On 'Biodiversity Day', members and supporters of Via Campesina held a banner protest during the official celebrations at the CBD Conference, following a message by UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon which was read out by the Programme Officer of the Secretariat of the CBD. The banners read "No Agrodiversity Without Farmers" and "Nature for People, Not for business." Earlier in the day, a lunch sponsored by agribusiness was disrupted by a 'party' where "agro-industrialists" congratulated each other for their excellent job at monopolising farm seeds and destroying biodiversity.

See here for more information and photos:  http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/connections.php?ID=133

Throughout the past two weeks, social movements, including Via Campesina, and activist networks have been protesting against corporations using the biodiversity negotiations to increase their control over natural resources. There have been protests against against biopiracy, the commodification of nature, against agrofuels and genetic engineering. See here for more:  http://biotech.indymedia.org/

Photos by Orin Langelle, GFC/GJEP