Greenpeace helps protect Argentinean reserve

Farmers and people of all ages from the indigenous Wichis people protested yesterday in Salta, North Argentina to stop the sale of a natural reserve that will destroy their way of life, and take away their livelihood as it represents their only economic support.

"This Natural Reserve is part of the decreasing 30 percent of forests that remains in our country. The expansion of GE Soya is the principal reason of loss of forests in Argentina. Here in Pizarro, the bulldozers have been clear-cutting everything up to the boundaries of this Reserve, and now they want the reserve itself. This natural reserve represents not only the home and the living for the indigenous people - Wichis- but also the remaining biodiversity of our environment," said Emiliano Ezcurra our campaigner in Argentina.

This demonstration comes a week after the respected science journal New Scientist published an in-depth feature detailing the destruction caused by the use of Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soya in Argentina.

The feature entitled 'Argentina's bitter harvest' catalogued how the agriculture of GE soya has had devastating effects on the country's agriculture and is creating an environmental crisis.

Between 1997 and 2002 farmers in Argentina planted the GE soya in over 11.6 million hectares of arable land, lured by the promises of higher crop yields and cheaper seeds. For a while the illusion worked as yields increased by 173 percent. However we can now see the real price of this unnatural monoculture - help us save other nations from a similar fate and boycott all GE products.

More Information:
Read our brief: Roundup Ready' Soya - what more can go wrong?

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