Best practices: Success stories on benefit-sharing measures

BEST PRACTICES:

Success stories on benefit-sharing measures

In the South, policies on benefit sharing - if any - are provided in laws and regulations on access to biological resources, sometimes in legislation on the protection of biological diversity, and - in the case of India - in its plant variety protection law. Countries with legislation on indigenous peoples' rights often include provisions on benefit sharing in these laws, which then also cover indigenous farmers. Despite all these efforts, so far there have been no examples of direct benefit sharing between providers and receivers of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture resulting from such legislation.

There are, however, other ways of sharing benefits, which are mostly not provided for in legislation, and often implemented by or through NGOs. Farmers generally participate more or less in the sharing of non-monetary benefits. In the international stakeholder survey carried out in 2005 (Andersen, 2005), the most frequently mentioned non-monetary benefits were:

access to seeds and propagating material, and related information

participation in the definition of breeding goals

participatory plant breeding in collaboration between farmers and scientists

strengthening of farmers' seed systems

conservation activities, including local gene banks

enhanced utilization of farmers' varieties, including market access

The 2005 survey showed that - for many reasons - benefit sharing is more promising when the point of departure is the farming communities that actually contribute to the maintenance of plant genetic diversity.

Read more:

Creating incentive structures from the ground in the Philippines

Community seed fairs in Zimbabwe

Community gene banking and on-farm conservation in India

Dynamic Conservation and Participatory Plant Breeding in France

Participatory plant breeding adding value in Nepal

Capacity-building for seed potato selection in Kenya

The Peruvian Potato Park

Rewarding best practices in Norway

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In this section:


	BEST PRACTICES
	What is a 'success story' of FR?
	Success stories from the realization of the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed
	Success stories on traditional knowledge related to agro-biodiversity
	Success stories on benefit-sharing measures
	Success stories on participation in decision making
	Common features