Written by: SS Snapp, MJ Blackie, and GY Kanyama-Phiri

http://www.new-ag.info/en/research/innovationItem.php?a=2356

Dr. Santilli is a lawyer and a public prosecutor in the Federal District of Brazil, specialized in Environmental and Cultural Heritage Law and Public Policies. She has a PhD in Environmental Law, and is an associate researcher in Environmental Law at the University of Brasília, Center for Sustainable Development, and is a co-founding member of the Brazilian civil society organization Instituto Socioambiental (www.socioambiental.org).

“Agrobiodiversity and the Law”

 Loss of agricultural diversity, at varying levels, is associated with the industrialization of agriculture, particularly after the Green Revolution, and cannot be attributed to legal systems only. However, many laws and regulations have direct impacts on agrobiodiversity, and they have been underestimated and sometimes not even considered by policy-makers and legislators. Agrobiodiversity and associated cultural diversity are major values that must be encompassed in all regulations that affect biological, genetic, and agroecosystem diversity.

The main objective of the book “Agrobiodiversity and the Law: regulating genetic resources, food security and cultural diversity” is to analyze the impacts that inter­national and national legal instruments have on agrobiodiverse farming systems and on the local small-scale farmers who conserve and manage them. However, before analyzing legal instruments in themselves, we dis­cuss what agrobiodiversity is, and show its important interfaces with food security, nutrition, health, social equity, environmental sustainability, and climate change. Understanding the multiple connections and implications of agrobiodiversity is essential to comprehend why it is so important that agricultural and rural development laws prioritize its conservation and sustainable use.

The book analyzes seed production, utilization, and sales laws, IP rights over plant varieties (and the so-called plant breeders’ rights), farmers’ rights, livestock keepers’ rights, and access and benefit-sharing regulations and their impacts on plant and animal genetic resources for food and agri­culture, among others. On the other hand, it shows that some legal tools that were not conceived primarily for agrobiodiversity conservation can also be used for this purpose, such as biological open source and creative commons, protected areas, and geographical indications. Positive and nega­tive effects in different countries are also discussed.

We comprehend crops and agroecosystems as cultural artifacts, made and molded by man as much as ceramics, buildings, monuments, and other works of art. Therefore, the book discusses how legal instruments con­ceived to safeguard cultural heritage can also be used to recognize and promote agrobiodiverse farming systems and all of their components, both tangible (such as landscapes and cultivated plants) and intangible (agri­cultural techniques, practices, and knowledge), as well as the social and cultural processes that maintain and enrich them. Intangible cultural herit­age registries and cultural landscapes recognition and protection, as well as the safeguarding of globally important ingenious agricultural heritage systems, are analyzed from the perspective of agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Historically, public policies have focused mainly on wild biodiversity, and cultivated biodiversity has received very little attention not only from public officials but also from environmentalists, civil society organizations, and the general public. However, protecting species and varieties of maize, rice, beans, wheat, etc., as well as the diversity of agroecosystems, is no less important than saving the Amazon rainforest and threatened wild species such as panda bears, birds, turtles, etc. It is my sincere hope that this book will contribute to the development of more effective policies, legislation, and regulations governing in situ and on-farm management of agrobiodi­versity, as well as for the protection of farmers’ and livestock keepers’ rights.

~ Juliana Santilli

Our readers will be be interested to know that this interesting book has been endorsed by:

Regine Andersen, The Farmers´ Rights Project, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway

 “This book is a must for all involved in the management of crop genetic resources. Santili’ s clear, comprehensive and updated account of the major international developments draws on a broad foundation of previous research, illustrated with examples from around the world. Agrobiodiversity and the Law represents a central contribution to our understanding of this important topic”; and by

Alberto Ninio, Chief Counsel, Environmental and Social Safeguards, The World Bank, Washington D.C.

“Dr. Juliana Santilli, a well established and recognized environmental lawyer and prosecutor in Brazil presents us with a comprehensive and brilliant analysis of one of the most challenging topics of our times: environmental protection and agriculture.  Instead of adopting the easy approach of “taking sides”, Dr. Santilli’s book recognizes the challenges, examines issues with historical and legal lenses and proposes practical recommendations, all based on cutting-edge scholarly research. This is a must-have book for all those working in the field of environmental law, conservation and rural development”.

