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Bioversity International: research for development in agricultural and tree biodiversityBioversity International: research for development in agricultural and tree biodiversity
Policies for plant diversity management

Mutual implementation of Plant Treaty and Nagoya Protocol

Mutually supportive implementation of the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol in Benin and Madagascar

Bioversity International is working with the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Capacity Development Initiative, the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and of the International Treaty on plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and with partners and stakeholders in Benin and Madagascar, to develop ABS laws and agreements that contribute to pro-poor rural development and offset the cost of conserving genetic resources.

Challenge

The access to and use of plant genetic resources is vital for farmers all over the world to adapt to climate change and to make their agricultural systems more productive. International agreements, such as the Nagoya Protocol adopted in 2010 by the Conference of the Parties to the CBD, and ITPGRFA aim to guarantee that the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources are shared in a fair and equitable way. However, the NP and the ITPGRFA commit countries to different ABS systems: one, bilateral; the other, multilateral. The ITGRFA creates a multilateral system (MLS) whereby countries agree to virtually pool and share the plant genetic resources of 64 crops and forages for food and agriculture-related purposes. The CBD and its Nagoya Protocol, on the other hand, tend to favour the negotiation of bilateral ABS agreements between providers and users of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Uncertainty about how to implement them together contributes to low levels of implementation of both. 

Find out more

Madagascar and Benin have both ratified the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol. However, neither country has mechanisms to implement either agreement separately and hence much less in a mutually supportive manner.

Action through the Darwin Initiative project

Photo: Participants to the official launch of the project Mutually supportive implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the International Treaty in Benin, May 2015 Credit: Wilfried Anagonou
Participants to the official launch of the project in Benin, May 2015. Credit: Wilfried Anagonou

The project aims to promote the national implementation of the MLS; increase Benin’s and Madagascar’s overall participation in the MLS both as providers and recipients of genetic resources and information, and pursue options to benefit from other aspects of the ITPGRFA, including provisions on access to and transfer of the technology and genetic material which is included under the MLS.

Through capacity strengthening, the project seeks to implement the international policy commitments in ways that respond to local realities, contributing to development benefits. This will be achieved by empowering local communities and taking advantage of the incentives and benefits existing in each of the countries available to both the stewards/providers of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and the recipients of genetic resources and associated information and technologies.

Photo: Participatory excercises conducted during the training Resilient seed systems and adaptation to climate change. Benin, 15-18, December 2015. Credit: Bioversity International/Wilfried Anagonou
Training on resilient seed systems and climate change adaptation. Benin, 2015. Credit: Wilfried Anagonou

As part of the project, we are supporting community level activities in both countries to help these communities organize information about the biological diversity they manage, whilst developing community biodiversity management plans and ABS agreements. The project is supporting the organization of participatory workshops in four case study communities to document the impacts of climate change on local food security crops, discus options for locating potentially adapted materials in national and international collections, and to identify options for developing community biodiversity registries, community ABS protocols, and investment plans.

In the long term, it is expected that enhanced benefit sharing achieved through this project will incentive communities and public authorities to invest in the conservation of plant genetic resources. Ultimately, this will increase the availability of plant genetic diversity for climate change adaptation.

Find a brief presentation about the project here 

Highlights

In the press

Other media

Key events

During Year 3:

During Year 2:

During Year 1:

  • The project's Expert Guidance Committee meets and shares the main products developed during the project's first year, AUC, Ethiopia, 18 - 21 April, 2016
  • Partners from Benin and Madagascar attend the training course Resilient Seed Systems and Adaptation to Climate Change, Benin, 15 - 18 December, 2015
  • The project sponsors a national workshop for raising awareness on the Plant Treaty in Benin, 1, 3, 7 December, 2015
  • The project sponsors a national workshop for raising awareness on the Plant Treaty in Madagascar, 25 - 26 November, 2015
  • Partners from Benin and Madagascar participate in the workshop Embedding mutually supportive implementation of the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol in the context of broader national policy goals, Ethiopia, 16 - 20 November, 2015
  • Partners organize a side eventduring the Sixth Session of the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA. FAO, Italy, 5 - 9 October, 2015
  • Official launch of the project in Madagascar, 14 - 16 July, 2015 
  • Partners from Benin and Madagascar attend the workshop Strengthening National capacities to implement the Plant Treaty: National-level multilateral system policy development. Bioversity International, Italy, 23 - 26 June, 2015
  • Official launch of the project in Benin,13 - 15 May, 2015

Governance of the project

Click on the image to see the project's governance diagram enlarged

Selection of videos

Project's official launch in Benin

Project's official launch in Madagascar

Contact

Michael Halewood

Partners

This project is conducted with the support of the Darwin Initiative - a UK Government Funded Programme and it is managed under CCAFS, Flagship 1, Project entitled ‘Global Policy Support for biologically diverse, climate resilient agriculture’.

It is carried out in collaboration with the ABS Capacity Development Initiative,the Secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the African Union Commission and delivered through the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security supported by CGIAR Trust Fund Donors and through Bioversity International's Effective Genetic Resources Conservation and Use Initiative.