Home > GB 8
Delegates to the eighth session of the Governing Body (GB 8) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA or Treaty) met in plenary throughout the day to hear opening and regional statements, address organizational matters, and initiate discussions on the Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing.
In an opening ceremony, GB 8 Chair Christine Dawson (US) invited participants to observe a moment of silence for Armistice/Remembrance Day, including for those who “still suffer from conflict, oppression, and hunger.” FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo stressed that “crop biodiversity is a treasure of human civilization and must remain a legacy for generations to come.”
Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, India, called for an “operational, pragmatic, future-ready, and flexible” benefit-sharing framework, taking into account genetic sequence data and bridging the divide between the global North and South. He announced India’s offer to host the next GB session in 2021.
Teresa Bellanova, Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Italy, reiterated Italy’s commitment to a world free of hunger and to benefit-sharing with a focus on diversification, smallholder farmers, and women as custodians of genetic resources.
Keynote speaker Robert Watson, former Chair of both the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), emphasized the crucial importance of biodiversity for the resilience of agricultural systems, and highlighted the need for: rapid transformation of our systems; cross-sectoral management at all levels; agro-ecological practices; and inclusive governance structures that address the current lack of trust within and between stakeholders.
Plenary then discussed the draft framework for a capacity development strategy for the Treaty, a draft resolution on the 15th Anniversary of the Treaty’s entry into force, and implementation and operations of the MLS.
Plenary then heard from Hans Hoogeveen (Netherlands) and Javad Mozafari (Iran), Co-Chairs of the Working Group on enhancing the functioning of the MLS, who suggested suspending deliberations on the item until questions on digital sequence information related to plant genetic resources in the Treaty framework are resolved. Following a brief discussion, deliberations were suspended to allow for informal and regional consultations on possible ways forward.
For more details on the day’s negotiations and to hear what delegates said in the corridors, see our daily Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) meeting coverage, is providing daily web coverage and daily reports from the 8th Session of the Governing Body. In addition, IISD Reporting Services published a summary and analysis report from the meeting, which is now available in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis
For photo reprint permissions, please follow instructions at our Attribution Regulations for Meeting Photo Usage Page
| 
| | | | | | | | | | | | | 
Specific funding for IISD Reporting Services coverage of the 8th Session of the Governing Body has been provided by the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture