The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was opened for signatures on 5 June 1992 at the United Nations Conference (UNCED) on Environment and Development (the Rio “Earth Summit”) and entered into force on 29 December 1993 as a legally binding global treaty which Australia signed.

The CBD is said to be “inspired by the world community’s growing commitment to sustainable development.” the result of UNEP ad hoc intergovernmental workshops starting in 1988, including a sub-workshop on biotechnology as “a valuable contribution to resource conservation and sustainable development.”

At it’s core, the Biodiversity Convention’s “true mission was capturing and using biodiversity for the sake of the biotechnology industry,” and “protecting the pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology industries”. [1, 2]

“[T]he convention implicitly equates the diversity of life – animals and plants – to the diversity of genetic codes, for which read genetic resources. By doing so, diversity becomes something modern science can manipulate.” [3, 4]

This convention treaty sets up the justification for classifying, mapping and cataloguing nature down to it’s genetic code using emerging technologies from that time.

Starting with the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI), justified as “taxonomy is essential to implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity,”

  • 1986 – US DOE Office of Science launched the Human Genome Project, justified to help “Hiroshoma” victims, but really because biology now had new tools!
  • 1990 Human Genome Project oficially begins
  • 1990 PhyloCode theoretical foundation
  • 2000 PhyloCode first draft includes “Provisions for Hybrids”
  • 2003 DNA barcoding was conceived,
  • 2004 International Phylogenetic Nomenclature meetings began
  • 2008 The International Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL) began

Two scientists who attended the conference wrote pg 42 of the book The Earth Brokers:

“The Convention implicitly equates the diversity of life – animals and plants to the diversity of genetic codes. By doing so, diversity becomes something modern science can manipulate. It promotes biotechnology as being ‘essential for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” – WATCH