17th – 22nd February 2019. IPC participation at the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of the FAO in Rome. Social movements and support NGOs formed the IPC delegation.
For the first time, the IPC WG on Agricultural Biodiversity included fisher folk, indigenous peoples and livestock breeder to its delegation, which usually counted exclusively on experts in plant genetic resources. The IPC participation at the CGRFA17 has been significantly important to continue the work started at the COP14 of the CBD. The new FAO strategy on biodiversity, the Action Plan on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, the discussion on DSI and the first ever State of World Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture are just some of the discussions.
18th – 21st March 2019. IPC Fisheries Working Group in Rome (Italy).
Following the mandate received from the COFI under the Global Strategic Framework in support of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines (SSF-GSF), the Working Group met to draw up the ToRs of the main bodies of the SSF-GSF and to define its work plan for the following months.
8th – 12th April 2019. FAO Council, in Rome (Italy). Presentation of the FAO DG candidates and discussion on 10 elements of Agroecology
20th – 25th May 2019. Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Farmers’ Rights, in Rome at the FAO HQ. The second meeting of the ad-hoc technical expert group on farmers’ rights finished without completing its mandate. The Governing Body of the ITPGRFA put the expert group in place in 2017, with the task to provide guidance for advancing the realization of peasants’ and Indigenous Peoples’ rights over seeds. These rights are recognized and guaranteed by the ITPGRFA, but implementation by States is lacking. The IPC will continue the struggle for the full realization of peasants’ and Indigenous peoples’ rights over seeds.
27th – 29th May 2019. Global Launch of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming. http://www.fao.org/3/ca3760en/ca3760en.pdf
webcast link: http://www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/4986/icode/
The Launch has been be preceded by farmers’ knowledge exchange sessions and regional dialogues on priorities for the implementation of the Decade, open to the participation of representatives of the relevant stakeholders (Governments, Civil Society Organizations, producers’ organizations, Academia, and the Private Sector). The Global Launch presented the Global Action Plan http://www.fao.org/3/ca4672en/ca4672en.pdf (FAO publication)
30th – 31st May 2019. IPC Land and Territory-Workshop on fictionalization.
The first part of the workshop was dedicated to a joint analysis of how fictionalization/rogue capitalism operates and penetrates in our territories. Following the presentations and discussion on concrete cases, there was an input on existing proposals for better regulation of global finance. Currently, there is little to no chance to regulate global finance in a comprehensive and adequate way. However, there are some proposals for measures that could serve as first steps to advance at global governance level.
12th – 13th June 2019. FAO Digital Agriculture Transformation seminar: the Challenges to be addressed. http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/digital-agriculture-transformation/en/
The IPC was represented in this two-days seminar by Marciano Da Silva, cooridantor of the IPC Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity.
17th – 21st June 2019. The Ninth Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on the improvement of the functioning of the Multilateral System of the ITPGRFA, held in Rome (Italy). The IPC participated with a delegate, Guy Kastler, as expert. For the first time in five years, the discussions were not limited to the presentation of the positions of the various participants, but focused on the trade-offs that needed to be made to reach consensus.
27th – 30th June 2019. CSOs DB Meeting-Tunisia
24th – 29th June 2019. FAO Conference. Election of the FAO Director General
10th –12th July 2019. Strengthening non-state actor (NSA) platforms and their representation at regional and global levels for sustainable small-scale fisheries in Kasane (Botswana). The development of sustainable small-scale fisheries is an integral part of the African Union Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa (AU PF&RS – 2014).
The IPC working Group participated in the workshop with 5 delegates from each of the African sub-regions to start to coordinate the global process of the Global Strategic Framework (GFS) in Support of the Implementation for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) with the African Union process and to have recognized Small Scale Fisheries organizations at the lead of the process of implementation of the SSF Guidelines beyond FAO in Rome. https://www.foodsovereignty.org/pan-african-workshop-on-strengthening-non-state-actors-nsa-platforms/
16th –19th July 2019. IPC consultation on the contribution of the agriculture sector to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, held in Rome.
The Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity of the IPC for Food Sovereignty organized the civil society and producer’s organizations consultation on the contribution of the agriculture sector to the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Crocevia facilitates the IPC WG on Agricultural Biodiversity.
29th July –1st August 2019. Africa Region Training Workshop on Conservation and Sustainable Use of PGRFA and Farmers’ Rights, in Dakar (Senegal).
A delegation of 10 IPC member organizations from the region participated at this training in Senegal, to ensure that Governments take IPC positions on Farmers’ Rights. The results of the regional consultation of Farmers’ Rights held in Mali in 2018 have been presented to Governments.
5th –8th August 2019. Latin America and Caribbean Training Workshop on Conservation, Sustainable Use of PGRFA and Farmers’ Rights, in Montevideo (Uruguay). An IPC delegate, with the support of some Montevideo based members of the IPC participated at this workshop trying to raise the concerns of small-scale farmers on the protection of Farmers’ Rights.
