Addressing socioeconomic and policy issues
Social, cultural and economic factors affect the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. IPGRI studies the human aspects that influence farmers' management of diversity, including the different roles played by men and women. IPGRI also contributes to the international debate on key policy issues affecting the management, availability and use of plant genetic resources worldwide.
IPGRI's research on socioeconomic issues focuses on building a better understanding of local systems and associated traditional knowledge as the basis for developing locally acceptable conservation methods that do not threaten the livelihoods of farmers, forest dwellers and local communities. Regarding plant genetic resources policy and legal issues, IPGRI activities focus on analyzing and providing information, advising in response to specific questions from partners and providing tools to aid their decision-making.
Guatemala, Venezuela and Cuba participate
in the IPGRI project on home gardens that evaluates their present and potential
contribution to genetic resources conservation within farming systems. The
project aims to develop strategies for conservation through use, which would
help families reap increased benefits from home gardens while maintaining their
unique genetic crop diversity. Project team members in these countries are
collecting data about the diversity of their home gardens and the limitations
that farmers face to maintain them.
Among IPGRI’s institutional objectives is that of promoting international
collaboration in the conservation and use of genetic resources which necessarily
includes the exchange of germplasm. IPGRI is actively involved in facilitating
negotiations for international projects involving access and exchange of plant
genetic resources, helping insure that the scientific objectives and legal
requirements of the participating countries are satisfied and that the best
conservation and use of the germplasm is achieved. Benefit sharing is a key
element in such negotiations and IPGRI provides technical advice and, when
requested by the partners, directly provides mutually agreed, in-kind benefits
such as scientific equipment, training courses, computers, and software. Plans
for international plant explorations and the associated access negotiations,
including benefit sharing, are currently underway in several countries. Requests
for international access in countries with recently implemented or still
undefined access legislation serve as test cases to establish positive
precedents for international collaboration and to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of existing or evolving access policies.
With support from the Canadian Government, a study is being conducted on how the changes in international plant genetic resources policy and legislation implemented during the last decade are affecting Latin American countries, especially the Andean Community. The study will also asses how the Common Regime of Access (Decision 391) has affected the ability of Andean countries to reduce agrobiodiversity erosion and take advantage of advances in biotechnology.
Human
and policy aspects of plant genetic resources conservation and use
Home gardens and the in situ
conservation
of plant genetic resources
Policy and intellectual property rights
issues related to plant genetic resources
