From 11-16 November 2019, the Eighth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (a UN-FAO Treaty) took place in Rome. One of the positive outcomes is that the process of collecting experiences and options for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights will be continued with stronger involvement of farmer organizations. The negotiations on much needed improvements of the Treaty’s Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing, however, did not come to a successful outcome and no agreement on the way forward was made on this important topic. Reports of the meeting can be found here https://enb.iisd.org/biodiv/itpgrfa/gb8/ and here http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/eighth-governing-body/en/.
On the side of the meeting, Oxfam and SD=HS partners organized several events. Please find below links to extra information and presentation slides:
- Guardians of Seeds. Virtual reality movie on Community Seed Banks and Farmer Field Schools in Nepal, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, plus the national gene bank in the Netherlands. You can still watch this movie online.
- Side event on Patents, Digital Sequence Information and the Treaty: A reflection on current trends and future impacts. More info, publication and powerpoints.
- Side event on Promoting Mutually Supportive Implementation of the FAO International Treaty and the UPOV Convention/. View presentations or read and download the publication and meeting reports presented at the event.
- Side event on Registration System for Farmer Varieties in Support of Treaty Implementation. View presentations.
