What kind of goods are plant genetic resources for food and agriculture? Towards the identification and development of a new global commons

Michael Halewood

doi:10.18352/ijc.412

Abstract

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) were once widely considered to be global public goods. Recently, however, access to subsets of PGRFA has been subject to various forms of exclusive technological and legal restrictions. In reaction, numerous voluntary pooling initiatives – from local to global scales – are being experimented with, in an attempt to re-strike a balance more supportive of agricultural research and development. The first part of the paper argues that different subsets of PGRFA can now be accurately described as public goods, private goods, club goods and common pool resources, but that these categories do not fully interrogate important ‘exogenous variables’ concerning PGRFA. As the products of complex interactions between crops breeding systems and natural and human selection, PGRFA occupy a middle ground between natural resources and human-make cultural resources. The paper identifies which subsets of PGRFA are (or could be) included in an evolving global plant genetic resources commons. The paper uses Elinor Ostrom’s eight design principles for long enduring commons to analyze the extent to which the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) supports this evolving global commons. The paper concludes by identifying options for policy reforms to provide better tailored institutional support for the plant genetic resources commons.

Highlights

Over the course of the last forty years, under the auspices of the United Nations Food and Agricultural organization, the international community has been developing the Global System for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources (FAO 2010)
The Treaty creates an international legal and administrative framework for countries to coordinate their activities related to conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA)
From the late 1960s onwards, considerable human efforts, coordinated at the international level, were expended to collect and conserve Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) and increase its availability through collections coordinated by the International Board on Plant Genetic Resources, establishment of the international network of base collections, and the steady growth of internationally accessible collections hosted by the CGIAR centres, some regionally based organizations, and some national agricultural research programs, such as in the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands (Fowler 1994; Pistorius 1997; Wilkes 1988)

Summary

Introduction

Over the course of the last forty years, under the auspices of the United Nations Food and Agricultural organization, the international community has been developing the Global System for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources (FAO 2010). As a result of these differences, the production, sustainable use and sharing of PGRFA are subject to social dilemmas that are different from those confronting the management of natural resources on one hand and purely-informational, culturally constructed resources on the other Another closely related challenge that this paper must address is the relatively high level of conceptual confusion regarding the status of PGRFA vis-à-vis the classic goods quadrant frequently invoked in commons-related literature (see Table 1). It considers the rivalry and excludability of PGRFA and argues that different subsets of PGRFA can be accurately described as public goods, private goods, club goods or common pool resources (see Table 1) It highlights areas of conceptual obscurity, where these categories do not reflect the biophysical and cultural nature of PGRFA, and fail to fully interrogate the social dilemmas associated with the production and management of those resources. The paper does demonstrate the potential utility of using commons discourse, institutional analysis, and the principles of enduring commons to analyze the international communities’ efforts to develop a globally coordinated system of conservation, sustainable use, and access and benefit sharing related to PGRFA

Part 1

PGRFA’s rivalry

PGRFA’s distinctive attributes: entropic degradation

Part 2

Commonalities

Part 3

Conclusions

Literature cited

Findings

Background