Highlights and images for 21 September 2022

After a burst of mid-week color, courtesy of an Indian cultural interlude in the morning, delegates got straight back to work. Most of the day, plenary addressed items on cooperation with other international organizations and bodies. Delegates heard reports on activities and discussed draft resolutions, with many underscoring that institutional cooperation is necessary for achieving the objectives of food security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity conservation.

Want to dive deeper? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Controversies arose with regard to cooperation with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), due to potential conflicts between plant breeder rights and farmers’ rights, and proposals to reach out to the Human Rights Council, following the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants.

Throughout the day, plenary addressed:

• Conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA);
• Compliance;
• Cooperation with international instruments and organizations, including the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and the Convention on Biological Diversity; and
• FAO contribution to Treaty implementation.

The contact group on enhancing the Treaty’s Multilateral System (MLS) met in the evening to initiate discussions on a process forward.

Informal groups met to address:

• Farmers’ rights;
• Guardians of crop diversity; and
• The capacity-development strategy.

The budget committee met late at night.

A series of side-events were held throughout the day, focusing on, among others, farmers’ rights, genebanks, the seed sector, and open-source seeds.