London

Growing knowledge: the scheme could help farmers learn how to handle transgenic crops. Credit: Z. MATHEWS/TOPHAM PICTUREPOINT/UNEP

A scheme launched last week will help up to 100 of the world's poorest nations to obtain basic technical knowledge about genetically modified crops.

The US$38-million scheme, unveiled in Nairobi on 16 January by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is designed to help the countries protect their interests more effectively in negotiations with agricultural suppliers, the food industry and drug companies.

Advocates of the scheme say it will help to conserve biodiversity and foster economic development. But critics argue that the money will not go very far and that the increased knowledge may confuse countries about the risks of transgenic technology.

The three-year programme will centre on “building capacity for assessing risks, establishing adequate information systems and developing expert human resources in the field of biosafety”, says Christopher Briggs, manager of the project.

But with funds of only around US$400,000 per country — provided by the Global Environment Facility, a joint venture of the United Nations and the World Bank — Briggs concedes that this is just a “first step”. Follow-up funds of up to $1.4 million will be available to countries that create the necessary administration, he says.

The initiative follows a trial scheme with several developing countries. In one of them, Namibia, officials report that the money will eventually enable local scientists to test for transgenic crops independently.

But the project's small scale makes it “like offering swimming lessons to people in the Sahara”, says Calestous Juma, director of the Science, Technology and Innovation Program at Harvard University, which focuses on the role of research in developing countries. He fears that resources may be diverted “from areas where the risks are known to areas where they are still being debated”.

Participation in the scheme should allow countries to adhere to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an international agreement on approaches to agricultural biotechnology (see Nature 403, 473–474; 2000). Under the protocol, exporters must identify genetically modified crops so that importers can judge the risks associated with them. The protocol comes into force when 50 countries ratify it. Only 10 have ratified it so far, but the UNEP programme is expected to encourage others to do so.

→ http://www.unep.ch/biosafety