“DivSeek initiative” loses support of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

February 28, 2017

Rome, 28 February 2017

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the “Treaty”) wants to end its collaboration with DivSeek initiative. The Treaty played the role of facilitator in the Initiative. It used to be a guarantor for new members, and used to establish a perfect connection to international policies regarding genetic resources. Although there are not official communications from the Treaty, there were clear signals of its withdrawal. For this reason, the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) supports it and request to all members of DivSeek Initiative to do the same.

In this note, IPC for Food Sovereignty aims to explain the opposition, in principles and in practice, between the Treaty and DivSeek Initiative. For this purpose, it is necessary to understand under which framework DivSeek has been created and how it developed.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust[1](today it is called Crop Trust) is an international independent organization ruled by international law. It has been established in 2004 from Bioversity International and from CGIAR[2], with the support of the FAO.  The Crop Trust is today financed by various countries (major donors are United States of America, Australia, Germany and Norway), international institution (such as the CGIAR and World Bank) and private donation (including CropLife International, DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred and Syngenta)[3]. In 2006, the organization has been recognized as an essential element of the Funding Strategy of the Treaty, in relation to the ex situ conservation and availability of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture[4].

The DivSeek initiative has been officially launched in 2015, jointly by the Treaty and by the Crop Trust, after the publication of the DivSeek Charter, which lists its principles and objectives. The initiative was built on the Global Information System on PGRFA, described in article 17 of the Treaty^[5]. This provision of the Treaty aims to strengthen the cooperation among Contracting Parties, in order to facilitate the exchange of information related to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The Global Information System includes Contracting Parties and platforms for knowledge sharing belonging to the Commission on Genetic Resources (CGRFA) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). However, in the same article, the Treaty specifies that:

“Based on notification by the Contracting Parties, early warning should be provided about hazards that threaten the efficient maintenance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, with a view to safeguarding the material (art. 17.2 of ITPGRFA)”.

When DivSeek was just a single initiative of Crop Trust in 2012, its main purpose consisted in sequencing genetic information of the seeds held in national genebanks, in order to make those information more accessible to  all.

In 2013, the 5^th Session of Governing Body of the Treaty, established the first inter-sessional Consultation on Global Information System^[6], which in January 2015 took place in San Diego (United States). Before this consultation, the Crop Trust called upon the Treaty to collaborate in strengthening the DivSeek initiative. The collaboration was officialised during the meeting in San Diego, where the first DivSeek Assembly^[7] took place right after the Consultation on Global Information System.

In September 2015 took place the 6^th Session of Governing Body of the Treaty. The resolutions on the Vision and the Programme of Work on the Global Information System called the States to assess the impact of the participation in DivSeek on the principles and objectives of the Treaty^[8] before the next Governing Body of the Treaty (most probably in October 2017, in Africa).

Unexpectedly, last December the Treaty decided to withdraw from its partnership, even if the official notification will be presented at the next session of Governing Body. After the withdrawal of the Treaty, DivSeek is much weaker than before: the initiative has indeed lost its facilitator and its most important political partner.

DivSeek initiative do not consider at all Farmers’ Rights, but threatens them dangerously. The aim is to open the access to all seeds’ genetic information collected in the national genebanks, creating a huge international database. Those information are accumulated primarily by farmers, for the national genebanks, with the premise that they will remain a public domain. What is really concerning in this situation is that many seed industries[9] are collaborating in DivSeek initiative. Those industries are seed producers aiming to access to the genetic information of seeds that are still in the hands of peasants. Farmers and their Rights are, therefore, completely absent in the DivSeek initiative, although Farmers’ Rights are one of the main pillars of the Treaty.

Last Global Consultation on Farmers’ Rights was held in Bali (Indonesia), in September 2016. The final recommendations of the co-chair in Bali is a summary of a larger discussion. The recommendation n°7 comes from a specific reference to DivSeek[10], since it was noticed during the discussion, that the initiative was not responding to articles 6 and 9 of the  Treaty. In the draft recommendations, there is a specific reference to DivSeek. The participants recalled the Governing Body to “ensure that genetic sequence data initiatives such as DivSeek must require that access to sequence data is treated as equivalent to physical access to genetic resources, and must be governed by data access and other agreements that invoke the benefit sharing obligations of international treaties. Fair and equitable benefit sharing rules for these initiatives must ensure that Prior Informed Consent (PIC) for use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge is obtained from indigenous peoples and farmers”. (38^th of the draft recommendation from the Global Consultation on Farmers’ Rights, 27-30 September, Bali).

More than 70% of global food production is provided by small-scale producers. Their work is based on the farmers’ seeds systems (called “informal seeds systems”, to differentiate it from the industrial seeds system) which allow to feed peoples, to contribute in improving the biodiversity and to conserve the traditional and historical knowledge. However, many countries are trying to impose the agro-business system which is producing completely different effects. During the 20^th Century, around 75% of plant diversity has been eroded, since many farmers abandoned the use of landraces and local varieties, in favour of uniform genetic varieties^[11].  The availability of food for rural communities and small-scale farmers relies on the possibility to access, save, use, exchange and sell seeds. Therefore, normative frameworks and seed legislations should recognize Farmers’ Rights giving the farmers the control over seeds, avoiding any attempt by seeds industry to privatize them. The “Free Seed” approach open the access to seeds, (physical or in the form of genetic information) and avoid any kind of farmers’ control over their seeds. As a consequence any kind of seed will be freely exchanged in the market, by any actor of the market, meaning that the control over seeds will be ruled by the bargaining power  of seeds industries.

