The topic for this project is conditions for successful implementation of three international agreements relevant to the sustainable management of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture:

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) with the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (NP).
• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) with its Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing (MLS).

The project focuses on access and benefit sharing (ABS) under these treaties, as this is important for their prospects of implementation and thus for the management of PGRFA, which in turn is a central factor for the adaptation of food production to climate change. Also the interplay with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) will be taken into account.

The overall objective is to contribute to the understanding of mechanisms for, and barriers to, the domestic implementation of the CBD-NP and the ITPGRFA in light of UNFCCC and the Trips Agreement.

Through the project we will first analyse how the CBD and the ITPGRFA have been implemented in terms of ABS in India and Nepal. Then we will identify the prospects for their further implementation in these countries with a particular view to the interaction between the NP and the MLS in the context of the larger regime environment. Furthermore we will consider the coordination of such implementation efforts with existing and future measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change and evaluate the conflicts and synergies that may arise with regard to implementing these treaties. Finally we will discuss the extent to which the findings from the project may have relevance for other countries.

Project period: 2012-2017