Increasing benefits from genetic resources held in trust by CGIAR

Increasing benefits from genetic resources held in trust by CGIAR

Frank Rijsberman, CEO, CGIAR Consortium, explains how CGIAR engages with the Plant Treaty in his latest blog. Rijsberman was one of the high level speakers at the opening session of the Plant Treaty Governing Body held yesterday in Rome, Italy.

“CGIAR places very high priority on the conservation and use of the plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in its collections as well as agrobiodiversity in situ,” said Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, at the opening session of the Plant Treaty Governing Body in Rome, Italy yesterday.

In 2006, eleven CGIAR Centers – including Bioversity International – signed agreements with the Governing Body placing their ex situ collections of plant genetic resources under the Treaty's framework.

Since January 2007, CGIAR Centers have transferred 2,682,300 samples to recipients in 158 countries using the Treaty's Standard Material Transfer Agreement. This represents approximately 94% of all materials transferred globally under the Treaty's Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing.

Find out more about how CGIAR engages with the Treaty in Frank Rijsberman's blog on the CGIAR website.

 

Photo: Bioversity International's in vitro banana collection at the Musa International Transit Centre in Leuven, Belgium. Credit Bioversity International/N.Roux