Policy & Law

Bioversity International engages in research to understand how policies and laws impact on the sustainable use and conservation of genetic resources used in agriculture.

Bioversity focuses in particular on identifying options for policies and laws that support the use of genetic resources in ways that improve the livelihoods of farmers and contribute to food security.

In this context, Bioversity’s Policy Research and Support Unit focuses mainly on policies and laws related to:

• access and benefit-sharing
• intellectual property
• mechanisms to promote farmers’ rights
• implementing the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Bioversity works on these issues at various levels:

• Making technical contributions to negotiations of international legal agreements
• Conducting research concerning national and local level policy options and strengthening the capacity of partners to engage in such policy analysis
• Working with and on behalf of other CGIAR Centres and other organs (System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) and the Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC)) to develop best practices and policy options for consideration across the CG system.