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One of the most important overall agreements concerning NordGen’s operations is the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), an international agreement signed in Rio in 1993 by most of the world’s countries, including all the Nordic countries. Since 1993, the Cartagena Protocol (2000) and the Nagoya Protocol (2010) have been adopted as additions to the Convention.
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was established by FAO in 2001 and is a tool used to implement parts of CBD. The purpose of ITPGRFA is to highlight the efforts of the world’s farmers to preserve a diversity of crops and to ensure that everyone who needs it has access to plant genetic material and that the profits that arise are distributed fairly. NordGen is an observer in ITPGRFA’s Governing Body, which meets every other year.
Within the Nordic region, NordGen’s working groups, the Farm Animal Genetic Resources Council and the Forest Regeneration Council are important networks that help us to better fulfill our mission. We also collaborate with the Nordic countries’ national gene banks, which are responsible for vegetatively propagated plants. In forestry, we collaborate with Nordic Forest Research (SNS), which funds networking in forestry. Since NordGen’s headquarter is located on the campus of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp, it is natural for us to collaborate with, among others, the Programme for Diversity of Cultivated Plants (POM) and the university’s various student programs.