International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants
Union internationale pour la protection des obtentions végétales
UPOV Headquarters
Abbreviation	UPOV
Legal status	In force
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Secretary General	Daren Tang
Vice Secretary-General	Peter Button
Parent organization	WIPO

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, or UPOV, is an international group based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its main goal is to protect new plant varieties. It does this by creating rules that its member countries can use in their own laws.

UPOV helps plant breeders get special rights for their new plant creations. These rights are similar to intellectual property rights. The rules for these rights are found in different versions of the UPOV Convention, like the 1991 Act (UPOV 91) and the 1978 Act (UPOV 78).

History of UPOV

UPOV was created by an international agreement called the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. This agreement was first made in Paris in 1961. It has been updated several times since then, in 1972, 1978, and 1991.

The idea for UPOV came from plant breeding companies in Europe in 1956. They wanted clear rules for protecting new plant varieties. In 1961, 12 European countries agreed to the first UPOV Convention. By 1990, only 19 countries were part of it.

However, from the mid-1990s, more countries from Latin America, Asia, and Africa joined. This happened partly because of international trade agreements. These agreements encouraged or even required countries to have laws protecting new plant varieties.

Today, both UPOV 78 and UPOV 91 are in use. Countries that were already members can choose to stay with UPOV 78 or adopt the newer UPOV 91. But new countries joining UPOV must follow the rules of UPOV 91.

Who are the Members?

As of December 3, 2021, UPOV has 78 members. These include 76 countries and two international organizations. Some of the members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States.

To become a member, a country or organization must put UPOV's rules into its own national laws. UPOV's team checks these laws to make sure they meet the requirements. Sometimes, countries have been refused membership if their laws allowed farmers too many exceptions for reusing and sharing seeds.

Many other countries and organizations also have "observer status." This means they can attend meetings and watch what happens, but they are not full members.

How Plant Protection Works

UPOV sets out how the organization should be run. It also defines the main ideas for protecting new plant varieties. These ideas must be included in the laws of member countries.

What Makes a Plant Special?

For a new plant variety to get protection, it must meet certain rules:

New: The plant variety cannot have been sold or used publicly for more than one year in the country where it's being protected. It also can't have been available for more than four years in any other country.
Distinct: It must be clearly different from any other known plant variety.
Uniform: All plants of the new variety should look very similar to each other.
Stable: The special features of the new variety must stay the same over many generations.

UPOV provides guidelines to help test if a plant meets these "DUS" (Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability) requirements.

Getting Protection

A plant breeder can apply for protection in any UPOV member country. They can apply in many countries at once. The protection only applies in the country where it was granted. This means if a plant is protected in one country, it's not automatically protected in another.

What Rights Do Breeders Get?

When a new plant variety is protected, the breeder gets special rights. These rights are like a temporary monopoly. This means the breeder has control over their new plant for a certain time. This helps them get back the money they spent creating the new variety. Developing a new plant can take 10 to 15 years and costs a lot.

The breeder must allow others to do things like sell, market, import, export, or reproduce their new variety. This means the breeder can ask for a fee from companies that want to grow and sell their plant. The breeder also gets to name the new variety. The name must follow certain rules, so it's not confusing or misleading.

Exceptions to the Rules

The 1991 UPOV Convention has a few exceptions to these breeder rights:

Breeders' Exception: Other breeders can freely use a protected variety to create new varieties. They don't need permission from the original breeder. However, if the new variety is "essentially derived" (very similar), this exception might not apply.
Farmers' Exception: In the 1978 Convention, farmers could generally reuse and exchange seeds. But in the 1991 Convention, the breeder's rights were expanded. This means farmers usually have to pay a fee to reuse seeds from protected varieties. Only a few countries, like Switzerland and the United States, allow farmers to freely reuse seeds for some crops under UPOV 91.
Private Use Exception: People can grow protected varieties for their own private use, like in a home garden or for a farmer to grow food for their family. But they are not allowed to exchange or give away seeds of protected varieties.
Research Exception: Using protected varieties for experiments or research is allowed without the breeder's permission.

How Long Does Protection Last?

Under the 1991 Convention, a breeder's rights must last for at least 20 years. For trees and vines, it must be at least 25 years. The 1978 Convention had slightly shorter minimum times: 15 years for most plants and 18 years for trees and vines.

When Rights Can Be Lost

A breeder's rights can be taken away if it's found that the variety wasn't truly new or distinct. Rights can also be lost if the variety isn't uniform or stable. If the person who applied for protection wasn't the real breeder, the rights can be canceled.

Farmers' Rights and UPOV

Some international rules from the United Nations say that farmers have a right to seeds. For example, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants says farmers have "The right to save, use, exchange and sell their farm-saved seed or propagating material." The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture also mentions this right.

However, UPOV 91 rules can conflict with these rights. Under UPOV 91, farmers can only save seeds in very limited ways. They are generally not allowed to exchange or sell seeds from protected varieties. This means farmers might lose access to cheap seeds.

Experts on human rights say that farmers' rights are very important. They believe these rights should come before property rights on seeds. This means countries might need to change their laws to protect farmers' rights better.

A UN expert, Michael Fakhri, said in a report that UPOV 91 goes against farmers' rights. He also said that richer countries sometimes pressure poorer countries to join UPOV. He encouraged countries to create seed policies that help farmers and their traditional seed systems. Countries like Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, and Thailand are seen as good examples because they have their own seed protection laws that are different from UPOV.

In 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice in Honduras decided that their UPOV 91-based law was against their country's human rights and environmental protection rules.

What are the Impacts of UPOV?

Seeds and Access

A study by UPOV in 2005 looked at the effects of UPOV rules in several countries. It found that the number of protected plant varieties increased. UPOV said this showed benefits for farmers. However, some critics say this study was biased.

Another report from 2005, for the World Bank, found that strict plant protection rules had little effect on the growth of private seed companies in developing countries. It noted that farmers' own seed systems were the main source of seeds. It also suggested that strict rules might harm these systems.

A study on UPOV 91 in French-speaking African countries found that very few new varieties were protected. It did not see an increase in plant breeding by private companies.

When more varieties are protected, it doesn't always mean farmers can get seeds more easily. In many developing countries, farmers rely on seeds they save, exchange, or sell themselves. Since UPOV 91 often bans these practices, farmers might lose access to affordable seeds.

Farming and Food Production

A UPOV study on Viet Nam found that crop yields increased after the country joined UPOV 91. It suggested that better plant varieties, due to stricter protection, helped. However, other studies argue that these gains could be due to other factors. They also suggest that UPOV 91 might help international seed companies more than local public breeders or farmers.

Food Security and Poverty

Many small farmers in poorer countries depend on seeds they produce themselves. These traditional seed systems are often strong and affordable. When strict UPOV 91 rules are put in place, farmers might become more dependent on expensive seeds from companies. This could make it harder for them to feed their families and escape poverty.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, said in 2009 that UPOV rules could make poor farmers rely on costly seeds. This could lead to debt. He also worried that the system might ignore the needs of poor farmers and reduce the variety of plants available.

Plants and Nature

Diverse plant genetic resources are vital for all plant breeding and food production. Breeders use wild plants and traditional farmer varieties to find useful traits, like disease resistance. However, the number of different plant varieties has dropped a lot over the last century.

The rise of a few big seed companies and strict plant protection rules might have played a role in this loss of diversity. The UN Secretary-General said in 2015 that UPOV 91's limits on seed saving could lead to a loss of biodiversity. This could harm small farmers and reduce the genetic base needed for future food supplies.

UPOV's rules can also make it easier for companies to take genetic resources without permission, a practice called biopiracy. UPOV 91 laws don't require companies to say where their plant material came from. This means traditional varieties, which often can't be protected by UPOV rules, are open to being taken.

For example, in West Africa, a French company tried to claim protection for a traditional onion variety. The local government challenged this, and the company withdrew its claim.

Critics and Resistance

Several groups, including South Center, GRAIN, and La Via Campesina, have criticized UPOV. They say UPOV does not talk enough with all interested parties, especially farmers' organizations. They also point out that UPOV meetings are often secret, and documents are not always public.

Professor Graham Dutfield studied UPOV's governance. He found that UPOV officials know little about how small-scale farmers develop and produce new varieties. He said they know more about commercial breeding, which favors big companies. This means the UPOV system tends to help commercial breeders more than farmers.

Activists protesting in front of UPOV headquarters

The intergovernmental organization South Center says that UPOV's rules were mostly made by richer countries. Yet, these rules are now pushed onto all countries, including those in the Southern Hemisphere. GRAIN has even called UPOV's actions "neo-colonialistic."

On December 2, 2021, for UPOV's 60th anniversary, a group led by GRAIN organized a "Week of Action: Stop UPOV." Over 230 groups from 47 countries signed a call to action. Activists also protested outside UPOV's headquarters in Geneva. This week of action was repeated in 2022 with more protests.

UPOV and Trade Agreements

Many developing countries have joined UPOV not because they chose to, but because they had to as part of free trade agreements. For example, Peru, Morocco, and Costa Rica had to join UPOV to get trade deals with the European Free Trade Association.

There is growing opposition to UPOV requirements in these trade agreements. In 2020, Swiss officials received over 1,300 letters of complaint about this issue.

In his 2021 report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food criticized how richer countries pressure poorer countries to join UPOV through trade agreements. He urged countries to create seed laws that protect farmers' rights. He highlighted Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, and Thailand as good examples because they have their own unique plant variety protection laws.

However, as of 2024, countries like Switzerland and Norway are still negotiating trade agreements that require Thailand and Malaysia to follow UPOV 91. The UN Special Rapporteur has warned that this could harm the right to food. Despite these concerns, the negotiating countries seem likely to continue this practice.