New era of biodiversity
access begins
Rome, Italy
Embargoed until 16.00 hours CEST, Monday 16
October 2006
World leaders in agricultural research today
signed agreements that guarantee long term
access to some of the world’s most important
collections of agricultural biodiversity at
the same time as requiring commercial users
to share benefits with the global community.
In a
ceremony timed to take place on World Food
Day – with its theme of Investing in
Agriculture for Food Security – 11 centres
of the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR) will place all
their ex-situ genebank collections under the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, now
ratified by 105 countries.
“This really is an investment in food
security,” said Emile Frison, Director
General of IPGRI, which is responsible for
the world’s banana collection. “The genetic
diversity created in the past by farmers and
researchers is the foundation of
improvements to meet the challenges of the
future.”
“Unless we can meet those challenges,”
Frison added, “there will be no food
security.”
The
Centres of the CGIAR hold more than 600,000
samples of crop-plant diversity. This
includes wild relatives and more than half
of the global total of farmer-created
varieties, which are such a rich source of
sought-after characteristics, for example to
meet the challenge of climate change..
Mahmoud Solh, Director General of the
International Centre for Agricultural
Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), also in
Rome for the signing, said that the new
agreements would “allow breeders and other
researchers to tap the collections for
solutions to the most pressing problems,
such as drought, desertification, and food
and nutritional security.”
Centre directors “warmly welcome” the
agreements and “commit themselves to
supporting and implementing the Treaty”. A
statement issued by the Alliance of CGIAR
Centres sets out the Centres’ common
understanding of certain provisions of the
Agreements and indicates some actions that
the Centres will be taking to implement
them. The statement is available
here. The model agreement is
available
here.
Notes to editors
Background information on the International
Treaty is available
here.
Pictures
Signing Ceremony for the CGIAR Centre
Agreements with the Governing Body of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, World
Food Day 16 October 2006.
Photo credits:
J. Cherfas/IPGRI.
Jacques Diouf
(Director General FAO)
Emile Frison
(left, Director General IPGRI), Mahmoud Solh
(centre, Director General ICARDA) and
Jacques Diouf (right, Director General FAO)
Mahmoud Solh
(left, Director General ICARDA) and Jacques
Diouf (right, Director General FAO)
Michael Halewood (left) and Gerald Moore
(right)
Emile Frison
(left, Director General IPGRI) and
Jacques Diouf (right, Director General FAO)
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