TY  - JA
AU  - Mulesa,T.H.
AU  - Westengen,O.T.
TI  - Against the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia
SN  - 1422-2213
PY  - 2020///
CY  - United Kingdom
PB  - Wiley
KW  - AGROVOC
KW  - Access and benefit-sharing
KW  - Governance
KW  - Intellectual property rights
KW  - Plant genetic resources
KW  - Ethiopia
N1  - Peer review; Open Access
N2  - Farmers' and breeders' access to a genetic diversity is essential for food system sustainability. The implementation of international agreements regulating access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) varies substantially between countries. Here, we examine why some countries implement a restrictive access governance regime, taking Ethiopia as a case. Drawing on commons theory and historical institutional analysis, we analyze historical, political, and economic factors that have shaped Ethiopia's access regime. Based on interviews with key actors and stakeholders and document analysis, we identify three overarching ideational and material factors that can explain Ethiopia's current policy: (a) the influence of narratives about Ethiopia as a biodiversity treasure trove on the Ethiopian cultural identity; (b) the economic importance of agriculture based on PGRFA with origin in the country; and (c) the political influence of the genetic resource movement that promotes farmers' rights as a counter measure to stringent intellectual property rights (IPR), and on-farm PGRFA management as complimentary to ex situ conservation and formal seed system development. The Ethiopian case illustrates that countries' governance of access to PGRFA must be understood in connection with, and not in isolation from, IPR regimes and the historical, political, and cultural role of PGRFA in the country in question
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12142
T2  - The Journal of World Intellectual Property
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1111/jwip.12142
ER  -