The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Dr. Shakeel Bhatti Secretary, ITPGRFA

Overview 1.International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources: Key features for non-commercial research 2.Non-commercial research in the Multilateral System of ABS the Treaty 3.Lessons learned from the Multilateral System of ABS

Key features: general adopted 2001; in force 2004; operational 2007 Objectives: conservation, sustainable use, benefit-sharing, in harmony with CBD, and for sustainable agriculture and food security; Scope of the Treaty: all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) Scope of the MLS: incl all PGRFA on Annex I that are under the management of the CPs and in public domain –Annex I crops provide 80% of world food from plants

Key provisions for non-commercial research Exploration, Collection, Characterization, Evaluation and Documentation (Art.5) Multilateral System of ABS: Facilitated Access (Art.12) Benefit-sharing –Exchange of information (Art.13.2(a)) –Commercial benefit-sharing (Art.13.2(d)) Global Information System (Art.17)

Key features: MLS In the exercise of their sovereign rights, countries pool their PGRFA in a Multilateral System of ABS MLS now a day-to-day operational system; facilitated access is granted “for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture”  MLS is a ABS system customized for agricultural research; MLS implemented through a Standard MTA (SMTA); in first 8 months more than 89,000 transfers under SMTAs each SMTA reporting obligations to Governing Body; today more than 600 transfers/day under SMTAs; these transfers are continuation of previous exchanges.

Non-commercial research in the Multilateral System of ABS (MLS) Facilitated access & non-commercial research in the MLS: “for the purpose of utilization and conservation for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture, provided that such purpose does not include chemical, pharmaceutical and/or other non-food/feed industrial uses.” (A.12.3(a)) facilitated access is “expeditious, without the need to track individual accessions and free of charge” (A.12.3(b)) “passport data and... available non-confidential descriptive information, shall be made available with the plant genetic resources... provided (A.12.3(c)); Recipients shall not claim any IPRs that limit the facilitated access to the plant genetic resources..., or their genetic parts or components, in the form received from the Multilateral System (A.12.3(d));

Non-commercial research in the Multilateral System of ABS (MLS) Benefit-sharing & non-commercial research in the MLS: Exchange of information CPs “agree to make available information which shall... encompass catalogues and inventories, information on technologies, results of technical, scientific and socio-economic research, including characterization, evaluation and utilization, regarding those PGRFA under the Multilateral System.” (Art.13.2(a)) Commercial benefit-sharing (Art.13.2(d)) “requirement that a recipient who commercializes a product... that incorporates material accessed from the Multilateral System, shall pay... an equitable share of the benefits arising from the commercialization of that product, except whenever such a product is available without restriction to others for further research and breeding, in which case the recipient who commercializes shall be encouraged to make such payment.

Others “a recipient who commercializes a product that... incorporates material... from the Multilateral System, shall pay... an equitable share of the benefits... except whenever such a product is available without restriction to others for further research..., in which case the recipient... shall be encouraged to make such payment (Art.13.2(d)(ii)) Multilateral System P1 R1 R2 SMTA 2 SMTA 1 SMTA 3 1,1% of net sales Private Sector Voluntary contributions (eg, NW) Benefit- sharing fund CP Int’l org Natural and legal person Others International Treaty: Research & commercial benefit-sharing 1 million+ accessions 100,000+ transfers transf/day “Access shall be provided solely for the purpose of utilization and conservation for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture” (Art.12.3(a)) On-farm conservation information exchange & tech.transfer sustainable use

Transfers of rice germplasm under SMTAs from CGIAR Centers ( ) – Sample only

Transfers of rice germplasm under SMTAs from CGIAR Centers – by type of genetic material and IARC

Transfers of rice germplasm under SMTAs from IRRI – global IRRI transfers by Sector

Transfers of rice germplasm under SMTAs from IRRI – by sector and country

The Treaty and the CBD Art The Treaty’s objectives will be attained by closely linking the Treaty to the FAO and to the CBD Recognizing that this Treaty and other international agreements relevant to this Treaty should be mutually supportive with a view to sustainable agriculture and food security

Lessons learned Multilateral System is an ABS system customized to facilitate inter alia agricultural research; research can be integrated into access conditions and terms of benefit-sharing; interface wh IPRs can be managed; so far, IT-PGRFA has done so successfully in operationalizing the MLS-ABS; reflect MLS and its relevance for agricultural research in IR;