Selim Louafi

Cirad - La recherche agronomique pour le développement | CIRAD · Unité Mixte de Recherche Amélioration Génétique et Adaptation des Plantes Méditerranéennes et Tropicales (AGAP)

The circulation of seed among farmers is central to agrobiodiversity conservation and dynamics. Agrobiodiversity, the diversity of agricultural systems from genes to varieties and crop species, from farming methods to landscape composition, is part of humanity's cultural heritage. Whereas agrobiodiver-sity conservation has received much attention f...

The open systems movement proposes legal and organizational arrangements to encourage resource exchange and increase the potential for research collaboration and innovation. It is attracting increasing attention from actors seeking collaborative solutions to complex global challenges that cut across issues, agencies and scales. The G8 effort to est...

Collaborative research practices in the field of plant genetic resources must follow the principles of fairness and equity as defined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). In this context the concepts of fairness and equity generally refer to th...

Establishing linkage among data of diverse domains (e.g. biological, environmental, socio-economical, and geographical) is critical to address complex multidimensional issues such as food security or sustainable agriculture. The complexity of this challenge increases with the level of heterogeneity of the data but also with the social context of pr...

Un colloque intitulé « Pour une recherche et une innovation responsables » s’est tenu le 15 janvier 2021. Organisé par un groupe de travail interinstitutionnel (universités, instituts de recherche, grandes écoles), il visait à réinterroger le rôle et les pratiques de la recherche. Les tables rondes couvraient des thèmes liés à la fois aux finalités...

This paper rethinks the governance of genebanks in a social and political context that has significantly evolved since their establishment. The theoretical basis for the paper is the commons conceptual framework in relation to both seed and plant genetic resources. This framework is applied to question the current policy ecosystem of genetic resear...

Post COVID-19 Implications for Genetic Diversity and Genomics Research & Innovation: A Call for Governance and Research Capacity http://www.fao.org/3/cb5573en/cb5573en.pdf

Different norms, rules and practices (referred as institutions) organize the exchange of germplasm to address broader global challenges such as advancement of science and innovation, food security, sustainable agriculture and global equity. Some of these institutions are now embedded in various treaties and national regulations. This chapter demons...

Biodiversity-based agriculture is the main form of agriculture practiced by smallholder farmers, who produce half the world’s food, especially in the Global South. This form of agriculture relies on planned biodiversity intentionally managed by farmers and on the associated biodiversity that spontaneously colonizes the agroecosystem. In recent deca...

Collaborative research practices in the field of plant genetic resources must follow the principles of fairness and equity as defined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). In this context the concepts of fairness and equity generally refer to th...

The Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent scientific body focused on assessing the state of the world’s ecosystem services and biodiversity. IPBES members agreed in 2017 that a review of the Platform’s first work programme should be undertaken by an independent panel examining all...

The Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent scientific body focused on assessing the state of the world’s ecosystem services and biodiversity. IPBES members agreed in 2017 that a review of the Platform’s first work programme should be undertaken by an independent panel examining all...

As the present report is being finalized the World Economic Forum, meeting in Davos, Switzerland, is considering its annual Global Risks Report. Ten years ago, the major risks identified were almost all economic. However, in the Global Risks Report for 2019, two major issues were identified as global risks to business and human society: cyber secur...

This genomics global governance research study presents the dynamics and the evolving nature of salient challenges that global genomics initiatives encounter in designing new models for data management, exchange, and collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and countries. Using a multiple case study approach, we assessed and compared organization...

This genomics global governance research study presents the dynamics and the evolving nature of salient challenges that global genomics initiatives encounter in designing new models for data management, exchange, and collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and countries. Using a multiple case study approach, we assessed and compared organization...

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 scoping report focuses on the potential implications of new synthetic biology and genomic research trajectories on the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA or ‘Treaty’). Specifically, it provides an introductory examination of how the evolving technological, legal and institutional context surround...

Over the years, researchers in public institutions and universities have accessed genetic materials from a variety of sources, freely exchanged them with fellow researchers and institutions and shared their research results with foreign and local collaborators. The 2010 Nagoya Protocol regulating access to genetic resources is set to change this sc...

Regime complexes are arrays of institutions with partially overlapping mandates and memberships. As tensions frequently arise among these institutions, there is a growing interest geared to finding strategies to reduce them. Insights from regime theory, science and technology studies, and social network analysis support the claim that “boundary org...

