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.

Al Jazeera's "The Stream" on Biopiracy

Watch the last edition of "The Stream" on a famous (alleged) case of biopiracy involving agro-giant Monsanto.

Where does the European Union stand in the fight against biopiracy?

Biopiracy was recently discussed at the EU parliament.  I don't think this happens everyday so it is worth pointing it out...

MEP of the south-west of france group of the Greens, Catherine Grèze, commented on a study commissioned by the Development Committee.  For her, it "reveals or emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach with regard to the impact of intellectual property rights in developing countries".

She said the two main sectors involved are agriculture and health and that biopiracy has generally two main causes: "lack of regulation in developing countries and / or lack of compliance mechanisms in developed countries. Responsibilities are finally divided - on one hand, developing countries should establish an adequate legal framework for access and benefit-sharing, on the other, developed countries must provide effective mechanisms to ensure sharing fair and equitable benefit from the use of genetic resources."

There are 3 main challenges that the EU should be dealing with:
- make sure that the Nagoya Protocol is ratified.
- reforming the system of intellectual property
- protection of traditional knowledge and recognition of indigenous rights at a EU level


Grèze stressed that "the temptation will be for the EU to hide behind the World Trade Organisation when it could be the driving force and reveal the concerns of poor countries to the rest of the world".

Read Catherine Grèze's itnervention in French here.

Biopiracy and the Nagoya Protocol

 

Source:  CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture, on Flickr

Since we started working on Pelargonium we have fully acknowledged how important it is to strengthen the legal framework on biodiversity-related issues, and particularly trading resources.

The film shows a medicinal plant sought after by too many predators and needing protection.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established in Rio in 1992 is aiming at protecting the access to biological resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their collection. But 'biopiracy' has yet to be properly addressed by the convention, and the Nagoya Protocol could be a significant step in establishing guidelines for access and benefit sharing.

As pointed out by Appleyard Lees,  a UK-based firm of Patent and Trade Marks attorneys, "signature has no legal effect, as such, but it is a commitment to bring the provisions into national law and to ratify the Protocol" and "it is anticipated that the protocol will enter into force before the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Hyderabad in October 2012."

The Nagoya Protocol is open to signature until February 1st.

Visit the CBD website for more information.

Web campaign

"Pelargonium" launched its web campaign last weekend on facebook and twitter.

People often wonder if these social media campaigns work. We had a few doubts ourselves. But creating a buzz does help.

We are reaching out to all our friends, and most importantly to NGOs and other organisations involved in biodiversity protection and defending other green causes.

We are also looking to connect with journalists.


Little by little, we are generating a genuine interest in our Pelargonium and raising awareness on an issue that has not received much coverage yet - biopiracy . But we do need your help in getting our voice heard. So what can YOU do?

>> Please, like our facebook page. Even better, it with your friends on your walls.

>> If you have a twitter account, please follow @PelargoniumDoc to get updates from us, and retweet them.

>> Keep coming back to our blog and share your thoughts with us in the comment box.

>> We also love to hear from our "fans" on the old email pelargoniumproject(at)gmail(dot)com

We have been hugely relying on our friends and families since the adventure started nearly two years ago, and the Internet has been a fantastic tool to get this film made.

Thank you to all those who have been helping, and all those who will be.