Having devastated the world's forests, the timber industry has now teamed up with biotechnology and chemical companies to manipulate nature in a brand new way: creating genetically engineered trees that are custom-tailored to their needs.

The traits closest to development and of most interest to the timber industry appear to be herbicide resistance and pest and disease resistance.

Threats from herbicide resistant GE tree plantations include toxification, damage to soils, increased reliance on chemicals, susceptibility to disease, poisoning of wildlife, and killing of beneficial insects. Should genes affecting herbicide resistant escape to wild plants, the most immediate “side effect” would be herbicide-resistant "weeds," requiring increasing applications of ever more toxic herbicides.

Threats from insect and disease resistant trees include the elimination of beneficial insects and creation of "super-pests"––insecticide-resistant insects which have few remaining natural predators. These trees also have a huge competitive advantage over their wild relatives and, should their genetic material escape, ecological havoc would result, as insect populations would be disrupted and engineered trees could take over an area.

Additionally, genetically modified viruses incorporated into disease resistant trees could cause the creation of new, more pathogenic viruses--leading to wholesale epidemics. Add this to GE tree plantations comprised of thousands of trees cloned from the same individual, and an obvious disaster looms.

In addition, according to The New Physiologist, a single pine has the ability to spread pollen up to 600 kilometers. This means one genetically altered pine could spread its engineered genes over as much as 1,130,400 square kilometers of land, infecting the native forests in that area. If this pollen contained the genes that mediate the secretion of the insecticide Bt, such an "escape" would lead to an ecological disaster.

Scientists argue that trees will be engineered to be sterile, which will insure no genetic escape. However, trees act in ways that are poorly understood, with genes starting or ceasing to function throughout the tree's life in response to a variety of environmental stresses. In Germany, a test plot of engineered aspen that were known to flower at 7 years of age were given a 5 year growing permit, with the hopes that harvest of the tree would occur before flowering to prevent gene transfer. However, one of the trees began to flower at age 3. In short, it is virtually impossible to prevent accidental gene transfer from genetically engineered trees.

GE Trees and Free Trade
Damage from GE tree plantations will be exacerbated by trade liberalization. An example of this is the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). The FTAA, which will strengthen and expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) throughout the entire Western Hemisphere (except for Cuba) includes the Advanced Tariff Liberalization Initiative, also called the Global Free Logging Agreement. The ATLI will eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in forest products. GE tree plantations are being targeted for the Global South, due to year round growing seasons and lax or non-existent restrictions, among other reasons. The FTAA will dismantle existing environmental regulations in Latin America, opening it up to dangerous and unproven technologies such as GE tree plantations. The ATLI will prevent other countries from prohibiting the import of such tainted goods.

NAFTA opened up Mexico to massive deforestation. In southeastern Mexico, corporations including Grupo Pulsar and Planfosur (a subsidiary of US-based Temple Inland) are establishing vast plantations of non-native African palm and eucalyptus, while experimenting with genetically engineered eucalyptus.

The forest protection, anti-genetic engineering, and anti-globalization movements have a tremendous opportunity to stop what could be the most significant threat to the world's native forests since the invention of the chainsaw. While research into genetically engineered trees continues to expand, and more test plots are being established, the marketing of GE tree products may still be years away. A concerted international effort, following on the heels of a very successful movement against genetically engineered foods, has tremendous potential to stop this threat before the damage is done. Investors, already nervous due to a volatile GE foods market, are likely to be quite susceptible to a powerful campaign against GE trees.

To join this global alliance against GE trees, or to get involved in the fight against the FTAA, contact Native Forest Network at (802) 863-0571 or nfnena@sover.net.

Anne Petermann is an interim GE Trees Campaigner for the Native Forest Network