Speaking on behalf of the Alliance of
Future Harvest
Centres of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR), Frison said how very pleased he
was that this day had finally arrived after years of
often difficult negotiations. He further announced that
the 11 genebanks of the Future Harvest Centres had
agreed to sign an agreement with the Governing Body to
make their hundreds of thousands of accessions of
agricultural biodiversity available under the Treaty.
"We also look forward to the adoption this week of the
Standard Material Transfer Agreement," Frison said,
pointing out that the Agreement should "make it as
simple as possible to access and distribute materials
within the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit
Sharing created by the Treaty".
