scholarly journals Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1706
Author(s):  
Andreas W. Ebert ◽  
Johannes M. M. Engels
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Genetic Erosion ◽  
Crop Wild Relatives ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Access And Benefit Sharing ◽  
Genebank Management

Plant biodiversity is the foundation of our present-day food supply (including functional food and medicine) and offers humankind multiple other benefits in terms of ecosystem functions and resilience to climate change, as well as other perturbations. This Special Issue on ‘Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources’ comprises 32 papers covering a wide array of aspects from the definition and identification of hotspots of wild and domesticated plant biodiversity to the specifics of conservation of genetic resources of crop genepools, including breeding and research materials, landraces and crop wild relatives which collectively are the pillars of modern plant breeding, as well as of localized breeding efforts by farmers and farming communities. The integration of genomics and phenomics into germplasm and genebank management enhances the value of crop germplasm conserved ex situ, and is likely to increase its utilization in plant breeding, but presents major challenges for data management and the sharing of this information with potential users. Furthermore, also a better integration of in situ and ex situ conservation efforts will contribute to a more effective conservation and certainly to a more sustainable and efficient utilization. Other aspects such as policy, access and benefit-sharing that directly impact the use of plant biodiversity and genetic resources, as well as balanced nutrition and enhanced resilience of production systems that depend on their increased use, are also being treated. The editorial concludes with six key messages on plant biodiversity, genetic erosion, genetic resources and plant breeding, agricultural diversification, conservation of agrobiodiversity, and the evolving role and importance of genebanks.

scholarly journals Debate on Genetic Resources Accessed Ex Situ in the context of the Nagoya Protocol

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Hasrat Arjjumend
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Access And Benefit Sharing ◽  
Nagoya Protocol ◽  
Biological Resources ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Ex Situ Collections ◽  
Developed Nations

Recently enacted two international laws – Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing (ABS) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) – deal with the access/utilization of and benefit sharing arising out from genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK). Both the instruments lack relevant appropriate provisions guiding the countries to take administrative or legislative measures for covering and addressing the benefit sharing from the ex situ collections of genetic resources that were accessed well before the Nagoya Protocol came into existence. Developed nations show no willingness to share the benefits arising from the biological resources which they accessed from developing countries and retain ex situ. As a result, most affected entity would be the indigenous people and local communities (ILCs) – the custodians of most of the local biological resources – who would receive no benefits. The implications on this crucial issue will be critically reviewed in this article to identify appropriate solutions to this bottleneck using a few case studies.

Access to plant genetic resources for genomic research for the poor: from global policies to target-oriented rules

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels P. Louwaars ◽  
Eva Thörn ◽  
José Esquinas-Alcázar ◽  
Shumin Wang ◽  
Abebe Demissie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Genomic Research ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Multilateral System

Applied genetics combined with practical plant breeding is a powerful tool in agricultural development and for food security. The Green Revolution spurred the world's potential to meet its food, feed and fibre needs at a time when vast regions were notoriously food-insecure. Subsequent adaptations of such strategies, from the late 1980s onwards, in order to develop new plant varieties in a more participatory way, have strengthened the focus on applying technology to farmers' diverse needs, feeding research results into a variety of seed systems. During these developments, there were no major legal impediments to the acquisition of either local or formal knowledge or of the building blocks of plant breeding: genetic resources. The emergence of molecular biology in plant science is creating a wealth of opportunities, both to understand better the limitations of crop production and to use a much wider array of genetic diversity in crop improvement. This ‘Gene Revolution’ needs to incorporate the lessons from the Green Revolution in order to reach its target groups. However, the policy environment has changed. Access to technologies is complicated by the spread of private rights (intellectual property rights), and access to genetic resources by new national access laws. Policies on access to genetic resources have changed from the concept of the ‘Heritage of Mankind’ for use for the benefit of all mankind to ‘National Sovereignty’, based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, for negotiated benefit-sharing between a provider and a user. The Generation Challenge Programme intends to use genomic techniques to identify and use characteristics that are of value to the resource-poor, and is looking for ways to promote freedom-to-operate for plant breeding technologies and materials. Biodiversity provides the basis for the effective use of these genomic techniques. National access regulations usually apply to all biodiversity indiscriminately and may cause obstacles or delays in the use of genetic resources in agriculture. Different policies are being developed in different regions. Some emphasize benefit-sharing, and limit access in order to implement this (the ‘African Model Law’), while others, in recognition of countries' interdependence, provide for facilitated access to all genetic resources under the jurisdiction of countries in the region (the Nordic Region). There are good reasons why the use of agricultural biodiversity needs to be regulated differently from industrial uses of biodiversity. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, provides for facilitated access to agricultural genetic resources, at least for the crops that are included in the Treaty's ‘Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing’. Ratification of the Treaty is proceeding apace, and negotiations have entered a critical stage in the development of practical instruments for its implementation. Although the scope of the Treaty is all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, there are important crops that are not covered by its Multilateral System. Humanitarian licences are being used to provide access for the poor to protected technologies: countries may need to create such a general humanitarian access regime, to ensure the poor have the access they need to agricultural genetic resources.

scholarly journals ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING UNDER NAGOYA PROTOCOL AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
STELLINA JOLLY
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Access And Benefit Sharing ◽  
Nagoya Protocol ◽  
Equitable Sharing

The debate over control and ownership of natural and bio genetic resources has a chequered history in International environmental law. Historically genetic resources were considered and acknowledged as part of common heritage of mankind. But with the development of technologies and the heightened north south divide over the issue of sovereign right over natural resources the developing nations became extremely concerned with the exploitation of biological and Genetic resources. Access to benefit sharing (ABS) was considered as an answer to balance the interests of developed and developing nations and to conserve and protect bio diversity. Adopted on October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP) has come into force after its 50th ratification on 2013. Nagoya protocol details on procedure for access and benefit sharing, disclosure mechanism, principles of transparency and democracy. The paper analyses the protection of access and benefit sharing envisaged under Nagoya protocol and its possible role in promoting sustainable development in the develoing nations. 

scholarly journals An open-source GIS-enabled lookup service for Nagoya Protocol party information

Database ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrikje Seifert ◽  
Marc Weber ◽  
Frank Oliver Glöckner ◽  
Ivaylo Kostadinov
Keyword(s):  
Data Management ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Cloud Infrastructure ◽  
Clearing House ◽  
Access And Benefit Sharing ◽  
Nagoya Protocol

Abstract The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing is a transparent legal framework, which governs the access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization. Complying with the Nagoya regulations ensures legal use and re-use of data from genetic resources. Providing detailed provenance information and clear re-usage conditions plays a key role in ensuring the re-usability of research data according to the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable) Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Even with the framework provided by the ABS (access and benefit sharing) Clearing House and the support of the National Focal Points, establishing a direct link between the research data from genetic resources and the relevant Nagoya information remains a challenge. This is particularly true for re-using publicly available data. The Nagoya Lookup Service was developed for stakeholders in biological sciences with the aim at facilitating the legal and FAIR data management, specifically for data publication and re-use. The service provides up-to-date information on the Nagoya party status for a geolocation provided by GPS coordinates, directing the user to the relevant local authorities for further information. It integrates open data from the ABS Clearing House, Marine Regions, GeoNames and Wikidata. The service is accessible through a REST API and a user-friendly web form. Stakeholders include data librarians, data brokers, scientists and data archivists who may use this service before, during and after data acquisition or publication to check whether legal documents need to be prepared, considered or verified. The service allows researchers to estimate whether genetic data they plan to produce or re-use might fall under Nagoya regulations or not, within the limits of the technology and without constituting legal advice. It is implemented using portable Docker containers and can easily be deployed locally or on a cloud infrastructure. The source code for building the service is available under an open-source license on GitHub, with a functional image on Docker Hub and can be used by anyone free of charge.

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