Europe Will Sign Agricultural Biodiversity Treaty

BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 29, 2002 (ENS) - The European Union Council of Ministers has decided to sign the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The treaty aims to protect the world's most important agricultural plant species in order to safeguard global food security.

"Alarmed by the continuing erosion of these resources," the 15 EU Member States said in a statement Monday that they will sign the treaty to protect their free access to plant genetic resources for research and breeding.

Field of cabbages, one crop protected by the new treaty. (Photos courtesy FAO)

Research and breeding for the improvement and diversification of food production requires access to a wide range of agricultural biodiversity, particularly fruits and vegetables.

The treaty is viewed as a major breakthrough because of its legally binding nature and the combination of free access to agricultural plant species with the sharing of the commercial benefits of such access.

Under the treaty, recipients of genetic resources who market products arising from that access will have to pay back into the system an equitable share of the monetary and other benefits.

Issues of how much that payback will be, in what form, and under what conditions it will take place, will be settled once the treaty comes into force. Uncertainty over whether the benefit sharing arrangement will work caused many developing countries to be conservative with the number of crops they allowed to be included in the treaty. It was negotiated on the basis that any one country could prevent inclusion of any crop.

Secretary of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture José Esquinas-Alcázar

The difficulties in reaching agreement during the seven years it took to negotiate the treaty revolved around intellectual property rights and the list of crops covered by the treaty. The clash of different interests and opinions made the negotiations "a long and painstaking process," said Byrne.

The initial position of the European Union was to cover all agricultural crops by a multilateral system under the treaty, but the current limited list of crops excludes many species.

Still, the treaty includes: rice, wheat, maize, oats, rye, millet, potato, yam, beans, peas, lentils, citrus, coconut, banana, apple, strawberry, sunflower, and carrot, among others.

The EU says it will continue efforts to bring more crops under the treaty provisions.

David Byrne, European health and consumer protection commissioner (Photo courtesy European Commission)

The new treaty will enter into force when ratified by at least 40 countries. Since it was opened for signature November 9, 2001, 11 countries have signed the document, but none have ratified as yet.

The treaty seeks to ensure that the genetic resources and local technologies developed by generations of farmers are complemented and enhanced by new technologies of genetic engineering, and not threatened or replaced by them.

Esquinas-Alcázar said, "Genetic resources and biotechnologies should be considered complementary, as the first provide the raw material for the second. Even the most sophisticated biotechnologies do not create genes, but re-combine those existing in nature to produce new varieties and agricultural products. Modern biotechnologies provide powerful tools with the potential to increase and improve production in various situations, including to the benefit of small farmers and local economies."

The FAO is working on a Code of Conduct on Biotechnology aimed at maximizing the potential of genetic engineering and minimizing its risks.

Farmer in Burkina-Faso fertilizes his maize.

But critics say the treaty covers only a small list of crops and does not provide protection from corporations that seek to claim intellectual property rights over patented species.

The Barcelona based nongovernmental organization Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) has argued against allowing any intellectual property rights on the material covered by the treaty. "It should clearly ban patents, plant breeders' rights and other mechanisms that privatize and restrict access to agricultural genetic resources," GRAIN urges in an April editorial in its publication "Seedling."

The final language on farmers' rights is nothing but a weak statement of principle, GRAIN complains.

In front of young banana trees, Jamaican farmer places yams in her basket. Yams and bananas are covered under the treaty.

He called approval of the agreement by the FAO Conference on November 3, 2001 "a milestone in international cooperation." Negotiations started in November 1994 among FAO's Member States.

The new treaty will be set up in harmony with the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. This first internationally binding agreement governing biodiversity did not cover agricultural crops.

Since agriculture began, more than 7,000 species have been used as food or animal feed, but only 30 crops now provide 95 percent of the food supply. Wheat, rice and maize alone provide more than 50 percent. The treaty recognizes that most of these plant genetic resources cannot survive in the wild and are maintained in farmers' fields, mainly in developing countries.

Europe benefits because the treaty guarantees access to plant resources such as the Brassica complex, which includes cabbage, rapeseed, mustard, cress, rocket, radish, and turnip, all components of the European cuisine.

The text of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is reachable by logging on to: http://www.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/News.htm