1st – 5th Semptember 2019. Towards Resilient and Equitable Small-Scale Fisheries – Penang, Malaysia.
https://www.worldfishcenter.org/events/fish-meeting-towards-resilient-and-equitable-small-scale-fisheries
The initiative seeks to initiate the Knowledge Sharing Platform for the AG SSF GSF, give greater visibility to, and better coordination of, the efforts of multiple actors working towards these outcomes: non-government organizations, fisher non-state actor platforms, intergovernmental agencies and research organizations will identify and refine areas for complementarity and synergy in order to best support resilient SSF and inclusive ocean, water and landscape governance. The objective of this workshop is to design and launch a global initiative to support implementation of the ‘Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication’, ensuring the policy commitments, actions and investments made to support small-scale fisheries (SSF) around the globe successfully achieve common end goals in the areas of environmental management, food and nutrition security, poverty alleviation, and equitable and good governance
16th October 2019. IPC Facilitation Committee meets with Ms Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General, Climate and Natural Resources, for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
24th –26th October 2019. Resumed Ninth Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System, in Rome (Italy).
The discussion of the extra session was mainly characterized by the stall of the negotiations on genetic information: developing countries strongly affirmed that accessing the genetic sequence data is equivalent to access physical PGRFA; while industrialized countries claimed that the Treaty does not refer to information, but only to physical material.
The failure of the negotiations and the evident boycott in reaching a solution that recognizes the farmers and Indigenous Peoples’ rights on the PGRFA belonging to them is a demonstration of the importance of the Treaty and the many interests revolving around its “collapse”.
11th –16th November 2019. Eight Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, in Rome (Italy). http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/eighth-governing-body/en/.
Several IPC delegates participated to the Meeting (one from North America, two from Latin America and Caribbean, two from Europe, two from Middle East and North Africa, two from Asia and pacific, six from Africa); several NGOs participated and support them.
Two were the main issues on the table: the enhancement of the benefit sharing provided by the Multilateral System and the effective implementation of Farmers’ Rights.
During the GB meeting, states completely avoided the discussion on DSI. The African group, GRULAC and Middle East Group were supportive of the IPC positions and insisted in having in-depth discussions, but with no results. The US Chair kept the discussions on DSI as informal for the first three days and waited until Wednesday 13th to establish a contact group. That group was not well balanced at all: it was composed exclusively of two Contracting Parties per region, thus Africa, with more than 50 countries, had two representatives in the Contact Group, as did North America, composed solely of two countries.
The outcomes (or their absence) show exactly the absence of discussion during the meeting:
- The discussion on MLS and DSI have been frozen and no agreements have been found to continue the working group to enhance the Multilateral System (including payment rates).
- Even if the members of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers’ Rights added two places for farmers’ organizations (from 3 to 5 places, out of 43 members), the change is not significant and the mandate remained the same, without recognizing the problems we faces in the last two years.
The Governing Body failed to protect Farmers’ Rights, by not taking any decision on the issue of DSI and on bio-piracy of PGRFA.
15th – 17th November AG SSF GSF meeting
The SSF-GSF Advisory Group met to refine its work plan, establish the criteria for cooperation with the other actors involved in the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, and work on possible funding axes for future activities.
18th – 21st November 2019. International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/sustainable-fisheries-symposium/en/
The IPC Fisheries Working Group participated in the Symposium through its members part of the SSF-GSF Advisory Group. Among the various interventions made, we recall the participation of Editrudith Lukanga and Naseegh Jaffer as official panellists.
20th – 22nd November 2019. 11th meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on Article 8j of the CBD, in Montreal (Canada). https://www.cbd.int/conferences/sbstta23-8j11/wg8j-11/documents.
The IPC participated with three delegates (from International Indian Treaty Council and La Via Campesina).
There is an urgent need to recognize and affirm the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas as a lens through which the Convention on Biodiversity should be implemented.
The parties have to recognize that, despite the huge pressure of the rich countries and the private sector, it is impossible to separate Indigenous knowledge from what “western science” call genetic resources. Indigenous knowledge holders, farmers and food producers have the right to participate in the decision making processes and make vital contributions to impact global policies and decisions that affect all the indigenous people on themes such as climate change, food and seed sovereignty, sustainable development, cultural heritage and biodiversity based on the richness of our living cultures, Indigenous sciences and knowledge systems.
25th – 29th November 2019. 23rd meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, in Montreal (Canada). https://www.cbd.int/meetings/SBSTTA-23.
The IPC participated with the same delegation of the week before, giving continuity in the interventions and showing the importance of the presence of the IPC in the context of the CBD.
The technical discussions evolved during the week. However, the peasant and Indigenous knowledge of the IPC delegation strongly claimed the defense of the rights of small-scale producers and the principles of food sovereignty.
During the meeting, the IPC delegates had the opportunity to have a meeting with meeting with the Co-chairs of the working group on post-2020, the EU representative and the Chinese delegation in order to exchange on the issues of the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework and the net COP15 of the CBD.
2nd – 6th December 2019. FAO Council: IPC Secretariat attended to follow the discussion on 10 elements of the agroecology, Hand in hand initiative and Biodiversity mainstreaming. http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/council/cl163/documents/en (FAO publication)
9th – 11th December 2019. IPC Facilitation Committee and IPC Working Groups coordinators gather at Borgo di Tragliata to discuss and update the strategy and work plan agreed in the last IPC General Meeting (Cape Town 2018).