Suchergebnisse

Questo libretto presenta la "Piattaforma d'Azione di Chennai" per il potenziamento del contributo delle risorse fitogenetiche per il raggiungimento degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo del Millennio (MDGs), in particolare quelli suula riduzione di fame e povertà. Il piano d'azione descritto in questo libretto intende aiutare i governi nazionali e le agenzie internazionali a raggiungere il dimezzamento di fame e povertà entro il 2015. Il documento promuove il principio di dare alla biodiversità agraria maggiore importanza nelle strategie di sviluppo nazionali e internazionali e quello di creare condizioni necessarie per politiche di uso sostenibile di tale ricchezza a beneficio dei più poveri e degli emarginati della nostra società. Il piano d'azione fa appello ad una maggiore collaborazione internazionale nella conservazione e nell'uso sostenibile ed equo dei benefici derivanti dall'uso della biodiversità agraria. Sottolinea altresì il bisogno urgente di azione per il raggiungimento dei MDGs nei modi appropriati ai vari contesti nazionali.

Cette brochure présente le « Programme d'action de Chennai » dont le but est de renforcer le rôle des ressources phytogénétiques dans l'accomplissement des Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD), et tout particulièrement la réduction de la faim et de la pauvreté. Le programme d'action décrit dans cette brochure est destiné à aider les gouvernements nationaux et les agences internationales à réaliser l'objectif de réduire de moitié la faim et la pauvreté d'ici 2015. Il met l'accent sur le principe d'accorder une plus grande importance à la biodiversité agricole dans les stratégies de développement nationales et internationales et de créer les conditions politiques nécessaires pour permettre une utilisation durable de cette richesse pour le bénéfice des membres les plus pauvres et les plus marginalisés de notre société. Le programme d'action appelle à une collaboration internationale renforcée au niveau de la conservation et à un partage durable et équitable des bénéfices résultant de l'utilisation de la biodiversité agricole. Il souligne le besoin urgent d'une action appropriée au niveau national afin de satisfaire les OMD.

This booklet presents the 'Chennai Platform for Action' to enhance the contribution of plant genetic resources to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially to reducing hunger and poverty. The action plan described in this booklet is intended to help national governments and international agencies to achieve the goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015. It promotes the principles of giving agricultural biodiversity greater importance in national and international development strategies and creating the required enabling policy conditions for the sustainable utilization of this treasure for the benefi t of the poorest and marginalized members of our society. The action plan calls for increased international collaboration in the conservation and sustainable and equitable sharing of the benefi ts arising from the use of agricultural biodiversity. It underlines the urgent need for action in nationally appropriate ways for meeting the MDGs.

This report highlights some particularly significant achievements of IPGRI's activities in Asia, the Pacific and Oceania in1999–2000 and describes the impact that this work is having. It summarizes some of IPGRI's recent activities in the region, carried out with its numerous partners in the governmental, non-governmental and private sectors. The activities were identified as priority areas for attention through consultations with national and regional plant genetic resources networks and with specific crop networks. IPGRI's work contributes to three objectives: - strengthened national capacities, particularly in developing countries, to conserve, access and use genetic resources; - international collaboration in the conservation and use of plant genetic resources; and - generation and use of knowledge and technologies relevant to improved conservation and use of plant genetic resources.

Today's decision-makers are faced with implementing a myriad of international legal obligations that are relevant to the conservation, use and development of plant genetic resources. These obligations arise from international legal treaties and instruments with diverse and – if not implemented rationally – potentially conflicting objectives. These include, for example, liberalizing trade, conserving wetlands, conserving biodiversity and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing derived from its sustainable use, and mitigating the effects of, and ultimately halting, climate change. IPGRI's legal and policy work aims to provide decision-makers with practical analysis and tools to guide them in formulating responsive policy and legislation that is consistent with their national objectives and the sustainable management of plant genetic resources. This volume is part of an ongoing body of work that IPGRI hopes will assist decision-makers with the complex task of discerning the many issues of relevance to the conservation and management of plant genetic resources and devising a coherent and consistent policy and legislative response. It is our hope that decision-makers and those wishing to influence the decision-making process will find this volume to be a useful tool to help understand implementation options under Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPs Agreement and their potential implications for their country's objectives relevant to plant genetic resources.

