Community seed registry

Starting in 2002, the Campagao Farmers' Production and Research Association (CFPRA) of the municipality of Bilar, province of Bohol, in collaboration with Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE), established a community seed registry. The registry is not intended to claim property rights but aims to prevent others from doing so by placing knowledge in the public domain. The community seed registry recognizes farmers as the developers of the varieties and upholds the principle that seeds should be freely and widely accessed and exchanged. Through a municipal resolution, the community seed registry was officially recognized. Community seed registries may evolve differently in different contexts, but share common elements, including (1) a community declaration, through which the local communities publicly and collectively assert their rights over local plant genetic resources, e.g. a joint resolution or statements of communities or farmers’ organizations, public ceremonies, rituals/oral traditions, audio/video techniques, or other indigenous means of documentation; (2) legal recognition, which obliges the State to recognize the registries and to provide them with a mantle of legal protection; and (3) community protocols or procedures meant to regulate and facilitate access more systematically and to ensure that Farmers’ Rights to the accessed materials are recognized.