Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 6820 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM Breeders’ associations at several occasions pointed out the need to address a number of concerns for breeders with regard to the national implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. They felt that a legal framework on access and benefit-sharing should recognize and be adapted to the specificities of plant breeding, thereby avoiding unclear provisions on access and benefit-sharing leading to lack of legal certainty, excessive administrative burdens, or uncertainty regarding due diligence obligations of breeders under various compliance regimes. GLOBAL COUNTRY INTERDEPENDENCY Countries strongly depend on crops whose genetic diversity largely originates from outside their borders. Countries also need non-indigenous genetic resources in their production systems. If we acknowledge variation across countries and across food supply and production metrics in the degree of dependence on foreign plant genetic resources, the results clearly demonstrate extensive interdependence worldwide, in all regions and on all continents, including in countries located in areas of high indigenous crop diversity. National dependence on non- indigenous crops has increased over the past 50 years as countries’ food systems have become more diverse and more homogeneous worldw ide. Dependence is positively correlated with diversity in food systems and with national gross domestic product. Diversity within a field or production system enhances stability in overall food production. Farmers can hedge their bets about the biotic and abiotic challenges of the coming growing season by planting several varieties. A farmer in Papua New Guinea, for example, can plant up to 50 varieties of sweet potatoes in a field. Accelerating climate change makes it even more pressing to conserve, exchange, use and further develop ancestral crops to produce new varieties that are not only more productive but also more resistant to shocks such as droughts, floods, pests and diseases. In the future many parts of the world will need crops that can survive with less water. THE NEED FOR EXCHANGE RULES Because of the dependency on genetic resources and the importance of such resources for breeding, research and food security, governments agreed on a common set of exchange rules and mechanisms and included them in a Treaty that took seven years of negotiations and was adopted by the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in November 2001. The Treaty, which is the only binding international agreement specifically dealing with the sustainable management of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, has its own governing body and rules that allow its 140 contracting parties to discuss policy and governance issues related to implementation. Contracting parties vow to strengthen biological diversity research and plant breeding efforts to develop varieties that are particularly adapted to social, economic and ecological conditions, including in marginal areas; to broaden the genetic base of crops; and to increase the range of genetic diversity that is available to farmers. The Treaty calls for the expanded use of locally produced crops and the wider use of a diversity of varieties. THE GLOBAL GENE POOL One of the early achievements of the Treaty was the setting up of a Multilateral System both to facilitate access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and to share, in a fair and equitable way, the benefits arising from the utilization of such resources on a complementary and mutually reinforcing basis. Multilateral in this context means that a global pool of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture are shared and managed jointly by all contracting parties to the Treaty. The Standard Material Transfer Agreement (sMTA), which has been multilaterally agreed upon as the standard private law contract to be used for the exchange of material from the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing (MLS), reconciles the global nature of plant genetic resources. For example, a user in France who wants to obtain plant genetic material from the MLS that is held in a seed bank in Brazil for an agricultural purpose can use the sMTA, rather than having to embark on lengthy negotiations of a case-specific new contract with Brazil. The agreement also addresses the difference between raw and improved plant genetic material, including domesticated crops. Although the Treaty covers all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, only 64 crops, which are listed in Annex I to the Treaty, were agreed upon by the contracting parties of the Treaty as subject to the Multilateral System. Accessions of those 64 crops are available for facilitated exchange when they are under the management and control of the contracting parties and in the public domain. In an effort to further enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System, a Working Group was tasked by the Governing Photo courtesy FAO ITPGRFA