Presentation on Tree Diversity Day, 11 October 2012, at the 11th CBD Conference of Parties in Hyderabad, India

1.
Agrobiodiversity,
Agroforestry
and
Law
Juliana
Santilli
Tree
Diversity
Day,
ICRAF
1

2. Agrobiodiversity, agroforestry amd
Law
Agroforestry and the UN environmental conventions:
Convention on Biological Diversity
Convention on Climate Change
Convention to Combat Desertification
+
FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture
UNESCO Conventions for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage and on Cultural and Natural Heritage
SEED LAWS

3. Agrobiodiversity and Law
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture:
Multilateral system of Access and Benefit-Sharing
The only “global commons” regime:
- Facilitated access to plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture under the multilateral system, but
- Covers only Annex I crops, conserved ex situ and in the
public domain;

4. Agroforestry and the ITPGRFA
Plant Genetic Resources used in agroforestry systems ??
(ex: of tropical trees which produce fruits, nuts and oils) ??
Should they be included in the multilateral ABS system??
“Global commons” when used for the domestication of
agroforestry trees??

5. Agroforestry and the ITPGRFA
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture: conservation and sustainable use of PGR.
Promote and support farmers’ and local communities efforts to
manage and conserve on-farm their PGR;
Promote the development and maintenance of diverse farming
systems that enhance the sustainable use of agricultural
biodiversity and other natural resources;
Promote plant breeding efforts with the participation of farmers
(participatory domestication of agroforestry trees, tree
improvement)
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6. Farmers’ rights to:
— Protection of traditional
Save, use, exchange and sell
knowledge
farm-saved seeds (subject to
national laws)
— Participate in benefit-
sharing arising from the
utilization of plant genetic Seed Laws and IPRs over
resources
plant varieties
— Participate in decision-
making on matters related to
— conservation and sustainable
use of plant genetic
resources
6

7. Farmers’ rights: how to implement
(“stewardship” approach)
— Collective benefit-sharing, such as:
— Access of local/agrobiodiversity products (including agroforesty
tree products) to the market under special conditions and incentives;
— Food security programs that consider the diversity of healthy
foods that forests provide, and their cultural value and importance
for local food systems;
— Payment for environmental services (including those provided by
agroforestry systems, such as biodiversity conservation, improved
soil fertility, carbon sequestration, watershed protection,
domestication of underutilized species etc);
— Geographical Indications for agricultural systems as a whole (not
for isolated products): promoting a “basket of territorial products and
services” (Pequeur, 2006);

8. Intangible cultural heritage,
agrobiodiversity and agroforestry
— UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage
— Brazil: First registry of a traditional agricultural system as
“intangible cultural heritage”
— (ACIMRN (Indigenous Communities of Medio Rio Negro,
Brazilian Amazon)
— Agrobiodiversity:
— Central element: manioc/
— cassava (73 varieties)
— 243 plant species, including
— fruit trees and medicinal
— plants (Emperaire et al)

9. “Cultural landscapes”
UNESCO Convention on Cultural and Natural Heritage:
“Cultural landscapes” (category created in 1992)
“Cultural landscapes often reflect specific techniques of
sustainable land use, considering the characteristics and
limits of the natural environment they are established in, and a
specific spiritual relation to nature”

10. “Cultural landscapes”
Examples:
Implementation at the local
1) Archaeological level (ex: Brazil, Vale do
Landscape of the First Coffee Itajai, in the State of Santa
Plantations in southeast Cuba; Catarina)
2) Puszta Pastoral
Landscape of Hortobagy
National Park, in Hungary;
3) Rice Terraces of the
Philippines Cordilleras;
4) Agricultural Landscape
of Southern Öland (Sweden)

11. Agrobiodiversity and Law
Seed Laws:
Impose strict rules on seeds’ production, distribution and sales,
that local systems cannot comply with
Reduce legal space for traditional/local farming systems (local
seeds), that maintain agrobiodiversity
In many cases, they make informal seed exchange, as well as the
sales of farm-saved seeds, illegal