Frankenforests: GE Trees Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

By Dara Colwell, AlterNet. Posted August 2, 2007.

In China, over a million poplar trees have been planted since 2002 to combat deforestation. But the move has not been widely applauded by everyone. The poplars, which are genetically engineered, are China's first foray into the world of transgenic forestry -- or "frankenforests" -- and other countries are not far behind.

As the biotech industry continues to lay the groundwork for genetically engineered crops -- poorly tested, widely debated and yet plugged as a technological wonder -- a potentially greater threat to biodiversity has begun to emerge. Pushed forward by biotech and the multibillion-dollar timber industry, genetically engineered trees are the latest invention.

"The industry has tried very hard to keep it quiet, or tout the technology as benign and beneficial to the environment," says Anne Petermann, co-founder of the Global Justice Ecology Project, a nonprofit established to advance global justice through ecological awareness. "The technology is moving forward very quickly, outpacing regulations. There are no controls in place to properly address or assess the risks -- which are major."

GE trees are planted in monoculture forests, which look more like plantations, and pose serious risks to the ecosystem. Trees live decades or centuries longer than plants, and their seeds can travel hundreds of miles, increasing the likelihood of gene contamination to wild species. The technology was created to optimize the manufacturing process, but environmentalists worry that it will open an ecological Pandora's Box and threaten the health of the forests we depend on for survival.

The world is a test lab

GE forestry research is already alarmingly prevalent across the globe. The United States leads the world in research projects, with 150 tree test plots -- two-thirds of the world's known research areas -- and they are joined by Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Despite the prevelance of the practice, GE forestry has remained somewhat obscured by GE crops, which have raised more immediate health concerns, as forestry "doesn't seem to affect the daily shopping trip -- or at least, less visibly," according to Larry Lohmann, a researcher with U.K.-based Corner House, a nonprofit that fights for social and environmental justice.

"But the problems transgenic trees pose are just as severe. Whether it's endangering wild species or pollen drift, the fact is we're in danger of setting off a chain of events that's irreversible. We don't know what we're messing with," he says.

From the perspective of the timber industry, driven by commercial pressure and deforestation to "build" its own resources, the case for GE trees is clear-cut. Uniform, faster-growing species produce more paper or lumber in a shorter period of time, driving down costs. Faster-growing trees also produce greater biomass, which can potentially be converted into a second-generation biofuel -- an important financial incentive in the current gold rush for agrofuels. Biomass furthermore acts as a carbon sink, sucking carbon dioxide emissions from the air, which the industry claims is an environmental plus, though native forests actually absorb more. The industry's outlook is simple: The technology poses minimal risk with maximum return.

"The industry is looking for a way to make more money, damn the consequences. What's driving this is not environmental concern, but mass production -- you can't say that's environmentally friendly," says Lohmann.

Concerns over the technology's long-term impact are serious. "The forests are already under tremendous pressure from climate change and human interaction," says Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, co-founder of the London-based nonprofit science watchdog Eco-Nexus. Steinbrecher, also co-author of "Hungry Corporations: Transnational Biotech Companies Colonize the Food Chain," has a Ph.D. in molecular genetics.

"Compared to crops that have been cultivated for thousands of years, trees are 'wild.' If a GE trait enters a forest species, the implications could be absolutely horrendous. We could see the ecological system weaken and collapse. Without the forests, we're sunk."

Steinbrecher's fears resonate deeply with environmentalists. Given genetic science's infancy, which has been plagued repeatedly by controversy, biotech -- with its thrust towards profit -- has continued to promote its art as a magic bullet solution. But there's always the risk of misfire. And now that trees have been loaded into the barrel, environmentalists, those involved in forestry, indigenous peoples and scientists have worked to raise the alarm.

"Forests are crucial to us," says Alexander Evans, research director at the Forest Guild, which promotes responsible forestry in America, noting how they are one of the most valuable and little-understood ecosystems in the world. "When it comes to GE, the potential risks are not well understood, so why go into it? We're not into the quick-return model -- there are too many hidden costs. There's simply no reason to take the risk."

The risks, in fact, are numerous. Genetically modified trees have been engineered to exhibit unnatural traits such as herbicide tolerance, insecticide production, reduced lignin content, the substance that makes trees strong but must be removed to make paper, and finally, sterility.

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Dara Colwell is a freelance writer based in Amsterdam.

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