ABSTRACT
The joint challenges of population increase, food security and conservation of agrobiodiversity demand a rethink of plant breeding and agricultural research from a different perspective. While more food is undeniably needed, the key question is rather about how to produce it in a way that sustains biological diversity and mitigates climate change.
This book shows how social sciences, and more especially law, can contribute towards reconfiguring current legal frameworks in order to achieving a better balance between the necessary requirements of agricultural innovation and the need for protection of agrobiodiversity. On the assumption that the concept of property can be rethought against the background of the 'right to include', so as to endow others with a common 'right to access' genetic resources, several international instruments and contractual arrangements drawn from the plant-breeding field (including the Convention on Biological Diversity, technology exchange clearing houses and open sources licenses) receive special consideration. In addition, the authors explore the tension between ownership and the free circulation and exchange of germplasm and issues such as genetic resources managed by local and indigenous communities, the ITPGRFA and participatory plant-breeding programmes.
As a whole, the book demonstrates the relevance of the 'Commons' for plant breeding and agricultural innovation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|18 pages
Farmers, innovation and intellectual property
part I|68 pages
Access, benefit-sharing and licensing
chapter 2|20 pages
Beyond access and benefit-sharing
chapter 3|13 pages
Patents and benefit sharing
chapter 5|19 pages
Creating universal and sustainable access to plants and seeds
part II|38 pages
Theoretical frameworks
part III|50 pages
The struggle for the recovery of the shrinking bio-commons
chapter 8|12 pages
An anthropological lens on property and access
chapter 10|12 pages
Making the difference with a common plant
part IV|59 pages
A new vitality for the bio-commons?
chapter 12|15 pages
Governing landraces and associated knowledge as a commons
part V|35 pages
Thinking global