17/01/2014

The report of the training workshop Enhancing capacities to understand and implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”, which was recently held in Tsukuba, Japan, is now available online. The workshop gathered 15 national focal points from Contracting Parties of the Region and other technical staff from countries considering accession to the International Treaty.

Among the topics discussed and covered in the Report, are the core provisions of theTreaty, including the functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing and the use its Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA). The event was oriented towards building best practices and gave participants the opportunity to go through several cases of transfer of plant genetic material.

The Report provides an overview of the most commonly used options for national implementation of the Treaty’s Multilateral System, as well as options for national protection of Farmers’ Rights. The participants also discussed on several mechanisms for raising awareness and building capacity.

The Report, authored by Ronnie Vernooy, can be accessed from the website of Bioversity International. The workshop was co-sponsored by the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) of Japan, the Japan Association for Techno-innovation in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (JATAFF).