Rome, Italy
July 21, 2006
Source:
The Global Crop Diversity
Trust
The
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture may still have a few sharp edges. It’s not the
prettiest creature. And those who worked on it over the years
have certainly lost a lot of their hair. But, the Treaty is now
decidedly REAL.
Efforts to
achieve an international treaty addressing the conservation and
exchange of plant genetic resources date to the late 1970s.
Reaching consensus on a binding instrument proved impossible
before the new millennium.
The absence of an
agreed international framework for acquisition of genetic
resources stifled exchange and perpetuated mistrust without
providing any off-setting benefits. Accusations swirled. New
words, such as “biopiracy,” entered the lexicon. Collecting for
conservation purposes decreased – countries were leery of what
might be lost, stolen or misappropriated. Exchanges declined,
undermining breeding programs.
Some assumed
genetic resources could be sold sample-by-sample and that the
marketplace would thus provide an incentive for conservation. It
didn’t happen. There was no market, little access, and zero
benefits. Everyone lost.
Because seeds are
so easy to multiply and transport, genetic resources defy
attempts at commercialization. For 500 years, they have foiled
all attempts.
In economists’
terms they are a “public good.” The marketplace provides little,
if any, economic incentive to entrepreneurs to conserve crop
diversity in order to sell it. And yet, it is in society’s
interest that crop diversity be conserved.
It has been wryly
observed that governments always do the right thing…but only
when all other options have been exhausted. The challenge
countries faced in the Treaty negotiations was how to regulate
the exchange of genetic resources so as to promote both access
and the rewards that flow from access (e.g., food security).
For political
reasons, negotiators also needed to find a mechanism for
generating additional benefits, benefits they could manage and
dispense. If selling genetic resources were unworkable,
providing access with no regulation or recompense was
unthinkable, and not providing access was slowly suicidal.
New International Legal Framework
Following seven
years of formal negotiations, the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture debuted in 2002.
Featuring a Multilateral System for the access and
benefit-sharing of crop diversity, it lacked the detailed
provisions needed to implement the system.
The tough
nuts-and-bolts decisions were bequeathed to the first meeting of
the Treaty’s Governing Body, the 104 countries that had formally
ratified the Treaty when the Governing Body convened in June in
Madrid.
Confounding most
observers who thought the issues too technically and politically
intractable to resolve, the Governing Body:
- Agreed on the terms of a
standard Material Transfer Agreement (sMTA) through which
all crop diversity covered by the Treaty’s Multilateral
System (covering more than 35 of the world’s most important
crops, plus a number of forages) will be accessed and used.
The sMTA calls for a royalty of 1.1% of sales to be paid
into a fund when (a.) genetic material is accessed from the
Treaty’s multilateral system, (b.) it is incorporated into a
product that is a plant genetic resource, such as a new crop
variety, (c.) the product is commercialized, and (c.) there
are restrictions, such as patent protection, that limit use
of the product for further plant breeding and research.
Users can opt for a lower royalty rate (0.5%) if they apply
it to all products of a particular crop regardless of
whether there are restrictions to further use and regardless
of whether multilateral system materials were used in making
them. The Treaty’s Governing Body will control and dispense
funds raised, using them to support crop diversity related
programs.
- Agreed on a financial
strategy for implementation of the Treaty and Rules of
Procedure for the Governing Body.
- Approved the text of
agreements bringing collections held by the CGIAR under the
terms of the Treaty. These collections contain much of the
diversity of the world’s major crops and are the most widely
used collections in the world.
- Expressed in the final
report of the meeting its “unanimous support” for the Global
Crop Diversity Trust and approved and signed a Relationship
Agreement with the Trust recognizing, uniquely, the Trust’s
role as an “essential element” of the Treaty’s funding
strategy in regards to ex situ conservation and availability
of plant genetic resources.
In short, the
Treaty became Real in Madrid.
The Treaty
removes the uncertainty of access and the fear of exploitation
that prevailed in the 1990s – uncertainty and fear that choked
off exchanges of crop diversity and undercut conservation and
plant breeding efforts.
By promoting
cooperation and the sharing of genetic resources, will the
Treaty reduce the impulse of countries to take an “every man for
himself” approach to conservation? We’ll see. It should, because
through cooperation based on the Treaty, a rational, efficient,
effective and sustainable system can now be created for
conserving crop diversity and making it available to all. This
can be done without incurring large costs, and it can be done
without diminishing any country’s access to the crop diversity
it needs.
A legal framework
is in place. Now it is time for thinking to shift and for
attitudes to catch up to the new reality. By normalizing
transactions, the Treaty should help create a new climate of
trust and cooperation among custodians and users of crop
diversity. If it does, it will be the Treaty’s greatest
achievement. This may take a little time. By then we may all be
a little loose in the joints and shabby, but it won’t matter.
The new global system will be Real. |