Norm conflicts as governance challenges for Seed Commons: Comparing cases from Germany and the Philippines

Julia Tschersich

doi:10.1016/j.esg.2021.100097

Norm conflicts as governance challenges for Seed Commons: Comparing cases from Germany and the Philippines

Julia Tschersich

University of Oldenburg

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

A Seed Commons approach can help to highlight the common struggle of diverse seed initiatives in the Global North and South in light of the dominant pathway of enclosure and commodification of seeds that threatens food sovereignty and cultivated plant-genetic diversity. In this paper, the Seed Commons framework is applied to show how the conflicting norms and rules of the international regime complex surrounding seeds shape the scope of action for Seed Commons in Germany and the Philippines. The analysis shows that the patent and variety protection regimes have strongly influenced the design of national seed marketing and threaten to outlaw practices of Seed Commons. Despite limited practical impact for Seed Commons initiatives (so far), the norms of the Nagoya Protocol and the Seed Treaty have contributed to exceptions in national seed marketing law that provide essential scope of action for Seed Commons initiatives in Europe and the Philippines.

Original language	English
Article number	100097
Journal	Earth System Governance
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2021.100097
Publication status	Published - Mar 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I would like to thank Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach, Andreas Thiel, Bernd Siebenhüner, Fariborz Zelli, Christine Godt, Peter-Simon Caplazi, and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my interview partners for sharing their expertise and perspectives. This paper has been developed as part of the research project “Right Seeds? Commons-Based Rights on Seeds and Seed Varieties for a Social-Ecological Transformation of Plant Cultivation”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant [01UU1602A] within the framework of the “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA). In FONA, RightSeeds falls within the funding priority “SÖF – Social-Ecological Research” within the funding area “Junior Research Groups in Social-Ecological Research”.

Funding Information:
I would like to thank Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach, Andreas Thiel, Bernd Siebenhüner, Fariborz Zelli, Christine Godt, Peter-Simon Caplazi, and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my interview partners for sharing their expertise and perspectives. This paper has been developed as part of the research project “Right Seeds? Commons-Based Rights on Seeds and Seed Varieties for a Social-Ecological Transformation of Plant Cultivation”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant [ 01UU1602A ] within the framework of the “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA). In FONA, RightSeeds falls within the funding priority “ SÖF – Social-Ecological Research ” within the funding area “ Junior Research Groups in Social-Ecological Research ”.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author

Funding

I would like to thank Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach, Andreas Thiel, Bernd Siebenhüner, Fariborz Zelli, Christine Godt, Peter-Simon Caplazi, and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my interview partners for sharing their expertise and perspectives. This paper has been developed as part of the research project “Right Seeds? Commons-Based Rights on Seeds and Seed Varieties for a Social-Ecological Transformation of Plant Cultivation”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant [01UU1602A] within the framework of the “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA). In FONA, RightSeeds falls within the funding priority “SÖF – Social-Ecological Research” within the funding area “Junior Research Groups in Social-Ecological Research”. I would like to thank Stefanie Sievers-Glotzbach, Andreas Thiel, Bernd Siebenhüner, Fariborz Zelli, Christine Godt, Peter-Simon Caplazi, and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments. Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to my interview partners for sharing their expertise and perspectives. This paper has been developed as part of the research project “Right Seeds? Commons-Based Rights on Seeds and Seed Varieties for a Social-Ecological Transformation of Plant Cultivation”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under grant [ 01UU1602A ] within the framework of the “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA). In FONA, RightSeeds falls within the funding priority “ SÖF – Social-Ecological Research ” within the funding area “ Junior Research Groups in Social-Ecological Research ”.

Keywords

Access and benefit sharing
Biodiversity governance
Intellectual property rights
Norm interplay
Regime complex
Seed commons

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10.1016/j.esg.2021.100097

Cite this

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title = "Norm conflicts as governance challenges for Seed Commons: Comparing cases from Germany and the Philippines",

abstract = "A Seed Commons approach can help to highlight the common struggle of diverse seed initiatives in the Global North and South in light of the dominant pathway of enclosure and commodification of seeds that threatens food sovereignty and cultivated plant-genetic diversity. In this paper, the Seed Commons framework is applied to show how the conflicting norms and rules of the international regime complex surrounding seeds shape the scope of action for Seed Commons in Germany and the Philippines. The analysis shows that the patent and variety protection regimes have strongly influenced the design of national seed marketing and threaten to outlaw practices of Seed Commons. Despite limited practical impact for Seed Commons initiatives (so far), the norms of the Nagoya Protocol and the Seed Treaty have contributed to exceptions in national seed marketing law that provide essential scope of action for Seed Commons initiatives in Europe and the Philippines.",

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Norm conflicts as governance challenges for Seed Commons: Comparing cases from Germany and the Philippines

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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