Anthony Gross, Senior Felow of United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies 

“Agrobiodiversity – our shared heritage of agricultural species and varieties, and the knowledge and practices of indigenous and traditional farming communities associated with these – is an essential component of human development and well-being, not least as regards food security and adaptation to climate change. Juliana Santilli provides us with a comprehensive overview of the increasingly complex set of international and national legal instruments designed to reverse the current loss of agrobiodiversity and reward those responsible for conserving plant genetic resources and for sharing their associated traditional knowledge. Highly recommended to policy-makers, researchers and other readers seeking an accessible and authoritative introduction to an increasingly important issue.”

“Agrobiodiversity and the Law” can be ordered through the Earthscan/Routledge/Taylor & Francis web site, via this page: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781849713726

This interesting book outlines the policy mechanisms that are currently underway to protect local genetic resources and related traditional knowledge at both the national and international level.

The book also addresses the many obstacles that indigenous communities come up against with regards to conserving biodiversity, crop improvement and managing the natural resources that make up a great part of their livelihoods. In particular these themes are addressed within the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. (ITPGRFA).  Interestingly, the authors broaden the policy and legal debates beyond the sphere of policy experts to include the knowledge-holders themselves – the farmers, the herders and fisherman in their respective local communities; the “custodians of biodiversity”.

The authors highlight that their experience in sharing access and benefits to genetic resources is shown to be crucial for the development of effective national and international agreements. The book presents and analyzes this experience, including case studies from China, Cuba, Honduras, Jordan, Nepal, Peru and Syria.

The book can be downloaded or viewed full text from the link provided above.

Photo credit: Earthscan/IDRC

The report is principally concerned with the health risks imposed by a modern food and agricultural system, demonstrated by the growing rates of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. The report mentions that a food system should offer choices for a healthy, balanced diet; and to reach such a goal it requires the intervention of a multitude of actors within the food system in order to transform the highly complex food and agriculture capacity in the world today into a system for increasing longevity and well-being for all.  There should be more alignment between the agriculture/food and health sectors to order to prevent NCDs

“The costs of dealing with NCDs are soaring in both rich and poor countries,” states Rachel Nugent the author of the report;   “It is obvious that the health sector alone cannot prevent all these premature deaths and chronic illnesses, and the poor of the world are the most vulnerable. The agriculture and food sector can be a great partner to the health sector in finding ways to control and prevent the global effects of NCDs.”

News & Analysis

Plant Biology

Banking Seeds for Future Evolutionary Scientists

1.     Elizabeth Pennisi

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Science 23 September 2011:
Vol. 333 no. 6050 pp. 1709-1710
DOI: 10.1126/science.1212453

Perspective

Ecology

Biodiversity and Productivity

1. 1.     Michael R. Willig

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Science 23 September 2011:
Vol. 333 no. 6050 pp. 1750-1753
DOI: 10.1126/science.1204498

Report

Productivity Is a Poor Predictor of Plant Species Richness

Full text available only to subscribers to this journal

Christopher B. Barretta,b,1, Alexander J. Travisb,c, and Partha Dasguptad

 aCharles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, bDavid R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, and cBaker Institute for Animal Health, Cornell Center for Wildlife Conservation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; and dFaculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

 PNAS | August 23, 2011 | vol. 108 | no. 34 | 13907–13912

  This paper introduces a special feature on biodiversity conservation and poverty traps. We define and explain the core concepts and then identify four distinct classes of mechanisms that define important interlinkages between biodiversity and poverty. The multiplicity of candidate mechanisms underscores a major challenge in designing policy appropriate across settings. This framework is then used to introduce the ensuing set of papers, which empirically explore these various mechanisms linking poverty traps and biodiversity conservation.

 http://www.pnas.org/content/108/34/13907.abstract?etoc

doi:10.1038/nature10282

Published online: 10 August 2011

High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services

Forest Isbell,1 Vincent Calcagno,1 Andy Hector,2 John Connolly,3 W. Stanley Harpole,4 Peter B. Reich,5, 6 Michael Scherer-Lorenzen,7 Bernhard Schmid,2 David Tilman,8 Jasper van Ruijven,9 Alexandra Weigelt,10 Brian J. Wilsey,4 Erika S. Zavaleta11 & Michel Loreau1

