A Human Rights Perspective on the Plant Genetic Resources of Mesoamerica: Heritage, Plant Breeder’s Rights, and Geographical Indications

Abstract

The values of the plant genetic resources (PGR) described in the previous chapters are multiple and cannot be overstated. These biological resources and the heritage they represent are being dissected by science and technology, and by laws, both multilateral and national, and rights are being claimed over them at various levels and on different grounds, individually and collectively, privately and as public goods. The main argument in this contribution is that natural and cultural heritage, biological resources, and intellectual property are legal concepts that should be grounded deeply in a human rights perspective, in particular on economic, social and cultural rights. A legal perspective provides context to the complex innovation and appropriation strategies that are taking place, by industrially oriented life sciences and technologies, but also by small rural producers and their associations, by social movements, by public research institutions, and by municipalities, states and nation states. From seeds as public goods and heritage of mankind to registered plant varieties and patented genes, many things have changed over the last three decades in the regulation of PGR. For better or for worse, legal developments have taken place, and they have impact on the conservation, research, documentation, and use of biological and genetic resources. The more or less recent multilateral legal frameworks reviewed include two conventions on world heritage, a convention on biological diversity, a treaty on PGR for food and agriculture, a convention on industrial property, the intellectual property rights obligations of a multilateral trade agreement, and a union with a binding act on plant breeder’s rights. In heritage, cultivated plants, plant breeder’s rights and geographical indications, we provide a quantitative panorama for this region in which we consider all continental countries from Canada to Colombia in a comparative approach that provides a wider context that is useful in framing the issues at various levels. The fact that PGR are essential for the future of humankind is recognized by all. How to best keep them diverse, and available to communities, is another question. The role of formal “protection,” “registration,” or “documentation” as heritage, as national resources, or as private intellectual property rights in these processes has been in debate for decades. Beyond research or debate, things are happening in many areas, the enclosures of the mind advance, which may have long lasting biological, cultural, and socioeconomic effects. However, it is the outcomes of social and legal action, public and private, individual and collective, that will define what PGR are inherited to the next generations.