Comparative Study of the Nagoya Protocol, the Plant Treaty and the UPOV Convention: The Interface of Access and Benefit Sharing and Plant Variety Protection

Impacts of International and National Regulatory Frameworks on Guaranteeing Farmers’ Right in Brazil

“…However, Article 9.3 of the ITPGRFA provides that nothing shall be interpreted to restrict any rights that farmers have in safeguarding, exchanging, and selling locally derived seed or propagating material, subject to national law. However, the extent to which this FAO treaty provision interacts with the UPOV Convention provision is open to interpretation for a country willing to implement farmers' rights as a member of both UPOV and the FAO treaty (Sanderson, 2013;Rabitz, 2017;Cabrera Medaglia, Oguamanam, Rukundo, & Perron-Welch, 2019). Also, in the international scope of the regulation of access rights to genetic resources is the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV (Note 10)), established in the 1960s and forced in 1998.…”

“…The UPOV was an important legal instrument for securing the rights of breeders with specific interests in the genetic improvement of plants in agriculture. In addition, Plant Variety Protection, also known as "plant breeders' rights," is a sui generis form of Intellectual Property (IP), tailored to the plant breeding process about the seven acts (Note 11) (Cabrera Medaglia, Oguamanam, Rukundo, & Perron-Welch, 2019). While UPOV as a binding multilateral agreement internationally ensures the intellectual protection of new plant varieties in the farmer's field for commercial purposes, plant breeders' rights are at the discretion of national legislation and should not be affected in a way that compromises breeder interests (Cabrera Medaglia, Oguamanam, Rukundo, & Perron-Welch, 2019).…”

Exploring, harnessing and conserving marine genetic resources towards a sustainable seaweed aquaculture

“…Another limitation under the Nagoya protocol with regard to cultivated seaweed species is the bilateral nature of the agreement when seaweed germplasm and products are traded globally between multiple parties. In comparison, the Plant Treaty regulates genetic resources of crops recognised in this treaty in a multilateral system that facilitates access to genetic resources for specific purposes, for example, research, training or breeding (Cabrera Medaglia et al, 2019). Given that seaweed cultivation is expanding, and links to food security and livelihoods of human communities are growing, a multilateral system to regulate access and benefit sharing similar as implemented under the Plant Treaty might represent an appropriate framework that could be adapted in the future for key aquaculture species.…”

Uses and benefits of digital sequence information from plant genetic resources: Lessons learnt from botanical collections

“…There is now widespread acceptance that the international community needs to find a mechanism through which countries can benefit fairly from the use of DSI (Scholz et al, 2020) To manage this vacuum, a range of strategies have been implemented by Parties and Stakeholders to the CBD, to regulate access to both material and information (Cabrera Medaglia et al, 2019). In many cases, bilateral agreements are negotiated and used to clarify whether DSI can be used and under which terms (Rourke, 2018).…”