Faculty Seminar | The Global Seed Commons, Digital Sequence Information and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. What is at stake?

NLSIU invites you to this week’s faculty seminar by Dr. Christine Frison, FNRS postdoctoral researcher (Law Faculty, UCLouvain) and Associate Research Fellow (University of Antwerp & Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, Montreal, Canada) on the topic ” The Global Seed Commons, Digital Sequence Information and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. What is at stake?”

Abstract

The 2001 FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture has established a multilateral system of access and benefit sharing to govern the access, use and conservation of seeds at a global level. This multilateral system aimed at governing the exchanges of food and agriculture plants in a fair and equitable manner between countries from the global North and the global South, answering the need for specific mechanisms respecting the interdependence of seeds and people around the World. However, discussions under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the post-2020 global biodiversity framework have been troubled by the policy debate on the use of digital sequence information (DSI) in bio-based research and development. In view of technological developments which render physical access to genetic resources unnecessary, ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of DSI is considered to be a centerpiece of any agreement on a post-2020 global biodiversity framework. This lecture aims to unpack the issues at stake and set the focus back on the need to respect the three objectives of (agro-)biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and fair and equitable benefit-sharing.