THE INTERNATIONAL TREATY ON PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture are crucial in feeding the world's population. They are the raw material that farmers and plant breeders use to improve the quality and productivity of our crops. The future of agriculture depends on international cooperation and on the open exchange of the crops and their genes that farmers all over the world have developed and exchanged over 10,000 years. No country is sufficient in itself. All depend on crops and the genetic diversity within these crops from other countries and regions.
After seven years of negotiations, the FAO Conference (through Resolution 3/2001) adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, in November 2001. Subsequently, and in accordance with Article 28, the Treaty entered into force on the ninetieth day after the deposit of the fortieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, i.e., on 29 June 2004.
This legally-binding Treaty covers all plant genetic resources relevant for food and agriculture. It is in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It provides an internationally agreed framework for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of these resources, on which world food security depends. It also provides for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits, including through capacity building in developing countries, and through technology transfer. The Treaty is vital in ensuring the continued availability of the plant genetic resources that countries will need to feed their people and to conserve for future generations the genetic diversity that is essential for food and agriculture.
The Treaty recognizes the enormous contribution that farmers and their communities have made and continue to make to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources. This is the basis for Farmers' Rights, which include the protection of traditional knowledge, and the right to participate equitably in benefit-sharing and in national decision-making about plant genetic resources. It gives governments the responsibility for implementing these rights.
By November 2004, 62 countries in the world, including 16 countries of the European Region and the Europea Community (as an FAO member organization), had deposited instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
Who benefits from the Treaty and how?
 Farmers and their communities, through Farmers' Rights;
Consumers, because of a greater variety of foods, and of agriculture products, as well as increased food security;
The scientific community, through access to the plant genetic resources crucial for research and plant breeding;
The International Agricultural Research Centres, whose collections the Treaty puts on a safe and long-term legal footing;
Both the public and private sectors, which are assured access to a wide range of genetic diversity for agricultural development; and
The environment, and future generations, because the Treaty will help conserve the genetic diversity necessary to face unpredictable environmental changes, and future human needs.
For more information:
The Global Crop Diversity Trust
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture also provides the framework for the Global Crop Diversity Trust. The Trust will serve as an element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty.
The Global Crop Diversity Trust aims to match the long term nature of conservation needs with long term secure and sustainable funding. At its centre will be an endowment that will provide a permanent source of funding for development of a rational and efficient global system of crop diversity conservation. To achieve these goals, the Trust seeks to raise an endowment of $260 million and additional funds to provide upgrading and crop diversity collections around the world. The Trust will help salvage the world's most important crop collections and guarantee their ongoing healthy and safe conservation. A further goal of the Trust is to assist the capacity building to particularly needy genebanks in developing countries.
The campaign to establish the Trust has involved an historic partnership of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the 15 Future Harvest Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It is an ambitious and unprecedented response to global development priorities, addressing two of the Millennium Development Goals (Goal 1: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and Goal 7: To ensure environmental sustainability). It also directly addresses the priority of the G8 Action Plan on Science and Development, to support efforts to ensure funding for crop diversity conservation. The campaign was launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 where it was recognized as a Type 2 initiative (Public-Private Partnership) to strengthen the implementation of Agenda 21. The Trust has been welcomed by both the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
To date, the Trust has received about $45 million in commitments with another $70 million under discussion with governments, foundations and corporations. The gifts that have been secured thus far come from all three sectors.
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The technical framework for the Trust is provided by the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, as adopted by 150 countries at the International Technical Conference in Leipzig (Germany), June 1996. The Global Plan gives priority to the development of an efficient and effective system of ex situ conservation, and the development and strengthening of cooperation among national programmes and international institutions to sustain ex situ collections.
For more information:
The Field Programme of the Regional Office for Europe (REU) in support of Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture
With resources from the Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), FAO assisted Romania to rescue existing germplasm collections and to strengthen national capacity in the conservation and utilization of crop germplasm. The project's outputs included:
enhanced germplasm conservation capacities at the National Genebank in Suceava and safe storage of existing crop germplasm;
a reduction in the regeneration backlog;
an increase in the level of characterization and evaluation;
the collection of indigenous landraces and local cultivars, which had not yet been included in the country's ex situ collections;
a comprehensive national germplasm directory based on a closely linked network of decentralized institutional databases;
a plan of action outlining the steps to be taken for the development and adaptation of new varieties using the genebank germplasm collections.
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