August 28, 2025
In view of the 11th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the IPC Agrobiodiversity Working Group is publishing a key document for all governments wishing to address the problem of digital biopiracy caused by the open access to digital sequence information (DSI) on PGRFA.
The document outlines a set of principles for a national legal framework that would limit the ongoing violation of farmers’ rights to seeds, which today occurs through the patenting of DSI corresponding to the genetic components of resources contained in the Treaty’s Multilateral System.
Since the international negotiations within the Treaty have long been stalled, with two opposing factions, it is necessary that Contracting Parties truly willing to solve the problem take action independently through national legislation. This would ensure consistent application of the letter of the Treaty, prevent the abusive extension of patents to native traits, and avoid restrictions on facilitated access to PGRFA that a country makes available within the Multilateral System.
The IPC’s proposal comes as Contracting Parties are discussing an amendment to the Treaty that, if approved by the Governing Body, would expand the Multilateral System to all genetic resources preserved in ex situ collections and in the public domain. This move, if not preceded by the inclusion of DSI under the Treaty’s rules, would transform the ITPGRFA into a tool of biopiracy serving corporations, facilitating the violation of peasants’ rights instead of protecting and promoting them.
With this document, the IPC calls on all Contracting Parties to engage in dialogue and collaboration with peasant and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in order to reverse this trend and implement legal measures that firmly protect facilitated access to PGRFA and farmers’ rights, ensuring that DSI cannot be used to privatize and expropriate what belongs to farmers.