OVERVIEW OF TYPICAL NATIONAL MEASURES (laws,regulations, policies, programmes) RELEVANT FOR THE PROTECTION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE CONTEXT OF FARMERS´RIGHTS

(Presented by Juliana Santilli)

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Regulate the use, production and sale of seedsTend to privilege “formal” seed systems

How Seed Laws address the following questions:

Do they recognize that TK is an essential component of local/ local/traditional /creole varieties?

And that TK is embodied in the biological material (seeds)?

Do Seed Laws create legal spaces for TK and seeds of local/traditional /creole varieties?

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What impacts Seed Laws have on TK?Are traditional/local/creole seeds exempt from official

registration? (Seed laws may apply only to farmers´varieties, or may

regulate only seeds produced by the formal system, and not seeds sold or exchanged at the local level. In other countries, only seeds that are sold must be registered, or only seeds of certain species need to be registered)

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Is there a special registry for traditional/local/creole seeds ?

Do traditional/local/creole seeds have to meet uniformity and stability criterias to be registered?

(India: only the “novelty requirement” is not necessary for farmers´varieties)

Special laws aimed at protecting TK ? Protection against misappropriation or from disappearing?

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Policies/programmes that encourage dialogue/cooperation between “scientific” knowledge and TK (such as participatory plant breeding)?

Initiatives to document TK, such as inventories, catalogues, registries...

Community gene banks and networks of exchange between farmers and local communities

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Most countries have signed UPOV 1978 or UPOV 1991.

What impact do they have on TK?

Are IPR Laws restricting the rights of farmers to use farm-saved seed and to exchange seeds among themselves?

And the right of farmers to use commercial varieties as sources of variation in breeding,

(extension of the “breeder´s privilege” to farmers?)

IPRs used to protect TK?.

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Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization – TK;

Recalls the relevance of Article 8(j) of the Convention as it relates to traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge;

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Notes the interrelationship between genetic resources and TK, their inseparable nature for indigenous and local communities, the importance of TK knowledge for the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components, and for the sustainable livelihoods of these communities;

Recognizes the diversity of circumstances in which TK associated with genetic resources is held or owned by indigenous and local communities;

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Mindful that it is the right of indigenous and local communities to identify the rightful holders of their TK associated with genetic resources, within their communities;

Further recognizes the unique circumstances where TK associated with genetic resources is held in countries, which may be oral, documented or in other forms, reflecting a rich cultural heritage relevant for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity;

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The Protocol applies to TKtional knowledge associated with genetic resources within the scope of the Convention and to the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge.

Each Party shall take measures, as appropriate, with the aim of ensuring that TK associated with genetic resources that is held by indigenous and local communities is accessed with the prior and informed consent or approval and involvement of these indigenous and local communities, and that mutually agreed terms have been established.

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GLOBAL MULTILATERAL BENEFIT-SHARING MECHANISM

Parties shall consider the need for and modalities of a global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism to address the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the utilisation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that occur in transboundary situations or for which it is not possible to grant or obtain prior informed consent.

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The benefits shared by users of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources through this mechanism shall be used to support the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components globally

TRANSBOUNDARY COOPERATION : Where the same traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources is shared by one or more indigenous and local communities in several Parties, those Parties shall endeavour to cooperate, as appropriate, with the involvement of the indigenous and local communities concerned.

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Implementation of CBD (artigo 8 j) and bilateral contracts between providers and users of genetic resources and TK:

Access to local/traditional varieties that incorporate TK

Access to varieties of exotic species that have developed “distinctive properties” (through natural selection and/or through local management)

Access to resources and TK that are shared by several local communities: when it is difficult to identify a “provider”. Ecocultural funds??

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Initiatives to support farmers’ efforts to manage and conserve on-farm their PGR;

Initiatives to promote in situ conservation of wild crop relatives , including in protected areas, by supporting, inter alia, the efforts of indigenous and local communities;

Initiatives to strengthen the development of varieties particularly adapted to social, economic and ecological conditions (such as participatory plant breeding)

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Crops (cultivated plants) are:

“cultural artifacts”; “biological in their nature, but cultural in their essence” (Sauer and Emperaire)

Registry of intangible cultural heritage

(UNESCO Convention on the Safeguard of Intangible CH)

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Brazil: Registry of the

Indigenous agricultural system of Alto Rio Negro (Brazilian Amazon)

(UNESCO World Heritage Convention, 1972)

1992: “cultural landscapes”

Examples: Cuba: Archaeological

Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba

Hungary: Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape

Philippine: Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras

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1) Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (Mexico),

Manantlán Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation (Imecbio), of Guadalajara University, and CIMMYT: teosinte

2) Parque de la Papa (Peru): Quechua and Aymara Indigenous Peoples and the ngo Andes

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A GIAHS is a living, evolving system of human communities in an intricate relationship with their territory and agricultural landscape.

It includes the recognition of traditional knowledge systems . ( FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNESCO, IFAD, UNU)

Pilot systems: Andean Agriculture (Peru) ; Chiloé Agriculture (Chile); Ifugao Rice Terraces (Philippines)

Oases of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia); Rice-Fish Agriculture (China); Hani Rice Terraces System (China) ; Wannian traditional rice culture system (China) ; Pastoral and Upland Agroecosystem (Kenya, Tanzania)

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