Highlights and images for 21 June 2019

Italy

Summary

Highlights for Friday, 21 June 2019

From L-R: Hans Hoogeveen, Working Group Co-Chair; Tobias Kiene, ITPGRFA Secretariat; Olivier Rukundo, ITPGRFA Secretariat; Kent Nnadozie, ITPGRFA Secretary; and Álvaro Toledo, ITPGRFA Secretariat

On Friday, the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) continued negotiations on outstanding items regarding the revision of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) and the draft resolution on enhancement of the Treaty's MLS, with focus on payment rates for benefit-sharing under the subscription and single access systems, and genetic sequence data from MLS material.The Working Group acknowledged that additional time is required to finalize negotiations on the outstanding items, following consultations at the national and regional level. As a result, the meeting was suspended. The Working Group will reconvene for three days before the eighth meeting of the Treaty's Governing Body, to be held from 11-16 November 2019, in Rome, Italy, which is expected to adopt the amended Annex I of the Treaty (list of crops in the MLS) and the revised SMTA. Nevertheless, participants expressed satisfaction with progress achieved, particularly with regard to compromises reached on amending Annex I of the Treaty and on a package of measures to simultaneously adopt the revised SMTA and the amendment of Annex I.Following approval of the interim report of the meeting, Co-Chair Hans Hoogeveen (the Netherlands) expressed his appreciation to delegates, Secretariat, and staff supporting the negotiations, as well as the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) team for coverage. The meeting was suspended at 5:46 pm. The ENB summary and analysis of the meeting will be available on Monday, 24 June 2019.

IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and a summary and analysis report from OWG-EFMLS-9, which is now available in HTML and PDF.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis

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From L-R: Federico Condón Priano; Renata Negrelly Nogueira; Manrique Lucio Altavista; and Teresa Agüero Teare, Latin America and the Caribbean
From L-R: Alwin Kopse; Marliese von den Driesch; and Imke Thormann, Europe
José Valls and Renata Negrelly Nogueira, Latin America and the Caribbean
Hans Hoogeveen, Working Group Co-Chair
Alwin Kopse, Europe
Imke Thormann, Europe
Emily Carroll, South West Pacific
Akio Yamamoto, Asia
Teresa Agüero Teare, Latin America and the Caribbean
Kent Nnadozie, ITPGRFA Secretary, and Michael Halewood, CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
Anke Van Den Hurk and Paul Olson, Seed Industry
Catherine Karr-Colque, North America
Manrique Lucio Altavista, Latin America and the Caribbean
Yoshiko Motoyama, Asia
Edward Hammond, Civil Society
Working Group family photo
Delegates thanking the translators and staff for their hard work
The Latin America and the Caribbean negotiating group