The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS): Practical Issues for International Research Collaborations.

Plant breeding research has long depended on access to a diversity of materials to identify sources of resistance and tolerance to emerging abiotic and biotic stresses. With increasing variability of production environments from climate change and new traits desired by end-users, plant breeders require access to plant germplasm from many sources, including outside the US. The international legal landscape related to accessing these materials is increasingly complex and deciphering terms of compliance can be a challenge. This talk will provide an overview of international legal frameworks governing access to and benefit sharing from the use of genetic resources of relevance to plant breeders. It will include a discussion of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and its multilateral system (MLS) and the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity.  We will focus on the MLS, which includes the germplasm held in-trust for the international community by the CGIAR research centers, a major source of germplasm for the global plant breeding research community. In addition, we will discuss practical issues of access to and use of genetic resources outside the scope of the Treaty, such as pathogens used in screening for resistance traits as these microbial genetic resources are generally governed by the terms of the Nagoya Protocol. Practical issues and approaches will be explored for those interested in forging international research collaborations involving the exchange and use of germplasm from outside the US.