Case 8. The story of Buckwheat - Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing

China was recognized as the Party of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits on September 6, 2016, marking China's biology industry entering the ear of benefit-sharing. Delegates of CBCGDF participated in the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP13), and the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (COP/MOP 2).

The biodiversity of genetic resources is key to biodiversity conservation. In order to improve China’s leading role in formulating regulations concerning global biological management and genetic resources, CBCGDF establishes a communication mechanism of access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, and invites elite experts in the field of agriculture, genetics and environment law, for effective talks and cooperation. In response to the Regulation of Access to Biological Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (exposure draft) promulgated by Ministry of Ecology and Environment, CBCGDF held a seminar on April 7, 2017, and submitted its opinions and suggestions. To promote the access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits and the synergies between ITPGRFA and CBD, CBCGDF and Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (BAAFS) co-organized a seminar themed "Conservation and Benefit Sharing of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Focusing on Agricultural Biodiversity After 2020", which was held on March 4 2019 in Beijing. Representatives attending the event were from the FAO, heads of relevant departments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, heads from CBCGDF and BAAFS, as well as representatives from scientific research institutions and universities such as Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Beijing Forestry University, China Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, etc.

Buckwheat is wildly distributed in China. In 1992, Ohmi Ohnishi, professor of Agriculture School of Kyoto University and renowned expert of buckwheat germplasm resources, found a new species of wild buckwheat and took it back to Japan for further study. He successfully solved the self-incompatibility of Japanese common buckwheat, the result which has been adopted by many experts of buckwheat breeding.

At the beginning of 2018, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of CBCGDF wrote to Professor Ohmi Ohnishi, focusing on the finding and study of the buckwheat brought back to Japan by him. According to the Nagoya Protocol, the beneficiary country, Japan, should share the benefits arising from buckwheat’s use with China. CBCGDF hopes Prof. Ohmi Ohnishi and his team to cooperate with enterprises, scientific research institutions in Yunnan, and assist the impoverished in local areas. CBCGDF plans to establish a Community Conservation Area for Buckwheat in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province and hopes to work with Prof. Ohmi Ohnishi to enhance natural resources protection.

By / Wang Yanqing