Exploring a source of funds for international policies on Gurts

Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) have been the subject of much controversy worldwide owing to their potential social, economic and environmental impacts. The present work discusses the feasibility of using the benefit-sharing mechanism instituted by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as a funding instrument for an international policy on GURTs. The discussion is developed in 5 sections. The general features of the Treaty, as they are relevant to the proposed theme, are presented in Section 2. Sections 3 and 4 discuss the characterisation of GURTs as a trigger for the Treaty’s benefit-sharing mechanism and the conditions under which such a mechanism may provide funding support for an international policy on these technologies. Section 5 addresses the problem of farmers’ rights, seeking to identify points requiring further analysis so that the relevant GURTs’ impacts may be properly assessed and measures to cope with these impacts be set. Besides funding, the challenges posed by GURTs will demand an appropriate regulatory response. Section 6 presents the points that have to be considered in this regard.