The International Treaty and Its Multilateral System

In one line

A pool of crop genetic resources that every party may draw on, in exchange for sharing what is made from them, and a treaty article that recognises the farmer.

In exam wording: the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, adopted on 3 November 2001, states in article 1 that its objectives are the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security, to be attained by closely linking the Treaty to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and to that Convention; article 3 provides that the Treaty relates to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; article 9 recognises farmers' rights; article 10 establishes the Multilateral System of access and benefit sharing; article 11 states its coverage by reference to the crops listed in Annex I, established according to criteria of food security and interdependence; article 12 states the conditions of facilitated access; article 13 states the benefit sharing mechanisms; and article 15 deals with ex situ collections.

Why a separate treaty at all

The Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 is built on bilateral exchange. Article 15 makes access subject to the prior informed consent of the Party providing the resource, on mutually agreed terms. That works where a resource has an identifiable country of origin.

Crop genetic resources do not work that way. Wheat, rice and maize have moved around the world for centuries, and no country is self-sufficient in the diversity of the crops it grows. Article 11 uses the word interdependence, and it is the key to the whole Treaty.

So for the listed crops the Treaty replaces bilateral bargaining with a pool. That is the Multilateral System.

Article 1.2 says the two instruments are linked, and article 1.1 says the objectives are pursued in harmony with the Convention. The Treaty is not a rival; it is a special regime for one class of resources.

Article 9: farmers' rights

9.1: the recognition. The Contracting Parties recognise the enormous contribution that the local and indigenous communities and farmers of all regions of the world, particularly those in the centres of origin and crop diversity, have made and will continue to make for the conservation and development of plant genetic resources which constitute the basis of food and agriculture production throughout the world.

9.2: whose responsibility. The responsibility for realising farmers' rights, as they relate to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, rests with national governments. Each Party should, as appropriate and subject to its national legislation, take measures to protect and promote those rights, including: