UPOV in its press release dated 10th June 2014, announced that the African Intellectual Property Organization (known as the "Organisation Africaine de PropriĂ©tĂ© Intellectuelle" or by its acronym "OAPI") has joined UPOV as an intergovernmental organisation. OAPI has 17 mainly french-speaking countries as its members: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, CĂŽte dâIvoire, EquatorialGuinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo. Its headquarters is in YaoundĂ©, Cameroon.
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The UPOV Council, the Consultative Committee, and the Administrative and Legal Committee met on 10 and 11 April, 2014. Among the key matters discussed were: the Draft Protocol on Plant Breedersâ Right of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), matters raised by the International Seed Federation (ISF), UPOV's communication strategy, and developments of relevance to UPOV in other international fora.
Today most intergovernmental organisations allow access to proceedings of its meetings. For example, in WIPO, the full report of its various meetings, including interventions and decisions of Member States are publicly available on its website.
Seedmap.org is an online portal on seeds, biodiversity and food. It allows users to connect to information, organizations resources, events and debates relating to food security. It is also a valuable teaching & advocacy tool and reference point on seeds, biodiversity, and food. The heart of Seedmap.org is an interactive map that allows users to visit hundreds of case studies around the world where agricultural biodiversity originated, is threatened, and where people are working to safeguard it.
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Addis Ababa, Accra 3 April 2014 - The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) strongly condemns the move by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) to join UPOV 1991, which will effectively outlaw the centuries-old African farmersâ practice of freely using, exchanging and selling seeds/propagating material. These practices underpin 90% of the agricultural system within the ARIPO region.
African civil society & AFSA have made several submissions to ARIPO detailing its many concerns with the content of the Draft Legal Framework on PVP, which is based on UPOV 1991, and the bias and lack of transparency in the processes leading to the finalization of the Draft ARIPO Legal Framework on Plant Variety Protection. Most recently AFSA submitted detailed comments to ARIPO's responses to civil society.
Following protests in many Chilean cities (see APBREBES Updates issue #3) and years of controversy, on 18th March, the Chilean government withdrew from its legislative process, the proposed Plant Growers Law (commonly known as "the Monsanto Law") that would have brought Chilean PVP law in line with UPOV 1991
Food Sovereignty Ghana - February 20, 2014: Organizations from Africa and around the world petition Ghanaâs Parliament: Ghanaâs Plant Breeders Bill Lacks Legitimacy! It Must Be Revised
Agribusiness giant Monsanto is marketing a purple carrot originating in Turkey over which Monsanto has claims plant variety rights in the EU and the US.