Michael David Halewood

Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT · Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture

Efficient conservation and sustainable use of crop diversity is critical to support global food and nutritional security with ex situ collections stored in over 800 genebanks in 115 countries. The challenge is to manage those collections for long-term conservation of crop diversity and sustainable use to respond to global challenges of food securit...

It is important for scientists engaged in genome editing to appreciate that the international community is currently engaged in highly dynamic negotiations to develop new rules for sharing benefits derived from the use of digital sequence information/genomic sequence data (DSI/GSD). Over the course of 10 years, this issue has grown in importance to...

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are the building blocks upon which global food and nutrition security depend and are key to plant breeding for more resistant crops, but how available are they? To understand what PGRFA are available under the mechanisms created by the International Plant Treaty’s access and benefit-sharing,...

Benefit sharing should be decoupled from access

Plant genetic resources (PGR), including collections held in national and international gene banks, provide access to a wide array of genetic diversity and are critical to genomics research, conservation efforts, and applied breeding. Yet, there is a general lack of awareness in the research community about the rules and treaties that govern the us...

A discussion paper from CGIAR for consideration by delegates to the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

We explore how seed systems enhance access to seeds, and information for climate-change adaptation in farming communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as how gender-driven roles and institutional dynamics influence the process. Men and women farmers equally experience climate-change related effects, including drought, short rainy seasons...

Crop genetic resources constitute a ‘new’ global commons, characterized by multiple layers of activities of farmers, genebanks, public and private research and development organizations, and regulatory agencies operating from local to global levels. This paper presents sui generis biocultural community protocols that were developed by four communit...

In 1975, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) created the first internationally linked system of genebanks, known as the Registry of Base Collections (RBC), to conserve plant germplasm and make it available globally for agricultural research and development. Over time, international efforts shifted away from enhancing and bui...

The international collections of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) hosted by 11 CGIAR Centers are important components of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s global system of conservation and use of PGRFA. They also play an important supportive role in realizing Target 2.5 of the Sustainable Development Goa...

The role of plant breeding in adapting crops to climate changes that affect food production in developing countries is recognized as extremely important and urgent, alongside other agronomic, socio-economic and policy adaptation pathways. To enhance plant breeders’ capacity to respond to climate challenges, it is acknowledged that they need to be a...

Socio-ecological resilience is vital for the long-term sustainability of communities in production landscapes and seascapes, but community members often find it difficult to understand and assess their own resilience in the face of changes that affect them over time due to economic and natural drivers, demographic changes, and market forces among o...

The history of CGIAR and the development and implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (“Plant Treaty”) are closely intertwined. In accordance with the agreements that 11 CGIAR centers signed with the Plant Treaty's Governing Body under Article 15 of the treaty, >730,000 accessions of crop, tree,...

In 1975, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources created the first internationally linked system of genebanks, known as the Registry of Base Collections (RBC), to conserve plant germplasm and make it available globally for agricultural research and development. Over time, international efforts shifted away from enhancing and building th...

This article describes how CGIAR centers and partners are using genomic sequence information to promote the conservation and sustainable use of crop genetic diversity, and to generate and share benefits derived from those uses. The article highlights combined institutional, and benefit-sharing-related challenges that need to be addressed to support...

Farming communities in Benin are being challenged by shifting, unpredictable rainy seasons, higher temperatures, and longer droughts. In recent years, the two previously distinct maize planting seasons have merged into just one in many locations. Climate changes are also contributing to increased pest and disease pressures. The objective of the th...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.14993/full Over the last decade, there has been an ongoing revolution in the exploration, manipulation and synthesis of biological systems, through the development of new technologies that generate, analyse and exploit big data. Users of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) can potentially leverage these ca...

The Secretary of the CBD called on relevant organizations and stakeholders "to submit views and relevant information on any potential implications of the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources for the three objectives of the Convention". CGIAR conducts strategic research for agricultural development ensuring food security with a m...

NOVEMBER 2016 Key messages  Network analysis provides a mechanism to both understand how information and communication structures vary across sites, and to identify opportunities for intervening in ways that may improve communication flows.  Farmer-expert network structures differ between Lushoto and Rakai. Farmers and expert organizations are mo...

This article analyses 25 years of data about international movements of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), facilitated by the gene banks hosted by seven centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. It identifies trends in the movements of PGRFA for use in research and development, and describes th...

Since 2012, national teams in eight countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, have conducted research and capacity-building activities to identify options for policy, legal and administrative mechanisms to implement the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing (MLS). The teams were made up of the national Treaty Focal Point, national ge...

