Pelargonium is online!

You can finally watch our film online.

Cuba signs Nagoya Protocol

We're delighted to hear that Cuba has just become the Member State number 66 of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
For the full list of signatories, please refer to the Convention on Biological Diversity's website. 

The European Patent Office makes a step backward

Swiss organisation The Berne Declaration has recently warned that the European Patent Office was to grant more patents on plants and animals:

In the coming weeks, around a dozen new patents will be granted, covering species such as broccoli, onions, melons, lettuce and cucumber. This is in strong contrast to EPO practise last year, when only very few patents were granted due to a pending precedent decision on the patentability of plants and animals.

The Berne Declarations has also accused EPO's president Benoît Battistelli of backing the interests of agrobusiness giants Monsanto and Syngenta who "already own more than 50% of seed varieties of tomato, pepper and cauliflower registered in the EU".

We are concerned about the impacts this could have on small farming communities such as the one we filmed in South Africa.

For more information, log on to No Patents on Seeds.

The European Parliament takes a stand against biopiracy

As you may have noticed, we have been following here the work of Catherine Grèze, a member of the european parliament of the Green party.

Well, we have some very good news. Grèze's report on the intellectual property rights of genetic resources in developing countries was adopted yesterday.

After the vote, she said that

“Biopiracy is a major problem in developing countries, flying in the face of poverty reduction measures, notably for indigenous communities. This report outlines the problem and sets out measures to protect the intellectual property rights for genetic resources and traditional knowledge in poorer countries and regions. The clear support of MEPs for this report underlines the need for action.“Genetic resources are essential for sustainable agriculture and food security in developing countries, as well as for species survival and ecosystem resilience. In spite of its vital importance for human survival, genetic diversity is being lost at an alarming rate. User countries have a responsibility to tackle this and the EU must play an active role. 

The recently-concluded Nagoya Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) sets out key provisions for addressing biopiracy, notably on access and benefit-sharing, prior informed consent and mutually-agreed terms. The EU must ratify the protocol as swiftly as possible and take immediate steps to ensure it is effective, such as through binding measures on compliance. However, more needs to be done to strengthen the rights of farmers in developing countries, as well to strengthen the rights of indigenous and local communities. 

Ultimately, there is also a need to address the lack of coherence in the global governance system for dealing with the intellectual property implications of genetic resources. International IP arrangements, notably the WTO’s TRIPS agreement, must be reformed to ensure they support the overarching goals of the CBD on genetic resources, rather working against them. One important step would be the inclusion of a binding regulation under TRIPS requiring patent applicants to disclose the origin of any genetic resources and traditional knowledge used in invention.” 

To view the report please click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Beware of AGRA?

One of the organisation featured in the documentary, The Africa Centre for Biosafety (ACB), is sending warnings against The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (known as AGRA and supported by agribusiness multinationals and the Gates Foundation).

Now quoting both a study published by ACB and this article published on All Africa

According to ACB, "AGRA effectively seeks to institutionalise biopiracy by accessing publicly available genetic resources, patenting or imposing other intellectual property rights on the resulting seeds, and then using these industrial monoculture crops to channel African farmers into focusing on earning enough export cash to buy the privatised seed," adding, "The AGRA model uses free inputs to develop monopoly control over outputs and expects farmers to pay for seeds they previously shared and traded, and played a major part in developing over thousands of years."

One of the stands we are taking in our documentary is against the patenting of traditional knowledge and genetic resources following the system in place.

Now is the time

The last few weeks have seen a richer media coverage of the biopiracy problem.

But countries like the United States or Great-Britain - usually well-known for advocacy and human rights defence - are still surprisingly slow at picking up the trend.

As we are getting closer to the opening of the COP11 to be held in Hyderabad this coming October, we hope journalists and politicians such as MEP Catherine Grèze will be getting increased attention on the global debate around the use of genetic resources.

Grèze's commitment was shown last week when she co-organised with other Green MEPs the "Greens conference"entitled "Financing and biopiracy: the challenges of the next UN Biodiversity Summit (COP11, India)".

Panama, first country to benefit from Nagoya fund

We are delighted to read on Sci-Dev website that

"The Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund (NPIF) — has announced its first beneficiary: a project exploring Panama's natural resources for use in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries."


How easy would it be to set up a new way of cultivating and trading umckaloabo (pelargonium), making sure it follows the principles stressed by the Nagoya protocol? Let us know what you think.