The ARCHE NOAH model Material Transfer Agreement
The seed savers association Arche Noah is the first one to employ the Difairsity Fond for benefit sharing.
The Arche Noah seed bank includes seeds and tubers of approximately 5,500 different origins and has continuously been enlarged. About 17,000 members of the association swap seeds, multiply them, or develop them by cultivation and crossbreeding. Seeds and seedlings are marketed in an online shop. Since 2014 the Nagoya Protocol applies to all these activities, requiring documents of origin as well as terms of transferring the material, using it for commercial purpose, and benefit sharing.
A PIC form (prior informed consent) serves for the documentation of origin, which the provider needs to fill out and sign.
In order to utilize and spread the new material within the members network or to pass it over to a third party, the ARCHE NOAH model Material Transfer Agreement applies. Key points are:
- Cultivation, propagation and storage, production and the sale of these products, research and development is allowed
- Genetic characterisations, use of genetic engineering, and the claim of rights on intellectual property is not allowed
- When the material is commercialized, two per cent of the turnover made shall be transferred to the Difairsity Fonds as monetary benefit sharing
- When there are research results about the genetic material, they will be made public as non-monetary benefit sharing.
Find further information on the Arche-Noah-Website.