As part of the “Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation” (PACCA) project this info note summarizes findings of a project activity entitled “Influencing and linking policies and institutions from national to local level for the development and adoption of climate‐resilient food systems in East Africa” undertaken by researchers from Bioversity In...

As part of the Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project, this info note summarizes findings of a project activity entitled “Influencing and linking policies and institutions from national to local level for the development and adoption of climate‐resilient food systems in East Africa” undertaken by researchers from Bioversity Int...

Between 2012 and 2015, 150 researchers, research managers, gene bank managers, extension agents, university professors and staff of non-government organizations from Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe acquired new knowledge and skills about the use of climate and crop modelling too...

Studying temporal changes in genetic diversity depends upon the availability of comparable time series data. Plant genetic resource collections provide snapshots of the diversity that existed at the time of collecting and provide a baseline against which to compare subsequent observations. The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources conduct...

La coopération pour le meilleur usage possible des ressources phytogénétiques en Afrique de l'Ouest et Centrale: un impératif régional

ABSTRACT FOR BOOK: In recent years, intellectual property rights (IPR) both in the form of patents and copyrights have expanded in their coverage, the width and depth of protection, and the tightness in their enforcement. Moreover, for the first time in history, the IPR regime has become increasingly uniform at international level by means of the T...

Core components Internationally linked network of ex situ collections • Facilitated access for agricultural research & breeding Information system(s) International fund • developed countries & commercial users • support developing countries capacity to participate • reward/incentivize conservation Phase 1: consolidation of vision 1965: FAO Panel...

R.V.) 2 Bioversity International, Regional Office for the Americas, c/o CIAT, Abstract: There is growing recognition that sustainable intensification of agricultural production systems and their successful adaptation to changes in climate will depend upon the improved access to, and use of, genetic diversity. This paper analyzes how the collection,...

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) were once widely considered to be global public goods. Recently, however, access to subsets of PGRFA has been subject to various forms of exclusive technological and legal restrictions. In reaction, numerous voluntary pooling initiatives - from local to global scales - are being experimented...

Farmers have engaged in collective systems of conservation and innovation – improving crops and sharing their reproductive materials – since the earliest plant domestications. Relatively open flows of plant germplasm attended the early spread of agriculture; they continued in the wake of (and were driven by) imperialism, colonization, emigration, t...

For resaons of economy, this document is produced in a limited number of copies. Delegates and observers are kindly requested to bring their copies to meetings and to refrain from asking for additional copies, unless strictly necessary. The documents for this meeting are available on Internet at: 7 This document has been prepared at the request of...

The article addresses the Treaty's challenges to stimulate innovation. The interface between IPR and the Treaty, and the wider framework for conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources are examined. We recognize that both IPRs and facilitated access to the globally pooled resources contribute to the innovation in the long-term, but...

The paper highlights lessons learned over the last thirty years establishing a governance structure for the global crop commons that are of relevance to current champions of the microbial commons. It argues that the political, legal and biophysical situation in which microbial genetic resources (and their users) are located today are similar to the...

This document has been prepared at the request of the Secretariat of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture by the Biodiversity Governance Unit at the Centre for Philosophy of Law at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, as a contribution to the crosssectoral theme, Consideration of policies and arrangements for acc...

This chapter analyses a number of issues associated with the possibility of allocating sui generis intellectual property rights to farmers over their landraces. It examines the historical evolution of the concept of landraces, and emphasizes the relatively recent trend towards appreciating the dynamic role farmers play in developing, using and cons...

Annotated bibliography addressing the international pedigrees and flows of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. SGRP Information document submitted by the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme of the CGIAR to the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 8) and the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group...

Our analysis of patent law focused almost exclusively on the recent Canadian case of Monsanto Canada v Schmeiser. Although the case sheds light on how issues associated with unintentional introgression may be dealt with, we should remember that patent laws and courts in other countries may determine different outcomes. Our analysis of the Schmeiser...

Plant genetic resources are one of the most important tools in agricultural research and development for the improvement of the productivity and sustainability of production systems, both in the developed and the developing world. There used to be plenty of diversity among crop varieties and their wild relatives, but this is rapidly disappearing, d...

A number of parties are "squaring off' over the question of who should share the benefits derived from the exploitation of genetic resources and biotechnology. One of the fault lines that divides disputants is between devel-oped and developing countries; another is between local communities and the dominant socio-economic cultures of the countries...

Thesis (D. Jur.)--York University, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 365-392).