International Seed Treaty Hears Concerns Of Corporate Concentration, DNA Patenting

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is holding the fourth regular session of its Governing Body this week in Bali, Indonesia.

The International Seed Treaty [pdf] is intended to establish a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists access to global plant genetic materials, ensuring that the recipients share the benefits derived from the use of those genetic materials with the countries from which they originate (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, 22 June 2009).

During the last session, held in Tunis in June 2009, the Governing Body deferred a number of issues to the present session, including the financial rules of the Governing Body, promotion of compliance with the treaty, and issues of non-compliance, and the funding strategy of the treaty, according to the annotated draft provisional agenda [pdf]. The Governing Body is meeting from 14-18 March.

Also on the agenda are farmers’ rights, and the implementation of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing, a mechanism which enables access to specific genetic resources with assurance of benefit-sharing from commercialisation of those resources.

La Via Campesina, a peasant farmers’ group, voiced concerns in a plenary intervention today, in particular about corporate concentration in the seed industry, patent applications on large strands of DNA, and technological advances that dim the interest for gene banks and biological diversity.

According to the Berne Declaration, a Swiss nonprofit group, access and benefit sharing in the treaty needs improvement in order to achieve its goals. Two reports commissioned by the Berne Declaration and the Development Fund (Norway) highlight shortcomings in the treaty’s multilateral system of access and benefit sharing, according to a press release.