The World Bank is attempting to take control of important international germ plasm collections, according to a statement released by more than 40 environmental and development non-governmental organisations (NGOs) attending a meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi last month.
The germ plasm collections, comprising almost half a million samples of crop biodiversity, are a vital resource for future plant breeding and for the present and future stability and resilience of farming systems that are not chemically dependent. The collections were donated by farmers in developing countries and account for 40% of the total worldwide unique collections of agricultural genetic materials.
The NGOs attending the Nairobi meeting, which is the Second Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Convention on Biological Diversity, want the committee to ensure that control over these collections is given to an intergovernmental body that is based on a one nation, one vote system.
The germ plasm collections were gathered by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an informal group of donors supporting 18 International Agricultural Research Centres. These centres developed and promoted Green Revolution technologies throughout the world.
Co-sponsored jointly by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Development Program and the World Bank, the CGIAR has no formal legal identity and works on the basis of consensus among its mainly industrialised country members.
The germ plasm collections held by the International Agricultural Research Centres are of uncertain legal status and could be expropriated by various parties, although the CGIAR claims they are held "in trust" for the benefit of the international community. Recently, an agreement to establish intergovernmental authority over these collections was negotiated between CGIAR and FAO, and was meant to give an internationally agreed meaning to the idea of "trusteeship". This agreement was to have been endorsed at a meeting of the CGIAR in New Delhi in late May.
At the New Delhi meeting, in the context of the worst budgetary crisis in the 23-year history of CGIAR, the World Bank came forward with a number of linked initiatives. Bank officials announced they were "forgiving" outstanding CGIAR debts and offered to increase the group's funding to US$40 million. In addition, the bank offered to match new funds from other donors up to a combined total of US$60 million and to create a new US$2.5 billion fund (over five years) for national agricultural research linked to the CGIAR.
However, the bank also announced the formation of a CGIAR Steering Committee chaired by the bank and the appointment of another bank official as chair of the new Finance Committee. At the same time, the bank scuttled ratification of the agreement between CGIAR and the FAO and announced that the bank itself would provide leadership in this matter.
Subsequently, bank officials announced that they are holding separate discussions with the recently established World Trade Organisation about the intellectual property provisions in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the disposition of the group's germ plasm.
The NGOs meeting in Nairobi maintain that the World Bank is not a legitimate custodian of or policy maker for genetic resources donated by developing countries. The groups feel that the bank sees the CGIAR as a major instrument for the imposition of its own agricultural programs and policies and as an important private sector technology conduit. They point out that in the bank's view, CGIAR's major asset is its treasure trove of genetic materials.
Meeting in Nairobi on June 18-19, the NGOs made the following recommendations:
1. The ultimate control of germ plasm collections held outside the country of origin must rest with an intergovernmental body governed by the principle of one nation, one vote and with full recognition of farmers' rights.
2. The critical social and economic importance of the genetic materials that nurture people — including animals, plants and micro-organisms used for food, fibre, pharmaceutical and other purposes — should be recognised through a protocol to the Biodiversity Convention.
3. CGIAR's germ plasm collections must come under the intergovernmental authority of a body as described above.
4. The initiative by the World Bank to take control of the CGIAR gene banks should be rejected, and the CGIAR-FAO agreements should be concluded expeditiously.
5. Ultimately, the genetic resources held in the CGIAR gene banks, as well as all other ex situ collections, should come under the rules of the Biodiversity Convention.
[From Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (US).]