Access and Benefit-Sharing of Animal Genetic Resources: About the Need to Think Out of the Box

摘要

When the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was first conceived in 1992, it put biodiversity under national sovereignty and sought to reward and incentivize conservation of wild biodiversity in the "South" by making the "North" share the benefits from its commercialization. As soon as the focus shifted to plant genetic resources (PGR) for food and agriculture, it was realized that this principle could not be easily transferred to crops and other farmed plants, as there were oftenmultiple places of origin and crops had been developed incrementally by series of actors. In response, the global community created the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) which establishes a multi-lateralsystem, Farmers' Rights and set up the Seed Vault in Svalberg where seeds are systematically put in long-term storage so as to be available in the future.