MINISTERS & DELEGATES GATHER IN ROME TO TALK SEEDS & FOOD SECURITY
11/11/2019
It All Starts With the Seed
Rome, Italy, 11 November 2019 – The Eighth Session of the Governing Body (GB-8) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture started at FAO headquarters in Rome today, with an Opening Ceremony featuring addresses by FAO top executives, two national ministers, and all stakeholder groups involved with seeds and plant material for food and agriculture.
The Chairperson of GB-8, Ms Christine Dawson of the United States of America, presided over the Opening Ceremony, which commenced with a moment of silence for Armistice/Remembrance Day, after which speakers addressed the approximately 600 international delegates gathered for GB-8.
“Crop genetic diversity is a treasure of human civilization and must remain a legacy for generations to come,” Ms Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources, said in her opening remarks. “The future of food depends on our ability to use a wide range of crops and their genetic resources,” she said.
“Without a wide range of plants and their genetic resources, we cannot have quality nutrition for healthy and productive lives, adapt our crops to climate change or achieve global sustainable development goals,” said Ms Semedo. She emphasized the importance of the International Treaty, which, through its Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing, ensures access to plant material held in public genebanks around the world. She highlighted the need for more concrete action to conserve agricultural biodiversity, and said, “Thanks to our collective efforts during the last decades, under your leadership, we have managed to safeguard much of the remaining crop genetic diversity,” adding that it was important to continue strengthening the role of the International Treaty in this regard.
“Food is the most fundamental right,” H.E. Mr Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, India, said in his address to GB-8. He emphasized the need to “eliminate the divide between North and South, and (to) focus on the aspirations of the Treaty founders and farming communities.” He also spoke of the importance of new technological advances and urged Treaty membership to keep digital sequence information in mind. “We must use all the modern technologies as well as traditional knowledge to conserve and use them sustainably,” he said.
Minister Tomar highlighted the important role of farmers and indigenous communities in the development and conservation of plant genetic resources, and pointed out that India has enacted legislation aimed at protecting the rights of farmers, in accordance with Article 9 of the International Treaty, which calls on all nations to protect the rights of smallholder farmers. In closing, Minister Tomar extended an invitation on behalf of the Government of India to host the next (ninth) session of the Governing Body, in 2021.
“The Treaty is an important tool, of global relevance, dedicated to a world free from hunger, in which everyone equally shares the benefits deriving from efforts to conserve, exchange and use plant genetic resources,” H.E. Minister Teresa Bellanova, Minister of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies, Italy, said in her address to GB-8. She said that Italy is proud to host the FAO, the International Treaty and GB-8 in Rome. She said Italy has always supported the work of the International Treaty, both financially and in terms of sharing its own plant genetic resources and the data that goes with it.
Minister Bellanova also spoke of the important of investing in “technological innovation, promoting resilience and adapting new varieties,” and encouraged appropriate partnerships to allow for a “wider distribution and greater use of plant germplasm.” Another area she said she would like to see receive more attention is the role of women in conserving biodiversity and said she particularly appreciated the GB-8 poster, which highlights the relationship between women and plant genetic resources.
In her statement, Ms Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, emphasized the vital importance of the International Treaty and said, “It is very hard to see how we will be able to sustainably feed a growing world population with sufficiently nutritious food if we don’t have a well-functioning Plant Treaty.” He reiterated the mutually supportive relationship of the Crop Trust and the International Treaty, and vowed the Crop Trust would continue to support and complement the Treaty.
Mr Michael Keller, Secretary General, International Seed Federation, spoke of the seed sector’s close involvement with and support for the International Treaty since its inception. She pointed out that “additional efforts must be made to combat climate change.” He said the best way to conserve the diversity of plant genetic resources is to use them.
Speaking on behalf of Mr François Desprez, Chairman, Groupement National Interprofessionel des Semences et Plants (GNIS), Mr François Burgaud reiterated the commitment of the French inter-professional seed organization to the International Treaty, financially and otherwise. “By creating a multilateral system that facilitates access for breeders around the world to genetic resources and benefit-sharing from these resources, you have potentially contributed to securing agriculture and food for tomorrow,” he said.
