Why Access and Benefits Sharing is Neither

Access and Benefits Sharing

This is currently at the heart of The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In principle, what it means is that the world’s genetic resources are available for everyone to use, and everyone is guaranteed access. In addition, there is a predefined mechanism that ensures people who work with biodiversity are paid fairly for what they do. While this sounds very laudable, it couldn’t be any further from reality.

The Collection

The first step was defining what exactly were the world’s genetic resources, and putting them in a central place. The place was the global seed vault in Svalbard, Norway. The plant materials were supposed to be donated by their owners, but this too was far from reality. Most countries just declared their genetic resources as owned by the treaty, so all that had to be done was find and seize them.

In other cases the person in possession was deemed the ‘owner’, and consent was all that was necessary was to obtain a sample. In almost all cases there insufficient information for informed consent. It was simply common practice to share samples of seeds with others. In addition, these often involved seeds bred hundreds of years before, and it was impossible to get the consent from the original owner(s).

In the US the head of the largest Seed Saving organization the Seed Savers Exchange refused to give his consent, so he was thrown out of the organization. In an equally unfriendly way, the largest European organization Arche Noah lost their collection. Organizations were infiltrated, seeds were seized or samples of everything obtained. Public and private seed collections were absorbed, and often every effort made to ensure unofficial seeds were put beyond use. In the first Golf war, Iraq’s seed collection was bombed, to put it out of use. It was really impossible for anyone to say no to having their seeds seized, and original contributors of seed samples to collections were not consulted.

Access

In principle, anyone who wishes to work with biodiversity can request a seed sample from a local genebank. It’s the assumption that the use of seeds will be monetized, so for example people suspected of just being simple gardeners may not have access. It is however a very firm principle that the seeds belong to the CBD, and those requesting a seed sample are only borrowing the genes inside the seeds. This is often established on the national level by treaty, and sometimes it’s necessary to also sign a written agreement so complicated that many lawyers could not say what the consequences of it might be. The use of the seeds come with administrative requirements beyond the ability of most seed savers, independent plant breeders or small businesses.

Many seeds currently in genebanks are degrading. All seeds need to be regenerated periodically, or they will die. In addition the methods used are the most cost effective and sometimes flawed, resulting in the loss of genetic information. In order to truly preserve seeds, regeneration needs to be done ‘in-situ’, that is on real farms or gardens. Seeds regenerated in geenbanks do not adapt to changes in climate or the emergence of new pests and diseases.

The principle behind obtaining seed samples from a genebank is that the genes inside the seeds will eventually be used commercially, and royalties will need to be paid for this. If the genetic material is eventually sold, for example to a home gardener, this person will only have a legal right to plant the seeds and use the products of this. The end user does not have the right to save seeds, replant them, share with others or otherwise use the biodiversity.

The proper use of biodiversity is enforced with DNA tests. Just like it’s possible to determine who your ancestors were with a DNA test, in the same way it’s possible to determine where your seeds came from. Since people plant seeds and use biodiversity, there are major privacy implications with these DNA tests.

In principle, ordinary seed savers and individuals do not have to follow these rules, but again the reality is something very different. Exactly who is a simple seed saver and who is an entrepreneur, or an actor, or a user of biodiversity is under intense discussion at the moment. It’s not clear who has to follow what rules. In addition, everyone is bound by the legality of obtaining seed samples from a genebank, and everyone is subject to a lawsuit or criminal prosecution.

In addition, since Access and Benefit Sharing amounts to privatization, someone owns the genes in the seeds you are using. That means, even if you are a seed saver or individual and not subject to the rules and administration of using those seeds, you still need to think about who is ultimately going to get the royalties, what conditions are going to be imposed on the end user, what the royalties are going to cost and so on. Plant breeding is difficult enough, and plant breeders often struggle to find the single gene they need for a particular trait. Combining all of these aspects makes things almost impossible.

There is the argument that yes, plant breeding and seed saving will become too complicated for an individual to manage, so what’s necessary is to joining an association or organization. The reality is everyone working with seeds needs to involve themselves with hard core capitalism.

Benefit Sharing

The benefit sharing part are the royalties someone pays. In theory you, or the organization you belong to, can negotiate a cut of the profits. This is assuming you produce a commercially product. Since the seeds are ultimately owned by the worlds wealthiest families and individuals, they will certainly benefit the most.

In theory, all the world’s biodiversity has been collected and cataloged as part of the CBD. The reality is the US is not a formal part of this treaty, but in fact offers a great deal of cooperation. This means under some circumstances, some biodiversity in the US is still ‘free’. This offers some possibilities to work around the CBD, but as a result countries all over the world cracking down on importing ‘illegal’ seeds, creating a cat and mouse game that’s adding another layer of complexity on everything else.

Unworkable

This entire approach is unworkable. The world has changed since the idea of Access and Benefit Sharing first came about, and it’s not necessary to fund biodiversity in this way anymore. There is a huge amount of damage caused by the collection of biodiversity and storing in genebanks. There are many flawed assumptions about the level of cooperation people will offer, and what technology is capable of achieving.

Our house is on fire, and it’s time to move on from all of this.

Simply maintaining all seeds as public domain was a viable solution for hundreds of years, and people are able to find their own motivation for working with biodiversity on these terms.