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General Campaigns and Projects

2022

Moratorium on Gene Drive Organisms

Our “Stop Gene Drives” campaign continues to inform civil society and decision makers about the risks and unanswered questions surrounding the environmental release of gene drive organisms. Gene drive technology has emerged as a new genetic technique of engineering living organisms however when released in nature, they can replace their natural counterparts until they’re eradicated, thus harming biodiversity, human health, agriculture and peace.
Handover of petition to EU ministers

During the first phase of this campaign in 2021, our members funded an opinion poll which highlighted that the majority of Europeans wanted to ban this specific technology. Combining education and online tools, we promoted what citizens expected from politicians in terms of protection of nature and the environment.

Our members were given the opportunity to send tweets, emails and personal messages to their representatives, drawing their attention to the implications of releasing any gene drive organisms into nature before we understand and know how to avoid the risks. In total, more than 35,000 mails and around 6,000 tweets have been sent to our ministers.

Over 300,000 European citizens signed the petition to call for a Moratorium on Gene Drive Organisms to give experts time to find out if Gene Drives are safe. WeMove Europe gGmbH, together with its partners, collected and delivered the signatures to environment and agriculture ministers of different EU countries ahead of the UN COP15 conference on biodiversity which took place in Montreal in December 2022.