TUNIS, JUNE 5 2009 -- After four days of difficult negotiations among 121 governments at a UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Treaty meeting on the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in Tunisia, a Canadian effort to block progress was overturned. At midnight on Thursday, Brazil read an amended resolution on farmers’ rights to a tired plenary, shifting the prevailing tension among the delegates into relief and enthusiasm.  Following corridor negotiations, in which Europe, Latin America and Africa confronted Canada’s effort to derail the implementation of Farmers’ Rights, governments agreed to:

• Encourage member countries to review all measures affecting farmers’ rights and remove any barriers preventing farmers from saving, exchanging or selling seed;
• Involve farmers fully in national and/or regional workshops on the implementation of farmers’ rights and to report back on the implementation of farmers’ rights at the next meeting of the seed treaty in about 18 months;

The plenary resolution broke from conventional UN diplomatic practices by calling for the full involvement of farmers’ organizations in every aspect of the Treaty.

Angola, Brazil, Ecuador, The Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland deserve special thanks for championing farmers’ critical role in the conservation and enhancement of plant genetic resources. Honduran farmer, Don Luis Pacheco, summarized the importance of the Treaty when he said: “Conserving plant genetic diversity is essential to our ability to adjust agriculture to the new threats of climate change. If we don’t get the global system for seed conservation right at this meeting in Tunisia, the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year can’t succeed.”

Wilhelmina Pelegrina, Executive Director of  SEARICE– a civil society organization that has long lobbied for farmers’ rights--had this to say: “Although short on firm commitments, and dependent on financing, the resolution is a sizeable step forward in the decades-long struggle to recognize and implement farmers’ rights at the FAO.“

Critical to this growing commitment to farmers’ rights during this third meeting of the Governing Body were the many interventions made by representatives of farmers’ organizations, such as the world’s largest peasants’ organization, La Via Campesina. These spokespersons not only emphasized the central role that small farmers play in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity, but also made concrete proposals about the rights and support that these farmers, farm communities, indigenous peoples’ organizations and pastoralists require.  Not the least of these rights are access to national and international gene bank materials and the right to financial support for on-farm biodiversity conservation.

"We did not get everything we needed at this meeting, but at least we now have the opportunity to begin to review legislation that has been so harmful to farmers' rights in many countries. The Canadian team here played dirty tricks and were repeatedly obstructionist during the whole process," said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group.  "Thankfully, the multilateral process and pressure from civil society was able to bring them back into line.”

The International Treaty on Plant and Genetic Resource’s emphasis on national sovereignty over the conservation of plant genetic resources and farmer’s rights is also of concern. National seeds laws can, for example, prevent farmers from saving, exchanging, and selling their seeds. And as Jorge Stanley, a member of a Panamanian indigenous youth organization and spokesperson for the International Planning Committee on food sovereignty told the plenary earlier in the day:  “‘Consent’ and ‘benefit sharing’ for farmers who are the key custodians of our genetic crop heritage, maintaining thousands of local varieties of plants within their territories, are not respected in patent laws that allow, for example, farmers’ varieties to be pirated”.

While the farmer and civil society organizations present are encouraged by this development, discussions and decisions to date fall short of the support required to make the Treaty work. The funding objective of $116 million USD is the bare minimum to sustain it and contributions remain voluntary. Civil society is determined to monitor developments closely and will return to their national homelands with plans to promote the implementation of farmers’ rights. “We will be back”, said Brazilian farmer, Soniamara Maranho, of La Via Campesina.

For more information, contact:

Pat Mooney in Tunis at +1 613 291 9793

Diana Bronson in Montreal + 1 514 273 6661 or cell +1 514 629 9236

Faris Ahmed in Ottawa +1 613 234-6827 x223 or cell +1 613 263 5671

Che de Jesus/ Golda Hilario in the Philippines: +632 922 6710;  cell +63 917 511 9507; +63 917 512 4596

On June 2—the second day of the Third Governing Body (GOB) Meeting of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) in Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia --SEARICE presided over a “side event” that was attended by a packed audience. Meanwhile, deadlock reigned at the official meeting, as the G77 countries held their ground against European Union (EU) efforts to block negotiations on the funding strategy. (See article.)

