Intellectual Property Rights on Plant Genetic Resources
The FAO's
International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted in November 2001 after seven
years of often very difficult negotiations which were necessary to convert
the preceding non-binding so-called ‘1983 International Undertaking’ into a
binding international agreement. It entered into force on 29 June 2004 and
held the Governing Body's
first session in Madrid, 12-16 June 2006
Thanks to an innovative formulation in Art.
1.1, its objectives have been made to correspond to those of an earlier
multilateral environmental agreement, they are to be “in
harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity" (CBD). The fundamental
purpose of the agreement is to provide a multilateral framework for access
and benefit sharing (ABS), i.e. it assures access to a clearly specified
list of about sixty food and forage crops which carries the somewhat strange
name of “Multilateral System.” In exchange, the treaty spells out modalities
for benefit sharing.
The 'Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable
Sharing of the Benefits Arising out of their Utilization' on the other hand are more
general but non-binding. They were adopted, after
several years of negotiations, at the 6th Conference of the Parties of the
CBD in The Hague in April 2002. Their purpose is the
operationalization of the CBD’s access and benefit sharing provisions.
