Isabel López Noriega, Michael Halewood
Background The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Adopted in 2001 135 parties (134 countries + the EU) Objectives: “ the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security”
The multilateral system of access and benefit sharing • Facilitated access, compared to the bilateral systems inspired by the Convention on Biological Diversity • Sharing of the benefits arising from commercialization (obligatory when products are not available for further research and breeding; voluntary for the rest)
Article 15 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture “ The Contracting Parties recognize the importance to this Treaty of the ex situ collections of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in trust by the International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The Contracting Parties call upon the IARCs to sign agreements with the Governing Body with regard to such ex situ collections (…)”
CGIAR Centres’ use of the SMTA http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/index.php/mana The transfer of PGRFA under gement-mainmenu-433/policies-mainmenu-139 development: • shall be at the discretion of its developer, during the period of its development • shall be without prejudice to the right of the parties to attach additional conditions, relating to further product development, including, as appropriate, the payment of monetary consideration.
CGIAR Centres use the SMTA… For in trust and improved PGRFA (of species included and not included in Annex 1) For food/feed uses For the purposes of research, breeding and training
CGIAR Centres do not necessarily use the SMTA… For PGRFA from in trust collections or centres’ bred material to be used for non food/feed purposes For PGRFA from in trust collections or centres’ bred material to be used directly for cultivation For the transfer of centres’ bred material for commercialization For the transfer of PGRFA that were acquired subject to particular terms and conditions
CGIAR Centres’ acquisitions and transfers using the SMTA (2007-2009) Transfer of normal Transfers of PGRFA under Transfers of PGRFA under development Acquisitions Total transfers PGRFA development with additional conditions AfricaRice 1336 9995 48863 0 58858 Bioversity 76 841 0 92 841 CIAT 1286 16208 44154 0 60362 CIMMYT 18102 103666 138098 0 241764 CIP 47 4467 2092 25 6559 ICARDA 16958 62191 473557 0 535748 ICRAF 116 96 0 0 96 ICRISAT 2956 26024 55823 0 81847 IITA 1581 4736 1401 0 6137 ILRI 0 633 0 0 633 IRRI 11090 80499 96162 0 176661 Totals 53548 309356 860150 117 2029656
“PGRFA under development ”: SMTA + additional conditions Discussions under the way for the standardization of: Criteria for defining which PGRFA are “under development” Criteria for deciding when PGRFA is not under development anymore Additional terms and conditions (sometimes they come from original provider of the material to the CGIAR centre)
Examples of additional conditions requested by CGIAR Centres when transferring PGRFA under development Inform the Centre about how the material is used, including results and publications Recognize the origin of the material in further products Not to transfer material to third parties Inform the Centre about further recipients Come back to the Centre in case of commercialization of the PGRFA under development or a derived variety, in case a license from the centre is necessary Use the material exclusively in the context of particular collaborative projects
Times of change… Revision of the multilateral system of the Treaty: Questions under discussion: Perpetuity of monetary benefit-sharing obligations Conditions that would trigger obligatory payments Extension of PGRFA/Crops covered by the system Information about CGIAR centres’ transfers is useful for negotiators!
Recommend
More recommend