SEARICE presented to the Contracting Parties and other stakeholders the preliminary results of a series of round table discussions that it had organized. The RTDs focused on one provision of Article 9 of the ITPGRFA -- the right to participation in making decisions at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).

The side event started with a presentation from Mr. Josefino Haguisan, a farmer from Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao, who shared his experiences in farming and the initiative he and his fellow farmers are undertaking to secure their seed systems in partnership with the local government.  Bagumbayan is one of the leading corn producing areas in the province, with 18,000 hectares of flat lands and rolling hills planted to corn. Bagumabayan also used to be the third biggest consumer of a particular brand of herbicide in the world.

Mr. Archie Cruz, SEARICE policy officer, thereafter presented the results of discussions on rights to participation that were organized by SEARICE. He focused on the challenges faced by the government, farmers and other stakeholders in operationalizing the right to participation. (Download the Report of Roundtable Discussions on the Right to Participation.)

Frustration and disappointment marred the opening on June 1 of the Third Governing Body session in Carthage, Tunisia when it was announced that a mere 250,000 dollars would be allocated for the ITPGRFA (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture)’s Benefit Sharing Fund.

The ITPGRFA provides that 1.1 percent of all sales of products derived from the use of genetic resources covered by the Treaty should go to this Benefit Sharing Fund, which would then be used for the benefit of farmers—being the main producers and conservers of the world’s agro-biodiversity. Thus, the quarter of a million dollars is a paltry sum in view of its supposed source and intended use.

Furthermore, only two of the 11 projects that would be supported by the Benefit Sharing Fund are from non-government organizations (NGOs).

Ditdit Pelegrina, SEARICE executive director, deplored the fact that “farmers were largely absent from the 11 approved projects.  Clearly, the money [will not be used for] on-farm conservation, as the treaty claims, nor in places where the diversity and farmers are to be found but rather to national research institutions.”

“It is an insult to the treaty to claim that this money constitutes access and benefit sharing that is supposed to go the backbone of our food system,” protested Guy Kastler, a peasant representative from La Via Campesina.

In fact, this amount was not generated through the Treaty mechanism, but came from “voluntary donations” from individual countries.

The rich countries, such as Canada and Europe, are blocking mandatory contributions to the treaty, which make up the Treaty’s budget. The last Treaty meeting in 2007 was almost entirely wasted on useless bickering over the 4,9 million needed to keep the lights on in the Treaty Secretariat.

On April 22--Earth Day—the Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) organized a forum on climate change in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat Province, in southwestern Mindanao, Philippines.

The theme for this year’s Earth Day celebration in Tacurong was “The Role of the Youth in Mitigating Climate Change.” The forum was participated in by students from different schools. Guest speaker, Salem Limpao, Al Haj, who is the chief operations officer of the Provincial Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), talked about the current biodiversity situation in the province and the natural calamities brought about climate change that have struck areas within Sultan Kudarat, as well as the programs that the office is currently implementing. Vincent Malasador,SEARICE Policy Officer, discussed mitigation measures to meet the challenge of climate change.

Mark Gersava, a student from the Sultan Kudarat State Polytechnic College (SKPSC) commented that, ”there are only a few who are aware of the current state of our environment, and even fewer who care. Why is this? As members of the youth, we should start the campaign to regain what has been lost and to protect what is left. We are already starting to experience the negative consequences of climate change. Why wait for the worst scenario if we can do things to minimize or mitigate the effect of climate change in this area. We must work hand in hand, together with different stakeholders, especially the DENR and civil society, to disseminate and do actions to protect our future and the future of our children and great grandchildren.”

A Task Force on Climate Change was organized to facilitate and strengthen the campaign and advocacy on climate change in the province. At the same time, this organization will be responsible for carrying out environmental related activities within the respective school campuses and elsewhere in Sultan Kudarat and beyond the province.

The Provincial Office of the DENR in Sulta Kudarat assured the Forum participants that they will be actively involved and support efforts in the campaign to mitigate climate change. -- Reported by Vincent Malasador.