The Geneva-based Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) announced yesterday that the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) became its seventy-second member.

In a press release [pdf], UPOV said OAPI “operates a plant variety protection system which covers the territory of its 17 member states.”

OAPI member states are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

According to the release, Francis Gurry, director general of UPOV and of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said, “The accession of OAPI is a milestone in the history of UPOV and promises to help strengthen the system of plant variety protection around the world and to broaden international cooperation in this area.”

A few weeks ago, UPOV approved draft legislation submitted by the counterpart English-speaking African intergovernmental organisation, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) (IPW, Development, 15 April 2014).

Civil society has raised concerns about the potential accession by AROPI to UPOV, particularly over the possibility that it could disrupt age-old practices of saving and reusing seeds by local farmers.