Brazil's Experience in Implementing its ABS Regime – Suggestions for Reform and the Relationship with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Brazil was one of the first megadiverse countries to enact national legislation ¹ on ABS, aimed at implementing the CBD at the national level. Provisional Measure no 2186-16/2001 ² regulates access to GRs, to associated TK, benefit sharing derived from their use, and the transfer of technology for the conservation and use of biological diversity. More recently, Brazil has ratified and published the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), ³ which provides a differentiated legal regime for the plant GRs that come under its Annex I, kept in ex situ collections and in the public domain, as long as their use is intended for food and agriculture. The ABS regime set up under MP 218616/2001 was conceived above all for wild GRs, particularly for their chemical, pharmaceutical or industrial use, with no consideration for specificities of plant GR’s for food and agricultural uses. MP 2186-16/2001 does apply, however, to both wild and domesticated GRs, and makes no distinction between the two in terms of ABS. We shall thus look first at the general provisions of MP 2186-16/2001, and then analyse its application to plant GRs for food and agriculture.