International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

The core of the ITPGRFA is the Multilateral System (MLS), a defined shared pool of genetic resources comprising many important crops and forages. This is the ITPGRFA’s Access and Benefit-Sharing system. Genetic resources included in the MLS are available for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture purposes. The benefits arising from their use are to be shared through the exchange of information, access to and transfer of technology, capacity-building, and the sharing of the benefits arising from commercialisation. Access is provided on the basis of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) with fixed conditions. The ITPGRFA forms an EU-recognised specialised ABS instrument. This means there are no obligations related to the EU ABS Regulation (Regulation (EU) 511/2014) when genetic resources are obtained and used in accordance with the ITPGRFA.

Multilateral System (MLS)

The most important and creative part of the ITPGRFA is the multilateral system (MLS) of Access and Benefit-Sharing. The ITPGRFA creates an international genetic resources commons – the 'multilateral system of Access and Benefit-Sharing' – within which member states (the Contracting Parties), in exercise of their sovereignty, provide facilitated (free or almost free) access to each other's plant genetic resources for research, breeding, conservation and training. The MLS thus provides a framework for sharing resources and benefits between sovereign nations. It applies to 64 major crops and forages, selected on the basis of two criteria: importance for food security and level of interdependence among countries. These crops provide about 80% of the food we derive from plants at a global level. The genetic resources of the MLS are made available for research, breeding and training, and their recipients cannot claim any intellectual property rights or other rights that limit access to these resources, or their genetic parts or components, in the form received from the MLS.

The exchange of material from the MLS is operationalised through the standard material transfer agreement (SMTA). This is a fixed contract between provider and user for the genetic resources listed in Annex I to the ITPGRFA. It is up to countries to decide whether they want to extend the SMTA (or its conditions) to PGRFA that are not listed in Annex I of the Treaty.

Article 13.2 of the ITPGRFA states that the “benefits arising from the use, including commercial, of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture under the Multilateral System shall be shared fairly and equitably through the following mechanisms: the exchange of information, access to and transfer of technology, capacity-building, and the sharing of the benefits arising from commercialization”. The MLS regulates that an equitable part of the monetary benefits derived from the use of genetic resources from the MLS should be paid into the benefit-sharing fund of the ITPGRFA; this payment is mandatory in certain cases.

There are very few strings attached to the access to materials within the Multilateral System, and the strings that do exist are there to maintain the spirit of community. For example, recipients cannot acquire intellectual property rights (IPR) that prohibit others from receiving them in the same form from the multilateral system. And if recipients choose to prohibit others from using, for their own research and breeding, any product they develop using materials they got from the commons, they must share a percentage of their sales of that product with the international community through the benefit-sharing fund.

Although the MLS established a common, shared system for international Access and Benefit-Sharing, it in no way restricts the sovereignty of countries over their resources. The preamble to the ITPGRFA explicitly recognises that “in the exercise of their sovereign rights over their plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, states may mutually benefit from the creation of an effective multilateral system for facilitated access to a negotiated selection of these resources and for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use”. The Contracting Parties exercised their sovereignty first by participating in the negotiations of the ITPGRFA and the creation of the MLS, and then by choosing to sign and ratify the treaty.

Relation with the Nagoya Protocol and EU ABS Regulation

The ITPGRFA is a specialised international ABS instrument. There is no conflict between the provisions of the ITPGRFA and those of other ABS instruments: for example, the provisions of the Nagoya Protocol will not apply to genetic resources covered by the ITPGRFA.

The ITPGRFA is recognised as a specialised international ABS instrument in the EU ABS Regulation. Therefore, there are no obligations related to the EU ABS Regulation (Regulation (EU) 511/2014) when genetic resources are obtained from the MLS and used in accordance with the ITPGRFA. Some countries issue their PGRFA under the conditions of the SMTA, including PGRFA which are not listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA (and thus cannot be included in the MLS). When you access these genetic resources under the SMTA, you are considered to have exercised due diligence as required by the EU ABS Regulation.