29 June 2014 marked the 10-year Anniversary of the
entry-into-force of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). To celebrate the event, the Secretariat of the
International Treaty and the FAO Office in Geneva organized a high-level
celebration on 3 July 2014, in the United Nations Office in Geneva. This
meeting was attended by Ministers, Ambassadors, international institutions, as
well as civil society and private sector representatives. The celebration focused
on the Treaty as an instrument to assist low-income food-deficient countries
through the support of their farming and local communities, reviewing the
political and technical results achieved, and designing a future trajectory for
the Treaty’s work.
The event was organized around an interactive panel
discussion, featuring several high-level speakers. These
included:
·
Dr Graziano da Silva,
Director-General of FAO (video), reiterated FAO's support to the International
Treaty, including as host of its Secretariat.
·
HE Mr Abdullah Nasser
Al-Rahbi, Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and Consul General
(Oman), reminded us of the importance of the Muscat Ministerial Declaration, highlighted the need to work together to help meet the challenges of water
scarcity and drought, find ways to increase food security, 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.
·
Dr Shakeel Bhatti,
Secretary of the International Treaty, reminded us of the important role of
plant genetic resources for adapting agriculture to changing climatic
conditions and for food security, including as material for breeding,
biotechnologies, etc.
·
Mr Matthew Worrell, Chairperson
of the Governing Body of the International Treaty, highlighted some of the
important achievements of the International Treaty, including of its
Multilateral System (MLS), Standard Material Transfer Agreements, and the projects funded under the Benefit
Sharing Fund.
·
Dr Agung Hendriadi, Director
of the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Technology Assessment, proudly
reminded us that Indonesia was the first developing country to provide funding
to the International Treaty, and he hopes that this will serve to set the
example to other developing countries as well, considering that the MLS
requires strong commitment and support
·
Mr Oliver Allen, the
First Counselor of the Delegation of the European Union to the UN and other
international organizations in Geneva, highlighted that the EU was the major
funder of the International Treaty, together with Norway, having contributed
EUR 5 million. The EU considers the work of the International Treaty as
fundamental for development, and in particular for smallholder farmers who are
most dependent on agro-biodiversity.
·
Dr Silvana Maselli, Researcher
and Professor of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, presented the results achieved
in Guatemala through a project under the Benefit Sharing Fund, where 1340
families from poor marginal communities in Guatemala were supported in
establishing community seed banks and capacity building - on a range of themes
including farmers' rights, seed management and storage, group formation,
climate change adaptation, etc.
·
Dr Braulio Ferreira de
Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the CBD, highlighted the collaboration
between the Secretariats of the International Treaty and the CBD, guided by a
framework for collaboration. He reminded us of the importance of the Aichi targets and the Nagoya Protocol .
·
Mr Gagan Khurana, Head
of Country Operations and Partnerships, Grow Africa Partnership of the World
Economic Forum, emphasised the importance of involving the private sector - specifically
referring to Public Private People Partnership (PPPP) - to ensure that innovative
technologies developed benefit smallholder farmers
· Ms Rima Alcadi,
Grants Portfolio Adviser IFAD, highlighted the relevance of biodiversity to
rural poverty reduction, IFAD's experience in managing projects/programmes
related to the sustainable utilisation and conservation of biodiversity and the
advantages of working with International Treaty.
·
Dr Pedro Braga Arcuri,
representative of EMBRAPA in Europe, reminded us that the Treaty requires
reliable, regular flow of funds. He highlighted the important role of neglected
and underutilised species (NUS) for food and nutrition security and climate
change adaptation and told us that EMBRAPA is intending to propose to the UN an
International Year on NUS.
·
Mr Guy Kastler,
smallholder farmer representing La via Campesina, told us that smallholder farmers
like him are fond of the International Treaty, as it recognises farmers' rights
and because they are aware that these resources are increasingly important for
climate change adaptation. He also highlighted that local landraces have a
higher capacity to adapt to climate change, compared to PGR stored ex situ. He
would like the International Treaty to further work on and develop Access and
Benefit Sharing mechanisms.
·
Ms Monique Barbut,
Executive Secretary of the UNCCD (video), declared that the UNCCD
Secretariat wishes to further strengthen the partnership with the International
Treaty - especially as there are significant areas of overlap between
productive land and biodiversity.
·
Ms Marie Haga, Executive
Director at The Global Crop Diversity Trust, underscored that no country is
self-sufficient when it comes to plant genetic resources. For example, cassava
is vital to the economy of Nigeria as it is the world's largest producer of the
commodity. However Nigeria, has barely 12% of the cassava PGR, whereas Brazil,
that ranks the commodity 18th in terms of importance to its economy,
has 25% of the PGR, as it is the centre of origin of cassava. She also underlined the various ways in which The
Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Secretariat of the International Treaty,
including via a new initiative (to be launched soon!) called DivSeek - child of
a 10 year project on crop wild relatives.
·
Mr Garlich von Essen, Secretary
General of the European Seed Association, gave some suggestions on how to
improve the financial sustainability of the International Treaty and its MLS. He
said that the private sector, and breeders in especially, are very grateful to
the work of the International Treaty - particularly as a tremendous effort was
made to ensure that all major stakeholders were involved in negotiating the
text and that it focuses on PGR for food and agriculture. This
has improved mutual understanding and relevance of the Treaty.