Reduction of global food insecurity depends upon the mobilization of genetic diversity for agricultural research and innovation. Yet increased regulation of genetic materials is profoundly affecting the way agricultural research is conducted, particularly international research that requires access to diverse germplasm. This study draws from an int...

Regime complexes are arrays of institutions with partially overlapping mandates and memberships. As tensions frequently arise among these institutions, there is a growing interest geared to finding strategies to reduce them. Insights from regime theory, science and technology studies, and social network analysis support the claim that “boundary org...

The importance of seed provisioning in food security and nutrition, agricultural development and rural livelihoods, and agrobiodiversity and germplasm conservation is well accepted by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. The role of farmer seed networks is less well understood and yet is central to debates on current issues ranging from se...

As proposed by FAO, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa (IYQ), highlighting the potential role of quinoa’s biodiversity in contributing to global food security, given its high nutritional value and tremendous potential to adapt to different agroclimatic conditions. The declaration recognizes...

Did we wait for a discussion on conserving biodiversity before actually doing so? Clearly no: various categories of farmers were conserving biodiversity well before scientists formulated the concept and became a global issue. The work of Vavilov in the 1930s and later that of Harlan in 1951, were seminal in their discussion on centers of origin and...

How shall the sharing of benefits stemming from the Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) of the In-ternational Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty) be handled? How shall the resource allocation mechanisms be designed in order to achieve the distributional equity foreseen by the Treaty? Although these questions are fundament...

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...

Soaring of food prices in 2007/08 has put again food security high in the global agenda. Several elements of explanation have been put forward to explain this crisis, including traditional ones such as imbalance supply/demand and stocks, energy effect, dollar effect ; and new factors such as biofuels, financial speculation and low interest rates, e...

Soaring of food prices in 2007/08 has put again food security high in the global agenda. Several elements of explanation have been put forward to explain this crisis, including traditional ones such as imbalance supply/demand and stocks, energy effect, dollar effect; and new factors such as biofuels, financial speculation and low interest rates, ex...

During the preparation of the expedition Santo 2006, some tension appeared between certain members of the ni-Vanuatu administration and the French organizers of this huge expedition. In this paper, we analyze the relationships between sciences and societies revealed by the cultural politics of this country. The current international debates about b...

The New Climate of Naturalists’ Expeditions in Southern Countries. The Case of ‘Santo 2006’ in Vanuatu During the preparation of the expedition Santo 2006, some tension appeared between certain members of the ni-Vanuatu administration and the French organizers of this huge expedition. In this paper, we analyze the relationships between sciences and...

La question de la sécurité alimentaire apparaît, de prime abord, comme une question purement nationale – celle d’une souveraineté souvent revendiquée dans les relations internationales. Les situations d’urgence liées soit à des conflits locaux, soit à des catastrophes naturelles sont, en ce sens, des exceptions pendant lesquelles l’aide de la «comm...

The overall goal of the project “Global Information on Germplasm Accessions” is to improve access by breeders and other users to the germplasm they need in gene banks around the world. The project covers all major food crops, with a focus on 22 crops: banana, barley, beans, breadfruit, cassava, chickpea, coconut, cowpea, faba bean, finger millet, g...

Local ecological knowledge and know-how play a central role in the negotiations on the Convention on Biological Diversity. Here the authors present and analyze the specific characteristics of the French approach on the subject: the concepts of terroir and heritage, a reinterpretation of indigenousness, and diverse forms of conservation; all of thes...

Textes issus d'un symposium organisé par l'IFB, Institut français de la biodiversité et l'IDDRI, à Paris en 2003. - Paru simultanément en anglais sous le titre : "Biodiversity and local ecological knowledge in France". - CIRAD = Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, IDDRI = Institut du développement du...

Biodiversity and genetic resources : The difficulty of constituting a hybrid international regime Negotiations concerning biodiversity have partially polarised North-South positions. The choice of resorting to intellectual property-rights as a management tool for using and conserving genetic resources is recognised both by the ITO and the Biodivers...

La conférence de Barcelone et les accords de Marrakech obéissent au même principe de libéralisation des échanges. Du point de vue strictement commercial, ce qui les différencie ne concerne que la vitesse de l'ouverture commerciale et les effets de création et de détournement de trafic. Les auteurs s'intéressent uniquement au premier aspect ; l'obje...

In contrast with new opportunities opened up by molecular sciences and bio-informatics that enable to generate and provide ready access to huge amounts of biological datasets, researchers are facing increasing complexity, cost and uncertainty with regard to access to, use and exchange of biological material and information. Combination of global te...