The Treaty withdrew from DivSeek after the Social Movements denounced the collision of the articles of the Treaty with the objectives of DivSeek. However, DivSeek can still count on 66 members (see the list below).

Treaty creates legal bindings for the Contracting Parties, while DivSeek is based on a voluntary participation. The Governments that are already part of the Treaty should withdraw their membership to DivSeek and should stop financing the initiative, while improving the work on Farmers’ Rights.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

IPC Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity

• Marciano da Silva Toledo – marcianotol71@yahoo.com.br.
• Guy Kastler – kastler@wanadoo.fr.
• Antonio Gonzalez – atunkuljay@gmail.com.

[1] Visit the web page of Crop Trust at the link: https://www.croptrust.org/. [2] CGIAR is a global partnership for food security. Visit its web page at the link: http://www.cgiar.org/about-us/. [3] For the list of donors, see the link: https://www.croptrust.org/about-us/donors/. [4] See the link “Relationship Agreement between the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”. https://www.croptrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Signed-Relationship-Agreement_0.pdf. [5]To see the text of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, see the link: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i0510e.pdf. [6] For further information on the “First Meeting of the Expert Consultation on the Global Information System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”, see link: http://www.planttreaty.org/sites/default/files/cogis1w5.pdf. [7]For further information on First DivSeek Assembly, see link: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537207e3e4b0d4555960edfd/t/5550d1d3e4b0178238f6b7cf/1431359955968/DivSeek+Partners%27+Assembly+%289+Jan+2015%29+-+governance.pdf. [8]Page 10 of the 6th Session of Governing Body. “Resolution on the Vision and the Programme of Work on the Global Information System”.  http://www.planttreaty.org/sites/default/files/gb6w07e.pdf. [9] DivSeek participants were 69 (today they are 66). DivSeek included, not only Governments or Institutions, but also big bio-tech industries, including Bayer Crop Science, Monsanto, DuPont, Pioneer e Syngenta. [10] “Calling on Contrating Parties to revise, as necessary, seed laws, intellectual property laws and other legislaton that may limit the legal space or create undue obstacles for the realization of Farmers Rights”. [11]FAO (2005), What’s Agrobiodiversity? in “FAO. Building on Gender, Agrobiodiversity and Local Knowledge”, Rome.  

DivSeek members

1. Africa Rice – Africa Rice Centre, Côte d’Ivoire
2. AAFC – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada
3. ACPFG – Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Australia
4. AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
5. ANU – Australian National University, Australia
6. APPF – Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Australia
7. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan
8. BBSRC – Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, UK
9. BECA – Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa, Kenya
10. BGI – Beijing Genomics Institute, China
11. Bioversity – Bioversity International, Italy
12. BLE – Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung), Germany
13. CATIE – Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Education (Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza), Costa Rica
14. CIAT – Centro Internacional de Agricultural Tropical, Columbia
15. CFF – Crops for the Future, Malaysia
16. CGIAR CO – CGIAR Consortium Office, France
17. CIMMYT – International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo), Mexico
18. CIP – International Potato Center (Centro Internacional de la Papa), Peru
19. CIRAD – Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), France
20. Clemson University, USA
21. Cornell University, USA
22. CRA – Agricultural Research Council (Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura), Italy
23. CROP – Common Reference Ontologies for Plant Biology, USA
24. Cyverse, USA
25. Dalhousie University, Canada
26. Earlham Institute, UK
27. EBI – European Bioinformatics Institute, UK
28. EMBRAPA – Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária), Brazil
29. ETH Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich), World Food System Center, Switzerland
30. FZJ – Research Centre Julich (Forschungszentrum Jülich), Germany
31. GCDT – Global Crop Diversity Trust, Germany
32. Genome British Colombia, Canada
33. Genome Canada, Canada
34. Genome Prairie, Canada
35. GPC – Global Plant Council, UK
36. IAARD – Indonesian Agency for Agriculture Research and Development, Indonesia
37. IBBR-CNR – Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources – National Research Council (Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy
38. ICARDA – International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Syria
39. ICBA – International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, UAE
40. ICCI – Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (Tel-Aviv University), Israel
41. ICRAF – World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya
42. ICRISAT – International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, India
43. IITA – International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria
44. INRA – National Institute for Agricultural Research (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), France
45. IPK – Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung), Germany
46. IRRI – International Rice Research Institute, Philippines
47. ISU – Iowa State University, USA
48. JHI – James Hutton Institute, UK
49. KAUST – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Center for Desert Agriculture, Saudi Arabia
50. NIAB – National Institute of Agricultural Botany, UK
51. NIAS – National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan
52. NIG – National Institute of Genetics, Japan
53. NordGen – Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen är en Institution under Nordiska Ministerrådet), Sweden
54. QAAFI – Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Australia
55. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
56. UBC – University of British Columbia, Canada
57. UC Davis – University of California, Davis, USA
58. UGA – University of Georgia, USA
59. UMN – University of Minnesota, USA
60. UM – University of Missouri, USA
61. UNIBO – University of Bologna (Università di Bologna), Italy
62. UNIVPM – Marche Polytechnic University (Universitá Politecnica delle Marche), Italy
63. USASK – University of Saskatchewan, Canada
64. USDA-ARS – United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, USA
65. VicDEPI – Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Australia
66. Wageningen UR  – Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands