Report from the conference by Larry Godwin

AFRICAN NGO'S MOBILIZE FOR COMMUNITY & FARMER RIGHTS

By Larry J. Goodwin

On 01-08 March 2002, I was privileged to represent AFJN and the
Africa Trade Policy Working Group* (ATPWG) at a meeting on
community and farmer rights, which was held at the Valley Trust,
1,000 Hills, Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. Forty-three participants
took part, representing 31 NGO and professional groups from 12
African countries, and Asia, Latin America, North America and
Europe. We met to support the rights of African local communities
and farmers to sustainable agriculture, food security and
sovereignty, bio-diversity, indigenous knowledge and technologies.

Background:

As Around Africa readers know, AFJN has helped lead a 2-year
effort to persuade the US Government (USG) to back the rights of
African farmers to freely access, use, save, exchange and sell
their seeds, plants and food crops. Global trade policies that
mandate the patenting of these agricultural resources threaten
African farmers' food security and livelihoods. Multinational
pesticide and agribusiness companies, many from the US, have
already laid claim to seeds and plants that Africans developed and
have used for generations. By asserting exclusive rights over
these agricultural resources - often termed "biopiracy" - the
companies are in a position to deny local farmers access to them,
or to exact fees for their use.

In another twist to the issue, international trade rules favor
multinational companies introducing genetically altered seeds and
plants (Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs) into developing
countries. This raises serious concerns for Africa about GMOs'
effects on biodiversity (contamination/replacement of local
species), development (cost to farmers of using these untested
technologies and their chemical inputs) and land ownership (GMOs
induce large-scale industrial agriculture, which spurs land
consolidation to the detriment of small holder farmers). The USG
aggressively backs the patenting of living organisms (including
seeds, plants and crops) and the dissemination of GMOs, where US
companies hold the international research and marketing edge. The
USG is the chief opponent of Africa's attempts to overturn WTO
provisions requiring the patenting of life forms.

Africa's response: One of Africa's most innovative responses to the
threats its sustainable agriculture faces is the formulation of
African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of
Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of
Access to Biological Resources, or simply African Model Law. This
instrument, initiated by the African Union (formerly Organization
of African Unity), seeks to introduce the principle of community
rights over agricultural resources into international law in
contrast to the present sole recognition of individual/corporate
rights. The African Union has reaffirmed its commitment to the
African Model Law at two high-level meetings, and it is urging
individual African countries to incorporate it into national law.

[See text at:
http://afjn.cua.edu/African%20Model%20Legislation%20Text.htm">

AFJN and its colleagues in the Africa Trade Policy Working Group,
backing this critically important African initiative, have launched
a series of efforts to bring African farmers' rights to the USG's
attention. In 2000, we organized an on-going international sign-on
campaign for the Declaration of Support for African Smallholder
Farmers that now has nearly 400 endorsers [see http://afjn.cua.edu
for the text and list of endorsers]. In November 2001, we worked
closely with Rep. Maxine Waters (D- CA39) to introduce a resolution
(H. Con. Res. 260) into the House of Representatives upholding the
principles of the African Model Law [see Action Alert on web
site]. We are currently trying to get a companion resolution
introduced into the Senate, and we have initiated an
organizational sign-on letter to Congress urging passage of the
resolution.

The South Africa meeting: In view of the key role the USG is
playing in this issue and AFJN/ATPWG efforts to generate support
for the African Model Law, African partners invited me to attend
the South Africa meeting. I came away greatly impressed by the
caliber of the participants, mostly from African grassroots
organizations highly committed to community rights, sustainable
agriculture and the protection of indigenous knowledge, especially
related to food and medicinal plants.

There was keen awareness of the role local agriculture plays in
African culture, family life and livelihood systems. Food security
and sovereignty figured prominently in our concerns, as did the
importance of enhancing the viability of sustainable agriculture.
We agreed strongly on the threat GMOs, patenting and the resultant
corporate control of agriculture pose to community and farmer
rights; we affirmed the need to expand the capacity of farmers to
employ sustainable agricultural techniques and to participate in
local, national and regional policy decisions.

Each country group devised strategies for on-going action. The
African NGOs committed themselves to intensified collaboration
with partner groups to lobby their legislatures and regional bodies
in support of community and farmer rights. They laid plans to
liaise with farmer and community organizations to create awareness
of how GMOs and patenting living organisms could undermine
sustainable agriculture, community rights, food security and
biodiversity.

Participants placed considerable emphasis on the UN's Aug/Sep 2002
Earth Summit (World Summit on Sustainable Development, or WSSD) -
the follow-up to the 1992 Rio Summit - that will devise and
promote international environmental and development policies. We
agreed to contact our delegates to the summit, urging inclusion of
the principles of the African Model Law in the final declaration.
There is great concern that proponents of market-style
globalization, who oppose community rights over agriculture, are
steering the summit away from initiatives such as the African
Model Law.

NGOs from many developing countries are organizing an alternative
"People's Summit" to coincide with the WSSD as a way to make their
positions known to the delegates and media on critical issues like
community rights, sustainable agriculture and food security.

A major outcome of the meeting was the Valley of 1,000 Hills
Declaration. This statement sums up the principal concerns and
commitments that came out of our discussions. We agreed to
circulate the declaration widely, using it as an educational and
lobbying tool to advance African community and farmer rights.

We face monumental challenges from USG and WTO policies,
multinational corporations and even UN bodies in mobilizing
support for including community and farmer rights in international
law and agreements. The stakes are high, and the only real hope
for successfully resisting the economic and political forces
seeking to privatize and control the seeds, plants and crops on
which food security rests is the combined efforts of citizens and
grassroots groups committed to community rights and sustainable
agriculture. That is the urgent message I brought home from the
Valley of 1,000 Hills.

* ATPWG is part of the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA), a
coalition of nearly 200 US-based NGOs that seek a greater focus on
human rights and economic justice in US policy toward Africa.

Larry J. Goodwin is Associate Director for Organizing at AFJN

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