This study contributes to the work stream on digital sequence information of FAO’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GRFA). It presents key practices and experiences related to the ways in which digital sequence information (DSI) is generated, stored, accessed, and used for research and development related to GRFA. The report explores the availability and accessibility of DSI to the research community and the private sector in all parts of the world. It also presents solutions currently being discussed for access to, and use of, DSI and the sharing of benefits arising from such use. In addition, the study discusses applications of DSI that are relevant to GRFA, including DSI that is not derived from GRFA but nevertheless contributes to their identification, characterization, use, improvement and conservation. Further, the report addresses obstacles to access and use of DSI and identifies the need for capacity building to address global imbalance in its generation and use.The study demonstrates the many existing and potential applications of DSI that are highly relevant to GRFA whilst stressing the importance of open access to data to facilitate research and development in food and agriculture. It emphasises that the generation, storage, accessibility and use of DSI are fundamental to the efforts to make agriculture more sustainable. Access to, and use of, DSI face serious obstacles in many countries. There is a pressing need to address the root causes of these problems, which include lack of: technical infrastructure, financial and human resources, educational and training opportunities, scientific collaboration, computing infrastructure, reliable electricity and high-speed internet. The study concludes that there is a need for a regulatory environment that facilitates access to DSI whilst also maintaining the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from its use.

The fourth educational module on the International Treaty focuses on the Multilateral System functions provides an overview of the legal and historical perspectives that lead to the development of the Multilateral System and the list of Annex I crops. It also illustrates the core concepts and articles of Section IV of the International Treaty. The first two lessons are aimed at a broad target learner group, especially at learners that are new to the Multilateral System. Lessons three and four contain practical elements related to the day-to-day operations and may be of interest to those exchanging material and involved in the planning and implementation of the Multilateral System at the national level. All lessons provide an extensive list of resources and references for further reading and learning. It has been designed to contribute to supporting the implementation of the International Treaty and also the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

The papers included in this Special Issue address a variety of important aspects of plant biodiversity and genetic resources, including definitions, descriptions, and illustrations of different components and their value for food and nutrition security, breeding, and environmental services. Furthermore, comprehensive information is provided regarding conservation approaches and techniques for plant genetic resources, policy aspects, and results of biological, genetic, morphological, economic, social, and breeding-related research activities. The complexity and vulnerability of (plant) biodiversity and its inherent genetic resources, as an integral part of the contextual ecosystem and the human web of life, are clearly demonstrated in this Special Issue, and for several encountered problems and constraints, possible approaches or solutions are presented to overcome these.

Addressing the management of genetic resources, this book offers a new assessment of the contemporary Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regime. Debates about ABS have moved on. The initial focus on the legal obligations established by international agreements like the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the form of obligations for collecting physical biological materials have now shifted into a far more complex series of disputes and challenges about the ways ABS should be implemented and enforced. These now cover a wide range of issues, including: digital sequence information, the repatriation of resources, technology transfer, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, open access to information and knowledge, naming conventions, farmers’ rights, new schemes for accessing pandemic viruses sharing DNA sequences, and so on. Drawing together perspectives from an interdisciplinary range of leading and emerging international scholars, this book offers a new approach to the ABS landscape; as it breaks from the standard regulatory analyses in order to explore alternative solutions to the intractable issues for the Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources. Addressing these modern legal debates from a perspective that will appeal to both ABS scholars and those with broader legal concerns in the areas of intellectual property, food, governance, Indigenous issues, and so on, this book will be a useful resource for scholars and students as well as those in government and in international institutions working in relevant areas.

Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Benefit Sharing is the first in-depth account of the Hoodia bioprospecting case and use of San traditional knowledge, placing it in the global context of indigenous peoples’ rights, consent and benefit-sharing. It is unique as the first interdisciplinary analysis of consent and benefit sharing in which philosophers apply their minds to questions of justice in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), lawyers interrogate the use of intellectual property rights to protect traditional knowledge, environmental scientists analyse implications for national policies, anthropologists grapple with the commodification of knowledge and, uniquely, case experts from Asia, Australia and North America bring their collective expertise and experiences to bear on the San-Hoodia case.