Ms Evalyne Adhiambo Okoth, a smallholder farmer who travelled from her village in western Kenya, thanked the FAO, the International Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) and partners for helping improve her life and the lives of other farmers in her community. She spoke particularly about how the Community Seed Bank set up through the BSF project had provided easy access for 1000 famers to much-needed seeds, and thanked the International Treaty community for allowing the farmers to decide for themselves which crops they want to plant. “Always remember: happy farmers build healthy nations that creates a peaceful world,” she said.
In his keynote address, Sir Robert Watson, former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) emphasized the crucial importance of biodiversity for the resilience of agricultural systems, and highlighted the urgent need for “rapid transformation” of our systems “and bold actions” in order to tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss. For this, he said, it is vital to “address climate change and loss of biodiversity together.” He also emphasized the need for cross-sectoral management at all levels, and inclusive governance structures that address the current lack of trust within and between stakeholders.
“Biodiversity is integral to ecosystem health, essential to the sustainable increase of food production and necessary to build resilient livelihoods,” said Ms Irene Hoffmann, Secretary, Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. She spoke of two important first-time Commission publications, The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture (SoWBFA), and The State of the World’s Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and invited all Contracting Parties to contribute to the Commission’s work towards the development of a follow-up policy response to the findings of the SoWBFA. She said the Report on the SoWBFA had shed “new light on the interdependence of the different sectors of genetic resources and biodiversity for food and agriculture.” Ms Hoffmann emphasized the close cooperation between the Commission and the International Treaty, and reported that preparations are underway on the Third Report of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
In his opening remarks, Mr Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty, expressed particular appreciation to the Ministers of India and Italy for their commitment to the Treaty. Speaking of the achievements of the International Treaty over the last 15 years, Mr Nnadozie spoke also of the need to “look towards the future and make decisions that will help us move forward in order to stay current and relevant.” Speaking of the “massive challenges arising from a range of issues, including increasing hunger, changing climate, precarious environmental conditions and changes in the global policy and political landscape,” he said there are also “significant opportunities to address them,” and pointed out that the International Treaty is well-positioned to help address many of the existing and emerging challenges.
“If we move forward together in this spirit of interdependency and cooperation that underpins our International Treaty, then I am confident that we can resolve any differences, and together emerge as a more dynamic, stronger whole,” Mr Nnadozie said.
Over 600 international delegates, experts, policy makers, NGOs, CSOs and farmers’ representatives have gathered at FAO headquarters in Rome for the Eighth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty. This Eighth Session runs from Monday, 11 November 2019 through Saturday, 16 November 2019, and was preceded by two days of regional and inter-regional consultations and a 15th Anniversary Special Event, called “Recollections & Future Visions,” which took place on Saturday, 09 November 2019.
GB-8 marks the 15th Anniversary of the International Treaty’s entry-into-force, and highlights the theme of “It All Starts With the Seed: Fifteen Years of Saving, Sharing and Taking Care of the Seeds that Feed the World.” This theme is evident in all visual elements complementing the meeting this week – from the session poster, to the display in the FAO atrium, to the new film produced by the Secretariat of the International Treaty. The atrium of the FAO has been converted into a cross-sectoral interactive exhibition of the various ways that seed and plant material are used for conserved – from the local level to the national level to the global level. The local level is represented by a replica of a Community Seed Bank in the shape of a hut in which Oxfam is presenting a Virtual Reality (VR) film allowing visitors to “visit” CSBs in rural areas. The national level and the private sector are represented through a display of an automated seedbank in Japan through a VR experience. A global safety back-up system for the world’s crop seeds is demonstrated through a model of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. The overarching connection between these different elements are brought together under an overarching common bond in the form of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing, represented through a tall vertical double-helix of seeds flowing from different nations of the world into the earth and back again. The GB-8 display is on exhibit in the FAO atrium until Saturday, 16 November 2019.
GB-8 Opening Ceremony Speeches/Presentations
GB-8 Opening Ceremony Photographs
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