"How To" manual for informing crop wild relative conservation and use benefit-sharing mechanism design and implementation

The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources is one of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); while under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and agriculture (ITPGRFA) Article 9.2b addresses the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of PGRFA. Benefits may include monetary and non-monetary benefits, including but not limited to those listed in the Annex of
the Nagoya Protocol.

Non-monetary benefits that are of particular relevance to Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) include institutional capacity building, participation in product development, participation in biotechnological research activities (e.g., breeding), as well as transfer of knowledge and technology that make use of genetic resources or that are relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

In this Manual we describe a potential benefit-sharing mechanism for CWR that is associated with the adaptation of payment for ecosystem services (PES) to support CWR conservation and sustainable use. Underlying concepts, implementation steps and experiences gained from the application of PACS to landraces are presented, before exploring its adaptation in the context of CWR based on case study data from Malawi, with a view to developing a framework as to how it may be designed and eventually
implemented for CWR elsewhere and at larger scales.