21/09/2013

Muscat, Oman – Ministers and high-level delegates from the Near East and North Africa Region met in Muscat today and adopted the Muscat Ministerial Declaration on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

The Muscat Ministerial Declaration reflects the Region’s commitment to engage in further enhancing implementation of the Treaty, working together to help meet the challenges of water scarcity and drought, and finding ways to increase food insecurity, alleviate extreme poverty and counter the effects of climate change on the production of key food crops in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region. The Ministerial Conference was convened by H.E. Dr Fuad bin Jaafar Al-Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Sultanate of Oman, to discuss “Water and Drought as Agricultural Challenges in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) Region and Beyond: The Contribution of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture” and was attended by Ministers and high-level delegates from over 20 countries, including five countries outside the NENA region: Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Norway and Spain, in addition to representatives of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank.

“Oman welcomes the International Treaty and considers it to be of enormous importance in helping all countries of the region to conserve their genetic heritage and to support their efforts to exchange and use it wisely for the benefit of their people,” Minister Al-Sajwani said. He made particular mention of the Benefit-Sharing Fund of the International Treaty, which helps fund key agricultural projects in the NENA region and all over the developing world.

The Ministerial Declaration calls upon those countries who have not yet joined the International Treaty to do so, and asks “All Contracting Parties, relevant international mechanisms, funds and bodies to give due priority to activities relevant to the implementation of the Treaty and in particular, in centers of crop origin and diversity such as the Near East and North Africa Region.” It calls on all Contracting Parties to “mobilize effective and timely contributions to the Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund, and to provide practical and meaningful support to the implementation of the Funding Strategy, including through non-monetary benefit-sharing mechanisms.”

The Muscat Ministerial Declaration also calls upon countries and funding institutions to support a Framework Action Plan for the Implementation of the Benefit-Sharing Fund in the Near East and North Africa Region: 2014-2020, which foresees action in three areas: strategy development, on-the-ground action for impact, and the co-development and transfer of technology.” It details goals to be met and measures to be implemented in the Region in support of the International Treaty, and the Treaty’s Benefit-Sharing Fund.

“If the Benefit Sharing Fund is to be able to provide the support that is so urgently needed, it will require considerably more resources than it has available to it at present,” said Minister Al-Sajwani. The Ministers paved the way forward on the eve of the Fifth Session of the Treaty's Governing Body in Muscat, Oman, which is running from 24 through 28 September 2013. The Treaty, which came into force in 2004, creates a multilateral system through which member countries share seeds and other genetic material of 64 of the most important crops for food security – crops that account for over 80 percent of our plant-sourced food.

To date, 131 countries have joined the International Treaty with more expected to accede.