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FARMERS' RIGHTS LEGISLATION &
POLICY DATABASE:
The
categories
Seven categories of legislation and policies
have been selected for our database. The laws, regulations and policy documents
are listed according to the categories relevant for their contents. In some
cases these are more than one category. Then they are listed in all categories
applicable.
Why are these seven categories relevant for
Farmers' Rights?:
Farmers'
Rights and community rights related to crop genetic resources
Conservation and sustainable use of crop
genetic resources
Traditional
knowledge
Bioprospecting,
including access and benefit sharing
Seeds and certification
Plant variety protection, also called plant
breeders' rights
Patents
Farmers' Rights and community
rights related to crop genetic resources
Legislation and policies on
Farmers' Rights are directly addressing the issue. Legislation and policies on
community rights are relevant because they often explicitly or implicitly cover
Farmers' Rights, or because they affect farmers' agricultural
practices.
Conservation and sustainable use of crop genetic
resources
Legislation and policies on conservation and sustainable
use of crop genetic resources affect farmers' practices and thus the very basis
of Farmers' Rights. They are often supportive of these rights in terms of
strengthening farmers practices related to the conservation and sustainable use
of crop genetic resources, which can be seen as a form of benefit sharing. Many
of the laws and policies listed here in the database, however, do not
specifically address crop genetic resources, but conservation and sustainable
use of biological diversity in general. In such cases, it is important to be
aware of the possible negative effects that may arise if farmers are not
permitted to carry out their customary agricultural practices, for example in
protected areas.
Traditional knowledge
Legislation and
policies on the protection of traditional knowledge are normally derived more
or less from the Convention on Biological Diversity and thus related to all
forms of traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities related to
biological diversity. Thus they are relevant also for the protection of
traditional knowledge related to crop genetic diversity, as addressed in the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Normally they are developed to protect traditional knowledge from
misappropriation. However, it is important to be aware of the possibility that
such laws and policies might conflict with another aspect of this issue:
protecting traditional knowledge against extinction. The most important measure
to protect traditional knowledge from extinction is the sharing of traditional
knowledge. Laws and policies that make such sharing difficult, for example by
providing for complicated procedures of prior informed consent, might
negatively affect the sharing of traditional knowledge among farmers if they
hinder conservation work.
Bioprospecting, including access and benefit
sharing
Legislation on bioprospecting are normally derived more or
less from the Convention on Biological Diversity for the purpose of regulating
the conditions for access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable
sharing of the benefits arising from their use. As the Convention covers all
forms of biological diversity, including crop genetic resources, such laws and
policies normally apply to such resources. However, they are often developed
with a view to wild biodiversity, and not to domesticated resources. As a
result they may, dependent on the effectiveness and efficiency of their
implementation, make access to crop genetic resources particularly difficult,
and subsequently the benefit sharing that was envisaged to follow from such
access. Furthermore, as access to genetic resources is in itself a benefit,
they may negatively affect benefit sharing, as addressed in the provisions on
Farmers' Rights in the International Treaty. The international community is
seeking more effective ways of ensuring access and benefit sharing through the
negotiations of a new international regime on access and benefit sharing under
the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Since the International Treaty
on Plant Genetic Resources entered into force in 2004, and its Multilateral
System with the Standard Material Transfer Agreement became operational in
2007, the 35 food plants and 29 forage plants covered by the Multilateral
System will be subject to other forms of regulation to ensure facilitated
access, with a simplified mechanism of benefit sharing. This applies to such
plants of the 64 species that are in the public domain and under the control of
the Parties to the International Treaty. In practice, the Multilateral System
will mainly apply to genetic resources in gene banks. In other words,
conservation activities related to crop genetic resources in farmers' fields
may still be covered by the legislation and policies in the countries on
bioprospecting.
Seeds
and certification
Seed laws are developed for the purpose of
ensuring plant health and seed quality. Normally they comprise regulations on
certification of plant varieties, to ensure that only those varieties are
allowed into the market, that comply with certain criteria. These criteria are
usually quite strict, comprising genetic distinctness, uniformity and
stability. Mostly, farmers' varieties do not meet these criteria, and if
certification is a criterion for entering the market, it means that farmers'
varieties are not allowed into the market. In some cases, the laws and
regulations comprise provisions prohibiting also the exchange and the giving
away of seeds and propagating material that is not certified. Furthermore,
there are laws and regulations providing that only authorized seed shops are
allowed to sell seeds, and that all other forms of exchange are prohibited.
Such laws and regulations are clearly negative to Farmers' Rights to save, use,
exchange and sell farm-saved seed and propagating material.
Plant variety protection,
also called plant breeders' rights
Laws and regulations on plant
variety protection are introduced to enable plant breeders to cover the costs
of the production of new varieties of plants, and to provide incentives for
further development of such varieties. Such protection is also called plant
breeders' rights, and they affect Farmers' Rights to the extent that they limit
farmers' practices of saving, using, exchanging and selling farm saved seeds of
protected varieties. Sometimes such laws and regulations also have provisions
on prior art, establishing conditions of novelty. These provisions may refer to
documented varieties, and thus not cover the varieties in farmers' fields that
have not been documented. Thus, these varieties may be made subject to plant
variety protection by plant breeders. This is possible if the laws and
regulations allow plant variety protection on varieties that have been
discovered and developed (which is quite usual in current
legislation).
Patents
Patents are the strongest form of
intellectual property rights protection and affect Farmers' Rights to the
extent that they prohibit farmers from using protected varieties in their
customary ways. |
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