The International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN) B. van den Wollenberg, W. Lobin, M. von den Driesch,...

The International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN)

B. van den Wollenberg , W. Lobin, M. von den Driesch,

F. Klingenstein, Maïté Delmas, Thierry Helminger, Kari Laine, Frank Schumacher, Steve Waldren

on behalf of the BGCI/IABG-Consortium of Botanic Gardens in the EU

Botanic Gardens Conservation International Bonn

University

German Regional Office Botanic

Gardens

Do we need IPEN?

Botanic Gardens Conservation International

Dutch Regional Office

The Convention on Biological Diversity has been signed by 188 parties

(countries), including all EU-countries.



Most notable non-party: USA

Your government has signed the CBD. This means it has the same status as

your laws; the gardens in your country have to implement the CBD!



Most botanic gardens have not been informed by their government about the obligation to implement the CBD. Why not?

Unlike CITES, the CBD lacks an operational chapter, detailing how it

should be implemented.

The parties have been discussing that since the CBD came into force, on

december 29, 1993.



An essential difference with CITES is that each country has sovereignty

over its biodiversity, and can implement the CBD nationally, by laws

or other means.



Imagine 188 countries, each with different laws!

There as basically two views:



1: Implementation through legal means (megadiverse countries).

2: Implementation by self-imposed non-legally enforced mechanisms (the developed countries).

In Johannesburg (WSSD – 2002-) it was agreed to strive for implementation through an

“International Regime“.



International certificate of origin / source / legal provenance will probably become part of the

International Regime (“tracking“)



How does the CBD affect us?



Article 15, on Access and Benefit Sharing, is of key importance, since it

applies to all exchanges of biodiversity (in our case plant material).



At a workshop convened by the German Federal Agency for Nature

Conservation and Bonn Botanic Garden, nine problems were

indentified.



three of these are very important for botanic gardens:

“Over-restrictive ABS regulations have created extra levels of bureaucracy that impede basic research, sustainable use, and research

on economic use and attached benefits“

“Distrust associated with the commercial sectors is affecting CBD implementation by the non-commercial research community“

“Examples of national legislation in South America showed that current conditions for

basic research and conservation are especially restrictive in some megadiverse countries“



For the scientific community, the Swiss Academy of Sciences has published an ABS

manualwww.scnat.ch / [email protected]



http://www.scnat.ch/




Do we need IPEN?



Botanic gardens need to demon-strate their commitment to the CBD to CBD countries in order to main-tain credibility and access to their biodiversity

Yes, we do!


University


Gardens


• model of implementation of the CBD by Botanic Gardens

• covers the exchange of plant material for non- commercial purposes between Botanic Gardens

• developed by the Association of Botanic Gardens in Germany, adopted by the EU Consortium of Botanic Gardens


for botanic gardens


University


Gardens

for non-commercial purposes

according to the CBD

IPEN-assumption 1: seed exchange is the main source for BG’s

receipt of seeds: 79.983

supply of seeds: 260.010

BG’s depend extensively on regular access from ex-situ-conditions

326.000 transactions 3.400 per garden

Dimension of seed exchange for the 95 BG‘s in Germany p.a.


University


Gardens

Most BG’s are small gardens with limited staff capacity

Bonn Botanic Gardens:

13,5 ha

10.200 taxa

1 scientist (= all-round manager)

IPEN-assumption 2: limited capacity

Fundamentals of IPEN

UNIFIED POLICY (Code of Conduct) to meet the provisions of the CBD in receiving, storing, and supplying plant material and on Benefit-Sharing

including Material Transfer Agreements (MTA’s)to be used for exchange with institutions NOT sharing this policy

free exchange only for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes

including pre-CBD-material (advised)

free exchange only between BOTANIC GARDENS


University


Gardens

International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN)

UNIFIED POLICY (Code of Conduct) for all participating gardens:

BG 1

BG 2

BG X

CoO

BG 2 CoO

terms BG 1 = BG 2 = BG X ...only for NON-COMMERCIAL use

only for BOTANIC GARDENS


University


Gardens


University


Gardens

Scope of the IPEN Code of Conduct

• acquisition of plant material

• introduction of material into IPEN

• minimum documentation requirements to enable tracking of plant material (certificate of origin / source / legal provenance

• supply of material to IPEN-members (simplified exchange) and to non-IPEN-members (Material Supply Agreements !)

• Benefit Sharing

“doc max”

= documentation sheet for plant material entering IPEN

“doc min”

= minimum set of data to be documented

IPEN-Number: country code, restrictions, acronym of inst., accession N°

taxonomic data

type of material

source (collector, CoO etc.)

permits

terms of CoO or other stakeholders

IPEN-Number

CoO

terms of CoO or other stakeholders


University


Gardens

Botanic Gardens are not using their collections commercially, but:

Botanic Gardens and Benefit Sharing


University


Gardens

CBD requires also non-commercial Benefit Sharing,

but

there already exists a long tradition of non monetary Benefit Sharing such as:

Experiences with Benefit Sharing

Cooperation of the Botanic Garden University of Vienna with Tsimbazaza (Madagascar) with respect to Orchids


University


Gardens

Exchange of staff with the Botanic Garden Hamburg with respect to a project on Dahlia in Mexico

Cooperation of the Botanic Gardens Bonn and Munich with Botanic Garden Tbilissi, Georgia; staff exchange, common excursions, labelling of plants

Support of Indonesian Botanic Gardens in conservation of Amorphophallus titanum by Bonn Botanic Gardens

Implementation of IPEN

gardens declaring the adoption of the Code of Conduct get registered (BGCI)


University


Gardens

the list of registered gardens is made available via internet

after 5 years, the procedure of adoption must be renewed

the overall idea is to establish a similar procedure as CITES with their “registered institutions”



Slide provided by Thierry Helminger, MNHN, Luxembourg

`You can find more information on the website of BGCI:

www.bgci.org/abs



• Access & Benefit Sharing

• The Principles

• IPEN

IPEN lead >>>>

Description of IPEN, Code on Conduct, IPEN member-ship list, and Frequently asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Please join IPEN

as soon as possible!



Thank you for your attention

The International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN) B. van den Wollenberg, W. Lobin, M. von den Driesch,...

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