Biodiversity is rapidly declining worldwide1, and there is consensus that this can decrease ecosystem functioning and services2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. It remains unclear, though, whether few8 or many9 of the species in an ecosystem are needed to sustain the provisioning of ecosystem services. It has been hypothesized that most species would promote ecosystem services if many times, places, functions and environmental changes were considered9; however, no previous study has considered all of these factors together. Here we show that 84% of the 147 grassland plant species studied in 17 biodiversity experiments promoted ecosystem functioning at least once. Different species promoted ecosystem functioning during different years, at different places, for different functions and under different environmental change scenarios. Furthermore, the species needed to provide one function during multiple years were not the same as those needed to provide multiple functions within one year. Our results indicate that even more species will be needed to maintain ecosystem functioning and services than previously suggested by studies that have either (1) considered only the number of species needed to promote one function under one set of environmental conditions, or (2) separately considered the importance of biodiversity for providing ecosystem functioning across multiple years10, 11, 12, 13, 14, places15, 16, functions14, 17, 18 or environmental change scenarios12, 19, 20, 21, 22. Therefore, although species may appear functionally redundant when one function is considered under one set of environmental conditions7, many species are needed to maintain multiple functions at multiple times and places in a changing world.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10282.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20110811#/access

The overall objective of the training programme is to enhance participants’ capabilities to deal with the management of genetic resources activities and programmes. In addition, relevant policies regarding genetic resources will receive special attention. The course programme aims for participants and facilitators to exchange experiences and to enhance understanding of effective approaches towards the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources in agriculture.

The programme consists of two three-week courses offered in parallel sessions: (1) Genetic resource policies and genetic resource management strategies, and (2) Integrated and participatory approaches in agrobiodiversity management. Additionally, one-day workshops on special topics are organised in which the participants of both courses will join.

The deadline for application, directly to  Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation is 16 March 2012 (self-financed) and  the deadline for application  with funding support  (limited NUFFIC Fellowships) is 1 October 2011.   Early application is recommended.

For more information, see their website.

Your challenge is to develop a genetic conservation strategy to safeguard this Dipterocarp tree in Malaysia. Your strategy must take into account sustainable ecosystems, and consider both in situ and ex situ conservation measures, as well as what resources are available.

Bioversity International’s new Training Guide – Forest Genetic Resources (FGR)- will help practitioners make these kind of decisions which are the reality of day-to-day conservation planning. Primary forests have decreased worldwide by more than 40 million hectares since 2000, due to deforestation, selective logging and other human interventions. As a consequence conservation planning must consider the survival of individual tree species.

Species Genetic Conservation (Module 1) uses a mix of multi-media elements and problem-based teaching case studies to encourage participants to consider genetic diversity as a key part of the conservation planning process. The guide is a tool for teaching and learning about FGR issues both in formal education and on-the-job training.

Other modules will be shortly published, so watch this space!

Vodouhè R.; A. Dansi; H. T. Avohou; B. Kpèki and F. Azihou (2011)  Plant domestication and its contributions to in situ conservation of genetic resources in Benin.
International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation Vol. 3(2), pp. 40-56

All over the world, plant domestication is continually being carried out by local communities to support their needs for food, fibre, medicine, building materials, etc. Using participatory rapid appraisal approach, 150 households were surveyed in 5 villages (Aglamidjodji, Banon, Batia, Gbédé and Korontière) selected in five ethnic groups of the two contrasting agroecological zones (arid and humid) of southern and northern Benin, to investigate the local communities’ motivations for plant domestication and the contributions of this process to in situ conservation of genetic resources. The results indicated differences in plant domestication between agroecological zones and among ethnic groups. People in the humid zones give priority to herbs while those in dry area prefer trees. The Gourmantché people in Batia domesticate plants mostly for their fruits, while the ethnic groups Mahi (Aglamidjodji), the Nago-Fè (Banon), the Nago-Tchabè (Gbédé) and the Ditamari / Lamba (Konrontière) domesticate plants mainly for their leaves. Local communities were motivated to undertake plant domestication for foods (80% of respondents), medicinal use (40% of respondents), income generation (20% of respondents) and cultural reasons (5% of respondents). 45% of the species recorded are still at early stage in domestication and only 2% are fully domesticated. Eleven factors related to the households surveyed (size, number of crops practiced, total area available, total area cultivated, total area occupied by the major crops, number of food shortages experienced during the last ten years) and to the head of the household interviewed (age, education level, number of wives, age of the first wife, number of the social groups to which he belongs) affect farmers’ decision making in domesticating plant species. There is gender influence on the domestication: Women are keen in domesticating herbs while men give priority to trees.

OPEN ACCESS PAPER. Read full-text here.