Educational
I think a lot of folks in the public garden community would like a basic overview of the CBD and how it impacts plant exchange.
This year we're focusing on the implications of the Convention on Biological Diversity; Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of Benefits; and a new plant importation regulatory category, "Not Authorized Pending Pest Risk Analysis." Visit our online Study Hall to find out What's at Stake? and learn more about these issues.
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I think a lot of folks in the public garden community would like a basic overview of the CBD and how it impacts plant exchange.
We share with "provider" countries in a number of ways. Education, through a 35-year old intern program that has trained hundreds in horticulture and botany. Information, through journal exchanges and complimentary journal subscriptions. Specimens, through joint botanical expeditions and on-line image sharing. And, publication opportunities, through discounted or free pages in our journal.
The CBD is not itself a binding law, and it does not have any enforcement mechanisms. What it does is place responsibility for regulating access to genetic resources in the hands of the nations providing those resources. So, aside from the fact that the US is not a party to the CBD, the CBD itself cannot require any US public garden to do anything. ABS is turning out to be complicated (to say the least) and is still ...more »
The CBD is not itself a binding law, and it does not have any enforcement mechanisms. What it does is place responsibility for regulating access to genetic resources in the hands of the nations providing those resources. So, aside from the fact that the US is not a party to the CBD, the CBD itself cannot require any US public garden to do anything.
ABS is turning out to be complicated (to say the least) and is still a work in progress. Individual nations have created their own laws governing access to genetic resources, and those nations have the right to enforce their laws in whatever way they have chosen. Some nations have a strong national authority (e.g., India) and give little say to local communities. Others, such as the Philippines, have given more say to indigenous peoples. Costa Rica requires consent from both local interests and a national authority. Few African nations have created ABS laws - Ethiopia didn't create a law until 2006. Critics of these things have suggested that some developing nations' ABS laws are not well-thought-out, and researchers have complained that ABS procedures can be so idiosyncratic and onerous as to make field collection hardly worth the trouble.
One problem that some scientists have identified with many national ABS regimes is that the laws seem focused on incredibly lucrative bioprospecting that results in multi-gazillion dollar drugs - not on, say, modest seed exchanges between gardens in two different nations. The Nagoya Protocol, which was just added to the CBD and hasn't exactly been ratified, is intended to solve some of these problems by simplifying access to genetic resources for non-commercial use and by creating an ABS clearing-house to share ABS information among countries. This protocol also encourages the sharing of technology, which could be one of the "benefits" in exchange for access.
So to sum up this quick note: ABS is different for every nation. A garden that wants to work with a particular nation will have to follow that nation's ABS laws, which will involve finding out what those laws are, figuring out which national/regional/local authorities need to grant permits, and possibly negotiating an agreement with the local area where the genetic resources are found. There is no standardization.
Within the U.S., individual gardens have started adopting their own ABS provisions, in a sense binding themselves to the CBD as institutions. As a practical matter, any U.S. garden that collaborates with gardens in other nations is effectively part of the CBD community. Building trust and sharing information and resources are essential to global plant conservation anyway - selfishness is counterproductive.
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Require those you supply with plant material to sign a Material Transfer Agreement stipulating the terms & conditions governing its use. Link MTA to plant's accession record.
Send a proposal describing your plant collecting expedition to the CBD National Authority or Focal Point listed on the CBD website. Request information on obtaining prior informed consent (PIC) and establishing mutually agreed-upon terms.
Prepare a transparent policy on the commercial use of plants & their progeny (for sales, breeding, etc) acquired before and since the CBD entered into force, applicable to your institution and others who utilize your institution, such as plant societies and onsite vendors.
Record the terms and conditions under which plants are acquired; track their use within your institution and benefits arising from that use; and record any plants you supply to third parties, including the terms and conditions of supply.
Designate a representative from your institution to stay informed of plant health regulatory changes by signing up on the APHIS-PPQ Stakeholder Registry to receive alerts. Weigh in on proposed changes during comment periods prior to their coming into force. https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAPHIS/subscriber/new
Amend your institution's plant collections policy to endorse the CBD and laws relating to access and benefit-sharing, including those relating to traditional knowledge.
Through this Forum, raise awareness of new, rapidly developing plant health regulations and their impact on public gardens. Explore ways the public garden community can partner with APHIS (US) & CFIA (Canada) to help quarantine and conduct pest risk analyses.
It is very helpful to understand the broader context of why we have ended up in this situation with regard to the CBD, ABS, Nagoya, ITPGRFA, et al. Sabrina Safrin, an international lawyer who participated in the negotiations for the "International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture" (ITPGRFA) and presented a very well-received talk in a symposium at the 2008 APGA meeting, wrote an excellent award-winning ...more »
It is very helpful to understand the broader context of why we have ended up in this situation with regard to the CBD, ABS, Nagoya, ITPGRFA, et al. Sabrina Safrin, an international lawyer who participated in the negotiations for the "International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture" (ITPGRFA) and presented a very well-received talk in a symposium at the 2008 APGA meeting, wrote an excellent award-winning article about the situation:
"Hyperownership in a Time of Biotechnological Promise: The International Conflict to Control the Building Blocks of Life"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=658421
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If implemented as a general policy, Material Transfer Agreements should be very carefully thought out. Many MTAs that are in use (though certainly not all) are tantamount to claims of intellectual property rights by gardens on the germplasm in their possession (claims for which there is no basis in the CBD). Such MTAs are often so broadly worded as to require tremendous expenditures of resources (likely far beyond any ...more »
If implemented as a general policy, Material Transfer Agreements should be very carefully thought out. Many MTAs that are in use (though certainly not all) are tantamount to claims of intellectual property rights by gardens on the germplasm in their possession (claims for which there is no basis in the CBD). Such MTAs are often so broadly worded as to require tremendous expenditures of resources (likely far beyond any benefits arising from the plant material) to implement in good faith. If MTAs are to be followed in good faith, they should be designed with great care so as to neither impose undue or unclear obligations or to stifle legitimate and beneficial exchange of material.
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We've posted factsheets, sample agreements, links to manuals, toolkits, and regulations. Become informed. Consider impacts to public gardens & possible solutions. Then contribute your ideas through this community-wide dialogue! Go to: http://publicgardens.org/content/nif-community-engagement
I just downloaded the iPhone App and logged in using the profile created here on APGA's 2012 National Issues Forum Discussion. This will certainly make following topics here more convenient for me. I thought I would pass this along for my first post :-)
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