Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
culture (ITPGRFA) and its Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA). In particular,
the ITPGRFA and its SMTA establish that recipients of PGRFA shall not claim 'any intel-
lectual or other property rights that limit the facilitated access to the Material [i.e. PGRFA]
… or its genetic parts or components, in the form received from the Multilateral System'
(ITPGRFA, Article 12.3(d), and SMTA, Article 6.2). However, the interpretation of this
provisionandofthelimitsitimposesontheprivateappropriationofplantgeneticresources
(and of their informational contents), which are shared within the multilateral system as
provides a short explanation of the multilateral system.
Box 9.3
The multilateral system
The International Treaty on PGRFA provides an internationally agreed, legally bind-
ing framework for the conservation and sustainable use of crop diversity and the fair
Within biodiversity, the Treaty defines a subset of genetic resources of particular im-
portance for agriculture and food security - i.e. PGRFA - and it limits the scope of
application of its norms to them. The International Treaty also establishes a Multilat-
eral System of ABS (MLS) which consists of pooling selected crop and forage genet-
ic resources from various countries (International Treaty Article 10.2). In particular,
Annex I of the International Treaty lists the 64 crops and forages that are part of the
MLS to ensure worldwide food security. These pooled resources are available under
the facilitated access mechanism of the MLS only if access is requested for the pur-
pose of utilization and conservation for research, breeding, and training for food and
agriculture.
The material pooled in the MLS is governed by a set of common rules of access
and benefit-sharing that states agreed upon and which were formalized in a standard
