Biodiversity Management: Intellectual Property Rights and Farmers' Rights

Abstract

From the Author's Paper:

"Traditional plant varieties and wild species are disappearing irreversibly, and this process has resulted in the disappearance of farming know-how and the genetic information it entailed. These varieties have been replaced by modern ones, which are economically more efficient but which have only a low degree of genetic diversity. What will happen if, for example, these modern varieties turn out to be ill-adapted, or if a pathogen appears? Given the reduction of biodiversity and the risks involved, it is necessary to preserve: preservation for the present generations, in private banks where the preserved material is, or will be, used in plant breeding programming (the economic aspect of preservation); preservation for future generations, by developing an analysis in social terms of the intergenerational models and of sustainable development.

"...In this paper there are two goals: to evaluate the benefits or advantages of a project integrating sustainable management of biodiversity at each level of intervention in the decision (local, national, global) and to define property rights on the genetic resources."