Crop Genetic Resources as a Global Commons, Michael Halewood, Isabel Lopez Noriega and Selim Louafi, 9781844078936

Crop Genetic Resources as a Global Commons

Challenges in International Law and Governance

Edited by:
Michael Halewood
Isabel Lopez Noriega
Selim Louafi

440 pages
Publisher: Earthscan from Routledge

Paperback - December 2012
ISBN: 9781844078936 - AU $100.00

The Earth's plant genetic resources are a common inheritance of all humankind, which should be held in shared trust for a common future. A key component of the global genetic commons is agricultural biodiversity. Our food and livelihood security depend on the sustained management of these diverse biological resources that are important for food and agriculture. Whilst agricultural biodiversity originates in specific farming communities, it has been shared widely and is considered by many to be part of the much-threatened global commons.

This book is about the creation, management and use of the global crop commons. It focuses primarily on the legal and administrative construct that provides the basis of the global crop commons, that is, the multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing created by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This is particularly significant because it transcends the traditional dichotomy between privatisation and total governmental control. It came into effect in 2006 and the book describes its origins and implementation since then, showing how many international organisations and some developing countries are moving quickly with implementation, while other countries are moving slowly and some multinational corporations are expressing misgivings about the system overall. The authors further analyse current challenges and how they might be resolved.

1. The Global Crop Commons and Access and Benefit-Sharing Laws: Examining the Limits of Policy Support for the Collective Pooling and Management of Plant Genetic Resources Michael Halewood, Isabel López Noriega and Selim Louafi.
Part 1: Setting the scene: countries’ interdependence on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the imperative of international cooperation.
2. Demonstrating interdependence on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture Marleni Ramirez, Rodomiro Ortiz, Suketoshi Taba, Leo Sebastian, Eduardo Peralta, David Williams, Anne Vezina, and Andreas Ebert.
3. Flows of crop germplasm into and out of China Fuyou Wang.
4. Crop and forage genetic resources: International interdependence in the face of climate change Julian Ramirez, Andy Jarvis, Sam Fujisaka, Jean Hanson and Christoph Leibing.
5. Changing Rates of Acquisition of Plant Genetic Resources by International Gene Banks: Setting the Scene to Monitor an Impact of the International Treaty Michael Halewood, Raj Sood, Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, Ahmed Amri, Ines Van den Houwe, Nicolas Roux, Dominique Dumet, Jean Hanson, Hari D. Upadhyaya, Alexandra Jorge and David Tay.
Part 2: The history and design of the International Treaty’s multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing.
6. Brief history of the negotiations of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Jose Esquinas Alcázar, Angela Hilmi, Isabel López Noriega.
7. The design and mechanics of the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing Daniele Manzella.
8. Protecting the interests of the multilateral system: the Third Party Beneficiary Gerald Moore.
9. Plant genetic resources "under the management and control of the contracting parties and in the public domain": how rich is the basket of the multilateral system? Carlos Correa.
10. Efforts to get the multilateral system up and running: a review of activities coordinated by the Treaty Secretariat Selim Louafi and Shakeel Bhatti.
Part 3: Critical reflections.
11. Experiences of countries in the implementation of the multilateral system: incentives and challenges at the country level Isabel Lopez Noriega, Peterson Wambugu and Alejandro Mejías.
12. From negotiations to implementation: global review of achievements, bottlenecks and opportunities for the Treaty in general, and the multilateral system in particular Godfrey Mwila.
13. The multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing: could it have been constructed another way? Clive Stannard.
14. The Moving Scope of Annex 1: The List of Crops Covered under the Multilateral System Bert Visser
15. Building a Global Information System in Support of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Caroline Ker, Myriam Sanou and Selim Louafi.
16. Collective action challenges in the implementation of the multilateral system of the International Treaty. What roles for the CGIAR Centres? Selim Louafi.
17. International and regional cooperation in the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Gerald Moore.
18. The evolving global system of conservation and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: what is it, and where does the Treaty fit it? Toby Hodgkin, Nicole Demers and Emile Frison.
19. Institutionalizing global genetic resource commons for food and agriculture Tom Dedeurwaerdere.
Index.

Editors

Michael Halewood is a Senior Scientist and Head of the Policy Research and Support Unit at Bioversity International, Rome, Italy. He is also a qualified barrister and solicitor, and coordinates representation of the International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) and of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in international genetic resources policy-making fora.

Isabel Lopez Noriega is a legal specialist in the Policy Research and Support Unit of Bioversity International in Rome.

Selim Louafi is based at the Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD), Montpellier, France.

Contributors

Jose Esquinas Alcázar, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Ahmed Amri, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria.

Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Rome, Italy.

Carlos Correa, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tom Dedeurwaerdere, University of Louvain, Louvain, Belgium.

Nicole Demers, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.

Dominique Dumet, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.

Andreas Ebert, The World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC), Taiwan.

Emile Frison, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.

Sam Fujisaka, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia.

Jean Hanson, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Angela Hilmi, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.

Toby Hodgkin, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.

Andy Jarvis, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia; CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CIAT, Cali, Colombia.

Alexandra Jorge, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya.

Caroline Ker, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium.

Christoph Leibing, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia.

Daniele Manzella, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.

Alejandro Mejías, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Gerald Moore, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.

Godfrey Mwila, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Rome, Italy.

Rodomiro Ortiz, International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Maize (CIMMYT), Mexico.

Eduardo Peralta, Autonomous National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIAP), Quito, Ecuador

Julian Ramirez, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia; CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CIAT, Cali, Colombia; School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

Marleni Ramirez, Bioversity International, Cali, Colombia.

Nicolas Roux, Bioversity International, Montpellier, France.

Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines.

Myriam Sanou, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium.

Leo Sebastian, Bioversity International, Serdang, Malaysia.

Raj Sood, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.

Clive Stannard.

Suketoshi Taba (International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Maize (CIMMYT), Mexico.

David Tay, Centro Internacional de la Papa/International Potato Centre (CIP), Lima, Peru.

Hari D. Upadhyaya, International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India.

Bert Visser, Centre for Genetic Resources, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Ines Van den Houwe, Bioversity International, Louvain, Belgium.

Anne Vezina, Bioversity International, Montpellier, France.

Peterson Wambugu, Kenyan Agriculture Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.

Fuyou Wang, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Danzhou, China.

David Williams, CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme, Rome, Italy.

Related Titles

Sustainability for Healthcare Management

Handbook of Disaster Policies and Institutions