While controversies over the ownership, control and exchange of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are old, modern-day management of these resources is more complicated than ever before. Developments in international and national law and policy over the past 15 years have changed the working environment for those in charge of managing and making decisions about genetic resources. Today genetic resource managers need to understand the legal and policy environment in order to do their jobs effectively. Those who participate in policy-making face an equally bewildering environment. Trade relations, intellectual property rights, biosafety, indigenous communities and public–private sector relations are just a few of the topics that are always on the table. In addition, everyone faces the prospect of dealing with numerous laws, regulations, guidelines and policies and following events in multiple fora, from those at the national level to the international level. Different political and scientific interests compete for what they want or think is right. And yet, at the end of the day it is clear that nations and people are interdependent for plant genetic resources. This simple fact dictates that we cooperate to ensure the conservation of PGRFA and its orderly management, including the facilitation of access and fair benefit sharing. The task of understanding all the issues of relevance to the conservation and management of plant genetic resources is extremely complex. Derived from the substantive chapters of a comprehensive training manual, this Issues Paper attempts to guide the reader through the international agreements and policies of most relevance to the conservation and management of PGRFA, focusing on how they can be understood, implemented and shaped. In addition, there is a chapter discussing cross-cutting issues. This Issues Paper also contains annexes for the reader wishing to have a better understanding of the economic issues that are integral to the international policy and law-making environment.

The objectives of the Workshop were: to review the regional countries' state of research and breeding activities, biotechnology research capacity, trade in agricultural biological products, formal and informal seed sectors and national IPR relevant for agriculture and PGR; to assess implications for the implementation of TRIPS, particularly Art 27.2(b), for the SADC region; to review the draft sui generis legislative frameworks developed by IPGRI on PGR, and that in Zimbabwe; to get feedback on their possible usefulness as a basis for further developments of similar national legislation; to stimulate discussion among regional stakeholders in the implementing of Art. 27.3(b) of TRIPS, WTO and related IPR regimes; and to identify common regional interests and possible synergies for implementation

This book is the result the first Vavilov-Frankel fellowship that was awarded in 1993. The Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships programme was established by the Bioversity Board of Trustees in 1989 to commemorate the unique contributions to plant science by academician Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov of Russia and Sir Otto Frankel of Australia. The first two fellowships examined the historical background of the plant genetic resources movement and produced two books: the present one and the one published in 1997 by Robin Pistorius Scientists, Plants and Politics link the "Robin Pistorius: Scientists, Plants and Politics"

This study was conducted in July 1994 in Bukeeka-village, a bimodal highland banana producing area of Luwero District, Central Uganda. Its principal objective was to review continuity and change in agricultural production at farmer level. An inventory of names of crop-plants and of socio-economic activities in Bukeeka land had been recorded by the Senior Botanist of the Agriculture Department Government of Uganda, during a village survey in 1937. The 1994 study draws on the 1937 village monograph to identify changes in production and, when possible, to register farmer evaluation of named varieties of bananas and other economic plants. In 1994, household level interviews were conducted in a sample of six banana-farming households. These interviews aim at identifying of factors influencing farmer decisions to retain or vary production of food and fibre crops. They also attempt to describe social and economic priorities of farmers and to indicate constraints to production encountered by farm-households.

The International Undertaking (IU) ' a non-binding intergovernmental agreement to promote the conservation, exchange and utilization of plant genetic resources ' was conceived in controversy during meetings held by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) between 1981 and 1983. The acrimony and distrust that characterized those discussions, and indeed much of the history of germplasm development and exchange, continues to influence the negotiations to revise the IU to bring it in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The issues of scope, access and benefit-sharing have been particularly divisive. The critical issues are so inter-related that it is difficult for parties to make progress on one when uncertainty exists on the resolution of the others. Mistrust can be a serious stumbling block to reaching agreement. With time running short before the self-imposed deadline of completing the negotiating process in 2000, it is important for the parties to explore ways to signal their willingness and ability to foster trust. This paper explores legal mechanisms that may help parties overcome the barriers that cause them to act with suspicion. Specifically the paper explores resolutions, memorandum of understanding, letters of intent, and traditional and emerging diplomatic mechanisms. An evaluation of these tools and experience shows that there can be value in: (1) disaggregating specific elements of negotiation, (2) identifying common interests and principles that will govern and/or have to be incorporated into the final agreement, and (3) establishing a process whereby it is politically difficult to ignore the outcome and recommendations. The paper concludes by suggesting the negotiators may wish to consider various alternatives for moving forward including: (1) separating the benefit-sharing issue and addressing it during the negotiating process through a unilateral letter of intent, (2) signing a mutual letter of intent or memorandum of understanding outlining the intentions of the parties or relevant groupings of parties on controversial issues, or (3) signing a letter of intent or memorandum of understanding that separates controversial issues and establishes a process by which they will be resolved.