The text of the statement delivered by IFAD is copied below.
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Excellencies,
Respected
colleagues,
Ladies and
gentlemen,
It gives me great
pleasure to be here on behalf of IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural
Development. I thank you for the invitation to celebrate this important event
with you. We, at IFAD, attach great importance to biodiversity as a key
development resource and to the work of the International Treaty.
IFAD is a
specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to alleviating rural poverty
in developing countries. Our starting point, therefore, is to ask ourselves: “What
is the nexus between rural poverty reduction and biodiversity?”
As we celebrate
this 10th Anniversary of the coming into force of the International Treaty, let
us recognise that a decade ago, this question would not have been so
obvious to answer. Now, also thanks to the work of the International Treaty,
the connection between biodiversity and rural poverty reduction is very clear. Globally,
there are 1.2 billion people who live on less than US$1.25 a day, and 70 % of
them are in rural areas and rely directly on ecosystems for food, water, fiber
and fuel. Any change in biodiversity patterns will first and foremost affect
the viability of rural survival.
Let me now turn to
“What IFAD has done in this area.”
We did an analysis
to identify the degree of involvement of IFAD in addressing the nexus
between rural poverty and biodiversity. The analysis was based on IFAD-funded
grants and loans.
We found that 54 grants,
for a total value of over USD 50 million, referred explicitly to
biodiversity. Prominent partners included: Governments, CGIAR centres such as Bioversity
International, ICRAF and CIAT, FAO, Oxfam, icipe, CSOs, and others.
In terms of loans,
48 IFAD-funded investment projects, representing cumulatively over half a
billion dollars, relate to biodiversity. Recently, we have supported
government-led investment projects in Bolivia, China, Djibouti, Ecuador, Kenya,
Laos and The Philippines.
What
did we learn?
We learnt that farmers
care about their biodiversity. Farmers are already voluntarily maintaining
biodiversity on their farms. There are good reasons for doing so, including:
(1) for risk management, to maximise stability against drought or pests
and diseases; (2) for diversity of uses, including for different recipes;
(3) in order to optimise factors of production, for example to balance
labour, water or other input requirements such as fuel wood necessary for
cooking; and (4) to smooth out irregular cash flow and food availability
and access to cover the hunger season and address nutritional needs, for
example by growing varieties with different maturities and nutritional values.
We have noted the important
role of cultural biodiversity too – for example, knowledge of medicinal
plants or indigenous crops suited to the local climate - and we found that
local knowledge about biodiversity differs between women and men.
IFAD firmly
believes in conservation through sustainable utilization. We appreciate
the value of biodiversity most when we can use it. We have also long recognized
that poor rural people are important custodians of biodiversity and have
found ingenious ways of conserving and utilizing it – for instance through
sacred groves and community seed fairs. IFAD was the first UN agency to promote
Neglected and Underutilized Species – also known as promising crops for the
future. These crops are produced and consumed locally and are therefore easily
accessible to people in rural areas, where the largest proportion of
malnourished people live. The promotion and commercialization of these products
have important positive effects on incomes, food security, nutrition, health, local
cultural identity and self-esteem – as well as conserving agro-biodiversity.
At IFAD, we firmly
believe in the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships to improve the
adaptability and adoptability of technologies co-generated by researchers,
civil society and farmers alike. That is why we invest in participatory
technology development.
This brings me to our
partnership with the Benefit-Sharing Fund of the International Treaty. As
you know, the Benefit-sharing Fund is a mechanism to prioritize the
conservation and use of biodiversity in addressing poverty reduction. IFAD
supported the Benefit Sharing Fund, through the initiative “Leading the Field.”
In identifying which of the projects IFAD would support, an important criterion
was relevance to poverty reduction within the IFAD country programmes.
This criterion was applied not only to help strengthen the ongoing IFAD-funded
projects in the country, but also to enhance the potential for scaling up
and broadening our national partnership base.
Besides the funding
provided to the projects under the Benefit Sharing Fund, we found that the
International Treaty plays a fundamental role in influencing policy-makers at
the international level. We believe that from a practical stance, inviting CSOs
and NGOs to the discussions helps ensure that what is ratified at the
international level, is then implemented locally – especially with regard to
farmers’ rights.
Through the various
high-level events organized by the Secretariat of the International Treaty, the
latter has played the role of a knowledge broker. Henry Ford once said “Coming
together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is
success.” It is reassuring to note how effective the Secretariat has been
in establishing a broad base of strong partners who are effectively working
together. Moreover, we in IFAD were pleased to note that the International
Treaty is increasingly ensuring that farmers will be directly involved in
almost all aspects of the work.
To conclude, let us
recognise that people who live below the poverty line are wealthy when it comes
to biodiversity and culture. We must support initiatives that celebrate and
reward these rural communities for conserving this enormous wealth for us all. IFAD
is an IFI firmly dedicated to rural poverty reduction. Our support to the International
Treaty is also meant to signal to you, distinguished delegates, that this is an
important initiative when it comes to sustainable rural development. Our
funding alone , however, is insufficient - but we hope it can serve to catalyse
additional support from other donors.
At this point, on
behalf of IFAD, I wish the International Treaty a happy 10 year anniversary. It
is a young treaty, but as the saying goes, it's not the years in your life
that count but the life in your years - and with its 131 contracting
parties, there's certainly much life to celebrate.
Thank you!
