March 12, 14:00 - 17:30 Biosafety Seminar, organised by Government of Paraná, Ministry of the Environment of Brazil and Third World Network
"Towards the implementation of the precautionary principle in the cartagena protocol on biosafety: what can science and scientists do?"
Discussion of the attributes of the precautionary principle, the current process of risk assessment, and how a precautionary science can be applied to assess environmental and health risks of living modified organisms (LMO).Speakers: Jack Heinemann, New Zealand Institute of Gene Ecology, New Zealand, Hugh Lacey, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College, USA, Miguel Guerra, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil, Terje Traavik, Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, University of Tromsø, Norway
Museu Orcar Niemeyer, Rua Marechal Hermes, 999, Centro Cîvico, Curitiba

March 13 lunchtime: International Project on GMO Environmental Risk Assessment Methodologies - presentation of GM cotton assessment in Brazil
invitation      gmo-era project website     contact: evelyn.underwood at env.ethz.ch

15 March, lunchtime: Victims of of Agrobusiness speak out
a delegation ofVictims of Agribusiness from Paraguay, Argentina and Mexico will expose how their communities are affected by the expansion of GM soy monocultures, that now cover large parts of agricultural land in MERCOSUR countries. This has led not only to severe loss of (agro)biodiversity, but also threatens the livelihoods of many rural communities and their diverse food production systems. GRUPO de REFLEXION RURAL (Argentina), GRAIN and the Network for a GM Free Latin America (RALLT) have invited this delegation to Curitiba to expose the reality of large scale GM monocultures.