can now alter trees to substantially reduce
lignin, a component of the cell walls in trees and other plants that is
essential for the structure of the plant, aiding in strength and vascular
functions.
Pulp and paper companies must remove the lignin from wood pulp to make
paper. But now researchers have devised a way to genetically disrupt a
tree's production of lignin.
"The actual processes that form lignin are poorly understood, and how
diminished production of essential enzymes within may affect other
functions is unknown," says NFN, in a recent newsletter to its members.
Because lignin is essential to a tree's strength, lowering lignin could
adversely affect a tree's ability to withstand wind without damage, says
the group.
"Escape of low-lignin genes into the wild is a significant worry, and
could have devastating consequences on native forests," it says.The
altering of lignin production underlies that more research is required to
fill gaps in the understanding of tree biology and ecology, say
environmentalists.
Trees are very complex organisms. Recent studies, for example, revealed
that some trees, when attacked by caterpillars, release a chemical warning
to surrounding trees, which alter the chemical structure of their leaves
to be unappealing to the caterpillars.
"How will altering gene codes affect these and other little understood behaviours?" asks NFN.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that trees -- unlike crops -- can take
up to hundreds of years to fully mature and are therefore subject to a
much wider range of environmental stresses, and these stresses can in turn
affect the behaviour of the modified genome.
"At present, nobody can confidently quantify the environmental risks
surrounding genetically modified trees," the group says in a report on
genetically modified trees published last year.
Given all of the unknowns, WWF is urging governments to declare a
moratorium on the commercial release of GM trees and encouraging the
industrial forest sector to do the same voluntarily.
While calling for government regulators of biotechnology to better consult with environmental organisations, WWF is also prodding the paper and biotechnology industries to redesign field trials to examine broader environmental impacts.
"Any decision as to whether biotechnology has a role in commercial forestry should only be made once the risks involved are properly identified and quantified," says WWF.
(posted without permission)
