INTERNATIONAL TREATY ON PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE (PGRFA) 

ABOUT THE TREATY:

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3 November 2001.

It is also known as Seed Treaty as it is a comprehensive international agreement for ensuring food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA). It is in consonance with the convention on biological diversity.

THE TREATY AIMS AT:

• Recognizing The Enormous Contribution of Farmers to The Diversity of Crops That Feed The World.
• Establishing A Global System to Provide Farmers, Plant Breeders and Scientists with Access to Plant Genetic Materials.
• Ensuring That Recipients Share Benefits They Derive from The Use of These Genetic Materials with The Countries Where They Have Been Originated.

MAIN PROVISIONS:

Multilateral system: The treaty puts 64 of our most important crops – crops that together account for 80 percent of the food we derive from plants – into an easily accessible global pool of genetic resources that is freely available to potential users in the Treaty’s ratifying nations for some uses.

ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING: 

The Treaty facilitates access to the genetic materials of the 64 crops in the Multilateral System for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. Those who access the materials must be from the Treaty’s ratifying nations and they must agree to use the materials totally for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. 

The Treaty prevents the recipients of genetic resources from claiming intellectual property rights over those resources in the form in which they received them.

FARMERS’ RIGHTS: 

The Treaty recognizes the enormous contribution farmers have made to the ongoing development of the world’s wealth of plant genetic resources. It calls for protecting the traditional knowledge of these farmers, increasing their participation in national decision-making processes, and ensuring that they share in the benefits from the use of these resources

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE (IUCN)

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, was established on 5 October 1948 in the French town of Fontainebleau. As the First Global Environmental Union, it brought together governments and civil society organisations with a shared goal to protect nature.

AIM:

 Its aim was to encourage international cooperation and provide scientific knowledge and tools to guide conservation action.

During the first decade of its existence, IUCN’s primary focus was to examine the impact of human activities on nature. It flagged the damaging effects of pesticides on biodiversity, and promoted the use of environmental impact assessments, which have since become the norm across sectors and industries.

Much of IUCN’s subsequent work in the 1960s and 1970s was devoted to the protection of species and the habitats necessary for their survival. In 1964, IUCN established the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, which has since evolved into the world’s most comprehensive data source on the global extinction risk of species.

IUCN also played a fundamental role in the creation of key international conventions, including The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971), the World Heritage Convention (1972), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, (1974) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992).

In 1980, IUCN – in partnership with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – published the World Conservation Strategy, a ground-breaking document which helped define the concept of ‘sustainable development’ and shaped the global conservation and sustainable development agenda.

A subsequent version of the strategy, caring for the Earth, was published by the three organisations in the run-up to the 1992 Earth Summit. It served as the basis for international environmental policy and guided the creation of 1. The Rio Conventions on Biodiversity (CBD)

2. Climate Change (UNFCCC) And Desertification (UNCCD).

In 1999, as environmental issues continued to gain importance at the international stage, the UN General Assembly granted IUCN official observer status.

In the early 2000s, IUCN developed its business engagement strategy. Prioritising sectors with a significant impact on nature and livelihoods, such as mining and oil and gas, its aim is to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

Later in the 2000s, IUCN pioneered ‘nature-based solutions’ – actions to conserve nature which also address global challenges, such as food and water security, climate change and poverty reduction.

Today, with the expertise and reach of its more than 1,300 Members – including States, government agencies, NGOs and Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations – and over 15,000 international experts, IUCN is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. It continues to champion nature-based solutions as key to the implementation of international agreements such as the Paris climate change agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organizations. It is in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

IUCN’s mission is to “influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable”.

Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects.

Unlike many other international environmental organizations, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation. It tries to influence the actions of governments, business, and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through building partnerships. It was involved in establishing the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

The organization is best known to the wider public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide

DEFINITION OF CATEGORIES:

1. Extinct (EX): A taxon is Extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.
2. Extinct in Wild (EW): A taxon is Extinct in the Wild when it is known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalized population (or populations) well outside the past range.
3. Critically Endangered (CR): A taxon is Critically Endangered when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the criteria A to E for Critically Endangered (see Section V), and it is therefore considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.