Genetic resources for food and agriculture.

This chapter attempts to construct an international regime to secure access of researchers to the genetic resources of the biodiverse countries of the South. Various episodes concerning the 'biopiracy' of agricultural resources, together with the many examples of similar activities concerning medical resources, have generated considerable impetus for legal measures to regulate this activity. 'Biopiracy' has been described as 'the manipulation of IPR by those intending to have exclusive control over genetic resources and traditional knowledge without giving adequate recognition or remuneration to the original possessors of these resources'. The focus of the legislation that seeks to deal with this activity is to guarantee the equitable sharing of benefits on the basis of informed consent. The CBD represented an attempt to establish an international programme for the conservation of genetic resources. The developing countries of the South, generally speaking the most with substantial source of genetic resources, sought to use the CBD as a means of bargaining access to those resources for royalties, technology and research data. Article 1 of the CBD envisages 'appropriate access to genetic resources' and 'the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources'. 'Genetic resources' are defined in Art. 2 as meaning 'genetic material of actual or potential value'. The Convention would apply to seeds and cuttings and DNA extracted from a plant, such as a chromosome, gene, plasmid or any part of these such as the promoter part of a gene.