This study aims at the development and evaluation of elements for inclusion in an intellectual property rights system sui generis for the protection of plant varieties. Pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement, members shall provide patent protection for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology. Members are allowed to exclude from patentability inter alia plants and animals other than micro-organisms. However, the TRIPS Agreement explicitly requires members to provide for the protection of plant varieties either "by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof." The report studies the legal obligations posed by the TRIPS Agreement in relation to plant genetic resources. It further analyzes the status of plant genetic resources under the existing international regulatory framework, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Study gives an overview of and discusses possible elements, for example recognition of Farmers' Rights, which, if included in a protection system for plant varieties, may contribute to reconciliation of the interests of formal breeders with the rights and interests of informal breeders. The study also examines the options for regulating the interface between a sui generis legislation and other intellectual property rights, such as patents. There is a broad range of possible TRIPS-compatibles sui generis systems. Those systems should be explored and discussed before ready-made protection system currently being used in many industrialized countries are adopted.

Dans le but de clarifier, pour les responsables politiques, les problèmes et les choix, les membres du Groupe Crucible ont accepté de discuter entre eux des points les plus litigieux et de rédiger un rapport non consensuel qui ne ferait qu'exposer les meilleurs arguments. Après plusieurs mois d'échanges par courrier électronique ou autour d'une table, les membres du Groupe ont déterminé dix secteurs où aucun accord n'était possible mais au sujet desquels ils pouvaient offrir des « points de vue » distincts pouvant être utiles. La plupart de ces questions concernaient la propriété intellectuelle relative aux organismes vivants, le rôle du GCRAI (Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale) et la future structure d'un système international de conservation et d'échange des ressources génétiques. À leur grande surprise, cependant, les membres du Groupe ont été en mesure de formuler 28 recommandations qu'ils ont pensé pouvoir soumettre collectivement aux responsables politiques et aux leaders d'opinions. En juin 1994, un ouvrage intitulé Un Brevet pour la vie a été présenté lors d'un séminaire organisé à Ottawa par le Centre de recherches pour le développement international. Cinq ans après leur première session plénière à la Fondation Dag Hammarskjöld (FDH) à Uppsala, de nombreux membres du Groupe se sont retrouvés au même endroit pour se pencher sur les problèmes restés sans solution. Bien que les membres du Groupe qui s'étaient réunis en 1998 n'aient pas réellement planifié cette réunion, ils se sont rapidement entendus sur la nécessité de convoquer « Crucible II » et de faire avancer le programme international sur les ressources génétiques. Six ans après la publication de l'ouvrage Un Brevet pour la vie, le Groupe Crucible II fait paraître Le Débat des semences. Volume 1. Solutions politiques pour les ressources génétiques : Un Brevet pour la vie revisité. Un an après la parution du volume 1, nous avons aujourd'hui le plaisir de publier Le Débat des semences. Volume 2. Options pour les lois nationales régissant le contrôle des ressources génétiques et des innovations biologiques.

The Regional Network for Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources in East Asia (EA-PGR) was established in 1991 and has provided an effective mechanism for sharing and exchanging information, discussing and identifying common interests, and initiating and developing collaborative activities among member countries including China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia. IPGRI East Asia Office services as interim secretariat of the network and works closely with the national coordinators for implementing collaborative programmes initiated by the network involving several member countries. Examples of such collaborative activities are the studies on adzuki bean genetic diversity and collecting and characterization of millet genetic resources. These have played a critical role in enhancing sharing of resources, information and technologies for implementing the Global Plan of Action (GPA) among member countries of the network through joint activities on research, training and germplasm exchange. The current proceedings is the result of the meeting of the Regional Network for Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources in East Asia held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 13- 16 August 2001. The meeting aimed to exchange views on current status of the conservation and use of plant genetic resources (PGR) in each country and improve mutual understanding, review the progress of joint activities in the region, and identify priority areas for future collaboration.