Challenges, Success Stories and Ways Forward FARMERS’ RIGHTS Challenges, Success Stories and Ways Forward Side event organized by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Germany and the Development Fund, Norway Third Session of the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty Tunis, Tuesday 2 June, 2008

Challenges, Success Stories and Ways Forward FARMERS’ RIGHTS Challenges, Success Stories and Ways Forward Presentation by Dr. Regine Andersen Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Farmers’ Rights Project Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway

Overview Farmers’ Rights in the Treaty Why Farmers’ Rights matter Contents of Farmers’ Rights, challenges and success stories Farmers’ Rights to seeds (Art 9.3) Protection of traditional knowledge (Art. 9.2.a) The right to participate in benefit sharing (Art. 9.2.b) The right to participate in decision making (Art. 9.2.c) From Lusaka to Tunis – and ways forward Recommendations Conclusion

Farmers’ Rights in the Treaty Recognition of the enormous contribution of farmers Responsibility rests with governments Elements: Protection of traditional knowledge The right to equitably participate in benefit sharing The right to participate in decision making The rights that farmers have to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds Other Treaty provisions support implementation GB to promote implementation and compliance Preamble underscores importance of Farmers Rights

Why Farmers’ Rights? The biodiversity argument: Farmers are custodians and developers of crop genetic diversity. Farmers’ Rights are necessary to enable farmers to continue to conserve, sustainably use, and further develop plant genetic diversity – for the benefit of all

Why Farmers’ Rights? The development argument: Crop diversity is life insurance for small scale farmers in developing countries Farmers’ Rights are necessary to ensure that they have access to crop diversity, to strengthen traditional seed systems, and to reward the custodians and innovators of agrobiodiversity (MDG1)

Why Farmers’ Rights? The Plant Treaty argument: The realization of Farmers’ Rights is a precondition for the implementation of the Plant Treaty in terms of in situ conservation sustainable use Therefore: Farmers’ Rights are a corner stone of the Plant Treaty

Why Farmers’ Rights? ... to enable farmers to continue as stewards and innovators of crop diversity and reward them for their contribution to the global genetic pool. © GTZ

Farmers’ Rights to seed: Contents Farmers’ Rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed are the basis of farmers’ ability to conserve and sustainably use crop genetic resources. The Treaty gives little guidance, but the preamble states that these rights are fundamental Key word: Legal space

Farmers’ Rights to seed: Challenges § Legislation limit farmers possibilities to use and maintain crop genetic diversity

Farmers’ Rights to seed: Challenges Two forms of limiting legislation: Intellectual property rights,particularly plant breeders’ rights and patents (ref. TRIPS and UPOV): Various degrees of limitations Seed laws, particularly on variety release and certification rules, e.g.: Limit varieties released for marketing Prohibit seed exchange among farmers Challenge: Legal space

Farmers’ Rights to seed: Success story Indian Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 Explicitely ensures that farmers are allowed to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed – along with a range of further rights

Farmers’ Right to seed: Success story A proposal on stricter plant breeder’s rights in Norway was turned down by the government in 2005. Argument: Not in balance with Farmers’ Rights Norway remains a UPOV’ 78 member

Traditional knowledge: Contents Two approaches: Protection against extinction Protection against misappropriation Protection against extinction = protection by sharing: Seminars, seed fairs and gatherings Documentation (catalogs, registries, genebanks, books, magazines, websites) Against misappropriation: Regulation of access with PIC and MAT Legal clauses on information sharing ‘User country measures’

Traditional knowledge: Challenges Fear of misappropriation lead to protectionism and make sharing difficult: Fear that seed/knowledge is used in commercial breeding without recognition. Fear that it be removed from the public domain by intellectual property rights (IPR) Fear that breeders make profits without sharing the benefits Challenges: Remove the fear: Develop norms and rules to to avoid misappropriation (recognition, prior art, etc) Stimulate the sharing of traditonal knowledge

Traditional knowledge: Success story Catalog on potato varieties and traditional knowledge in Huancavelica, Peru Combines molecular finger-printing technology with farmers descriptions Recognition to farmers Once in the catalog, they are public (prior art) and cannot be misappropriated by third parties, according to Peruvian law. (CIP and La Federación Dept. de Communidades Campesinas)

Benefit sharing: Contents Two approaches: Direct sharing between ’owners’ and ’buyers’, based on the bilateral approach from the CBD Indirect sharing between users and ’entire peoples of farmers’, FAO approach (1980s and Multilateral System) No examples of the former approach, many of the latter: Access to seed and related information Participation in breeding/strengthening seed systems Conservation activities and enhanced market access

Benefit sharing: Challenges Uncertainties in many countries as to what material is covered by the Multilateral System, and how to deal with the material that is not covered. Could lead to a situation with less access. Scaling up promising models of benefit sharing from the local to a national outreach.

Benefit sharing: Success story Discovering diversity, adding value to crops and bringing the products to the market in Nepal (LiBird)

Right to participation: Contents Issues for participation: Seed laws, IPR laws, bioprospecting laws, policies on conservation and sustainable use, laws on indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge, mainstream agricultural policies, relevant programmes and projects How: Hearings, advocacy, consultations, media, representatives, etc. Who: Diversity farmers, through their organizations.

Right to participation: Challenges Awareness among farmers and decision makers Ways and means to identify farmer representatives Capacity to participate

Right to participation: Success story Consultative process on Farmers’ Rights, Peru 180 farmers consulted in different regions through workshops to map views, experiences and suggestions. Representatives invited to multi-stakeholder workshop in Lima, preparations Farmers organized, and elements of a joint strategy for implementation identified (Grupo Yanapai, Instituto Nacional de Innovacion Agraria, FNI, SPDA, GTZ/BMZ)

From Lusaka to Tunis and further GB 1: Farmers’ Rights on the working agenda Lusaka informal international consultations Lusaka recommendations: GB to give priority to Farmers’ Rights Farmer participation important in the Treaty GB to encourage Parties to submit reports GB to guide and assist Parties in implementation GB to develop guidelines through working group GB 2: Resolution 2/2007 and reports

Recommendations to the GB Encourage Parties to sumbit reports at a regular basis – provide brief format Establish an ad hoc working group for the development shared norms, evt. in the form of voluntary guidelines Encourage Parties to develop national plans Facilitate guidance and assistance to Parties Encourage further documentation and research Attract funding for implementation

Thank you for your attention! Conclusion “Yes, we can!” Thank you for your attention!