ABSTRACT
The overall research question is: how international regimes pertaining to Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) affect the management of the resources in developing countries. Overlapping international regimes refers to the regimes that fully or partly pertain to the international regulation of PGRFA management. Because of this overlap of functional scopes, they are called 'overlapping international regimes'. Four international regimes selected for analysis are: The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), Its forerunner, the International Undertaking(IU) on PGRFA; The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) covers all forms of biological diversity worldwide, including PGRFA; The Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) covers the protection of a wide range of intellectual property rights, among them rights pertaining to plant genetic resources; The International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants establish the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
