Botswana Needs GMO Legislation

By Frederick Kebadiretse
Staff Writer | Monday February 22, 2010 00:00

Panellists at a budget review meeting organised by the Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) raised the issue last week.

Participants said with the influx of GMOs having increased significantly over the past few years, lawmakers should have long enacted a law governing the import and sale of GMOs.

They said GMOs have been scientifically proven to have some adverse effects on consumers and the environment, hence members of the public should know if a product is a GMO or natural. They proposed something along the model of halaal and non-halaal product labelling which is done at local retailers.

Inquiries by the Monitor revealed that a National Biosafety Framework (NBF) that included the Policy and Draft Bill for GMO legislation was completed in 2004. A workshop on the framework was held in Sebele in 2006 after which a cabinet memo was consolidated and submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to the Acting Director in the Department of Agricultural Research, Balibi Makoba, the Ministry had to submit the consolidated memo and Biosafety Draft Bill for consideration by the Cabinet, but this never happened.

Makoba said Botswana recognises that modern biotechnology promises improvement of human well-being and economic advancement of the country. At the same time, Botswana also recognises the potential risks and adverse effects of modern biotechnology and thus the need to ensure its safe application.

'Biosafety legislation is necessary to regulate the use and application of biotechnology and that it is used in an equitable and beneficial manner for overall socio-economic development and protection of biodiversity,' she said.

Botswana has signed the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Makoba said.

In accordance with Article 11 of the Protocol, Botswana has the mandate of ensuring that all trans-boundary movements of GMOs intended for direct use, feeding or processing has to be accompanied by documentation with information to facilitate identification.

However, Makoba said, the NBF - which is a tool for the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol - is not yet operational, and in the absence of legislation to regulate GMOs, Botswana has adopted a precautionary principle.