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With the end of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention (COP-8) on Friday, March 31, the NGO Greenpeace released its rankings for the conference.
According to Greenpeace, the worst delegations were from Canada, New Zealand and Australia and they each received the organization's traditional "Flat Ball Award." "Those delegations are getting the award because they are no more than puppets of the United States which is not even a party to the convention but pulls strings behind the scenes," explained Christoph Thies of Greenpeace. Brazil also came in for criticism from environmental groups for its "weak leadership as host to the conference." Although its overall rating of the COP-8 was that it was a failure, Greenpeace representatives declared that there were two small victories at the meeting, both attributed to the NGO Via Campesina (an international umbrella group in favor of land reform). "The prohibition of so-called terminator seeds and the inclusion of transgenic (genetically engineered) trees in the convention were both the result of pressure exerted by Via Campesina," said Greenpeace spokesperson, Paulo Adario, who coordinates its Amazon campaign. A prohibition on the use of terminator seeds was made by the COP in 2000 and renewed at the Curitiba meeting. As for transgenic trees, a work group of specialists was set up to examine the problem and present proposals for the next meeting (COP-9). Agência Brasil
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