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Online Webinar: Seed Systems

Online Webinar:

The East Asia Plant Variety Protection Forum and UPOV 1991: Implications for Seed Systems in Southeast Asia

Published by Third World Network and authored by Sangeeta Shashikant.

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Date: 16 July 2025
Time: 4 pm MYT / 3 pm WIB
Register: https://tinyurl.com/53h5ea2a

This publication discusses the motivations and commercial interests behind the East Asia Plant Variety Protection (EAPVP) Forum, how it has evolved into a key platform for aggressively promoting the adoption of the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) in the Southeast Asia region.

The webinar will bring together experts in intellectual property, agriculture, and farmers’ rights to discuss the economic and political dynamics behind the campaign for UPOV 1991 and its implications for developing countries.

Speaker

  • Sangeeta Shashikant, Programme Coordinator, Third World Network

Commentators

  • Nori Ignacio, Executive Director, Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE)
  • NurFitri Amir Muhammad, Food Sovereignty Forum Malaysia
  • Inyaku Tomoya, Secretary General, OK Seed Project, Japan

Quote: …the paper concludes that the EAPVP Forum primarily serves as a strategic tool for Japan and the UPOV Secretariat to pressure South East Asian countries into adopting the rigid UPOV 1991 framework, threatening their policy space and agricultural sovereignty. SEA countries, especially non-UPOV members, should critically reassess their participation and advocate for a reorientation of the Forum towards: genuine collaboration based on recognition of the sovereign right of each country to preserve the flexibility to have and implement a national PVP system distinct from UPOV Conventions; promoting critical, evidence-based discussions; engagement of diverse perspectives, in particular local stakeholders in SEA such as smallholder farmers, local and indigenous communities; establishment of an independent secretariat; and ensuring greater transparency and accountability of the Forum’s activities.

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