The People’s Biodiversity Festival, an event held in the city during the Convention for Biological Diversity, says it rejects Intellectual Property Rights regime over people’s natural resources.
Speakers at the festival highlighted that the IPR regime and Nagoya protocol of access and benefit-sharing will lead to destruction of biodiversity. The meeting strongly opposed the Nagoya protocol of access and benefit-sharing, which is being pushed in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) discussions.
Large number of people visited the event on Sunday.
Environmentalist Vandana Shiva explained the deceptive underpinnings of the patents regime, which goes against how natural resources and diversity were protected for thousands of years.
Several participants including Sagari Ramdas of Anthra, Vaikunta, a savara adivasi from Srikakulam district, Dadaji Kobragade, a seed breeder from Maharashtra who developed the famous HMT wheat variety, Jaiprakash, seed breeder from Chhattisgarh, Umashankari, organic farmer from Chittoor district shared their experiences.
Experts, farmers and adivasis unanimously rejected the Intellectual Property Rights regime in seeds, forest resources and other natural resources.