Chair: Mr. Bashir Wani, Inspector General Forests, Ministry of Environment, Govt. of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan
Discussant: Mr. Yasin Tahir, Director General, Intellectual Property Rights Organization of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan
Panel Organizer: Ms. Mehnaz Ajmal Paracha, Project Associate, SDPI, Islamabad, Pakistan
With a focus on South Asia, the panel on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS): Addressing the Livelihood Concerns of the Farming Communities? looked at good practices and policies/laws pertaining to ABS and livelihood concerns of the farming communities. Inspector General Forest, Mr. Bashir Wani, chaired the panel and Mr. Yasin Tahir, Director Intellectual Property Rights Organization of Pakistan, participated as the panel’s discussant.
In a paper titled “The Right to Access and Benefit Sharing: Sharing the Indian Approach with Bangladesh and Pakistan”, speakers Dr. Indra Nath Mukherji and Ms Namrata Pathak, both from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, compared the Indian experience with Bangladesh and Pakistan and said that the TRIPS agreement, legislation on protection of plant varieties and ABS therein is yet in a draft stage and was expected to get a final shape soon in Bangladesh. Similarly in Pakistan, the legislation based on an Ordinance is also yet a draft. By contrast, the Indian legislation balances the rights of both farmers and breeders; and gives them the right to have access to genetic resources and benefit sharing from the commercial utilization of genetic resources.
The main objective of the study was to review ABS at a global level, review of Indian legislation on plant varieties and biological diversity, and to examine similar attempts in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Furthermore, the study focused on the Indian legislation and how its execution could provide a model for other countries in the region. The study also analyzed the Draft Biodiversity and Community Knowledge Protection Act - 1998, The draft Plant Varieties Act – 1998, Draft Plant Variety and Farmer’s Rights protection Act – 2002/2003 of Bangladesh, and Pakistan’s Breeders’ Rights Ordinance 2000 and Draft Access to Biological Resources and Community Rights Act 2004. Finally, in the comparative analysis of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, it was suggested that the Indian legislation is important for two reasons. First, it highlights the complexity arising out of need to balance the interests of various actors in agriculture trade. Second, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act – 2001 (PPVFA) incorporates the sui generis features that include farmer’s rights providing an alternative to developing countries. PPVFA has laid down detailed provision for ABS mechanism to ensure greater transparency of procedures. Furthermore, Indian Legislation provides a broad-based definition of a farmer in comparison to draft legislation in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In comparison to the positive suggestion given by the speakers from India, Ms Mehnaz Ajmal Paracha, Research Associate at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan, probed the Indian legislation in her presentation on Access & Benefit Sharing (ABS) and Livelihood of Farmers. The title of her paper was “Limitation of Indian Act related to Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing”. While discussing the importance of Traditional Knowledge (TK) from Ms Keya Ghosh’s paper on ”Access & Benefit Sharing (ABS) and Livelihood of Farmers” (read out in absentia), she said that TK plays an important role in the lives of local communities. It is a key element in their food security, health, education, natural resources management, and other vital activities. TK has also made a large contribution to modern agriculture and industry. Local communities are likely to benefit from the use of their TK by outsider only if: a) the TK in question is not in the public domain and is not being already used; b) it has a commercial potential; and c) its commercial use takes place through a legal contact between the community and a user industry that has provisions for fair and equitable benefit sharing.
This paper presented a few case studies (such as the Kani community of Kerala, the Beej Bachao Andolan and the Organize Cultivation of the Basmati Variety) to illustrate the importance of commercialization and benefit sharing in conservation of TK and varieties. The benefit sharing is possible only when TK is successfully commercialized. For successful benefit sharing, various legislations of the country have to be integrated and a holistic approach has to be adopted keeping in view that the interest of different departments do not clash with each other. Hence, commercialization of TK can be an important source of income for local communities because TK plays a crucial role in the lives of local communities. It is a key element in their food security, health, education and other vital activities.
Ms Paracha further highlighted in her paper that in Indian Patent Act (2002) on Traditional Knowledge, the complete specification does not disclose or wrongly mentions the source or geographical origin of biological material used for the invention and is anticipated by oral or documentary knowledge (Sections 25(1)(j) & (k) and 64(1)(p) & (q)).
While discussing the limitation under Indian Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 and Biological Diversity Act, 2002 she said that the acts emphasize on a centralized system without adequate focus on capacity building at the local level. The NBA will determine what is ‘fair and equitable’. Procedures for consultation with affected communities have not yet been established. There are unequal bargaining powers: (a) commercial entity seeking access and, (b) local provider. Further, there is a need that the issues of awareness of rights and capacity to negotiate should be urgently addressed.
She pointed out that under the PPVFR Act, it is presumed that farmers will receive timely information about applications for registration. How will this work realistically—through local language, she questioned. Similarly in Biodiversity Act, community participation is not clearly defined, it is detached from the ABS process and limited efforts were made to provide benefits to the community (discretion left to NBA).
While presenting a paper on “Changing Livelihoods: The Burden of Pastoralists Shifting to Agriculture”, Dr. R. Siva Prasad, Reader from the Department of Anthropology, University of Hyderabad, India, shared that large segment of population depends on pastoralism and other non-agricultural pursuits for their livelihoods.
Pastoralists played and continue to play an important role in a nation’s economy including agricultural production. Pastoralism is a different mode of production in comparison to agriculture. Expansion of agriculture into arid lands has been severely affecting pastoralists.
Therefore, traditional agriculture practices and marginalized communities all over the world are under constant threat of existence. These communities are denied of their livelihood and are pushed into a poverty trap.
This paper was based on anthropological fieldwork carried out amongst the Toda (a community who are traditional sedentary form of pastoralism in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil in Southern India). Pastoralism is an integral part of the Toda culture. Toda and buffaloes are inseparable. The fieldwork for collecting primary data was carried out for a period of four months (June to September) in Toda village in 2006.
The pastoralist’s condition has really become a gamble after adopting agriculture as their livelihoods and the problems faced in pursuing agriculture have made them vulnerable. One must recognize that pastoralism is also an economic strategy that is very important for the economic development of a nation as well as for sustainable livelihood. The wrong and misplaced notions of development and downgrading of pastoralism has negatively impacted the pastoralists. There is a need to restore a healthy balance between nature and people and participation of the communities in policy-making development is the need of the hour, stated the speaker.
The session concluded with the suggestions that both Bangladesh and Pakistan while finalizing their draft law on the issues of access to genetic resources and benefits sharing should consult Indian Act, in order to incorporate all the concerned issues of the communities and to avoid any legal ambiguity.
Reported by Mehnaz Ajmal Paracha and Farhat Mehmood
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