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About the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is a research and advocacy organisation working towards food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa, with a focus on biosafety, seed systems and agricultural biodiversity. We are committed to dismantling inequalities and resisting corporate-industrial expansion in Africa’s food and agriculture systems.

Our Focus Areas

GM & Biosafety
Ac Bio Home Biosafety

Within networks of partner organisations we work towards the building of public awareness and capacity to respond to, and resist, the uptake and/or further expansion of first and now second GM technologies, such as gene drives or genome editing, in Africa.

Seed Sovereignty
Ac Bio Home Seeds

ACB’s seed sovereignty work seeks to resist commercial seed laws and policies that threaten smallholder farmers’ critical role in maintaining, adapting and reproducing agricultural biodiversity, and farmers’ rights associated with recognition of this role.

Corporate Expansion
Ac Bio Home Corporate

The ACB monitors and contests corporate expansion by conducting research and analysis, sharing information, and working with networks to build popular resistance, with a focus on agricultural input supply (seed, fertiliser, pesticides).

Our Approach

We have a long and respected track record of opposing the aggressive push of the Green Revolution on the African continent, and the national and regional institutional architecture driving this.

At the same time, we work with partners to deepen a shared understanding of, and realise transitions to, agroecological farming practices that provide an alternative to the corporate capture of African seed and food systems.

Trending

26 August 2025

Historic turning point for South Africa’s Pesticide Policy Framework: Department of Agriculture h...

Press release: UnPoison Network Stellenbosch, 26 August 2025 In a landmark moment for agricultural reform and environmental justice, the National Department of Agriculture convened a historic Colloquium on Pesticide Policy Framework last week, bringing together government departments, farmer associations, scientists, civil society, industry, labour, farmworkers, and human rights organisations in an unprecedented, multi-sectoral dialogue on […]

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28 August 2025

CVAB welcomes Burkina Faso’s decision to terminate “Target Malaria” project

Press Release Ouagadougou, August 22, 2025 Target Malaria is a research consortium led by Imperial College London, which receives core funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to apparently eradicate malaria in Africa. The first phase of its project in Burkina Faso has been a dismal failure, involving the release of GM mosquitoes. We […]

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11 September 2025

Farmers’ rights, farmer seed systems under threat by Enhancement of Multilateral System of Access...

ACB, as part of a broader collective, has submitted a letter to the African government officials who will be negotiating on proposals to amend the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) at its next Governing Body meeting in Lima, Peru, in November 2025. Thank you very much to those who […]

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