Rete Semi Rurali plays an active role in advocacy on conservation and agrobiodiversity at the European level (particularly with DG SANTE and DG AGRI) and internationally. We are part of the European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB), a network aimed at supporting breeding programmes and knowledge sharing in the context of organic agriculture.
We are a founding member of the European Coordination: Let’s Liberate Diversity! EC-LLD a non profit organisation created to bring together existing national networks to develop and promote the dynamic management of agrobiodiversity on farm.
We are investigating ways to introduce biodiverse seed onto the market in ways that protect its nature as public good and communal resource, we joined the global coalition GOSSI, working on the applicability of “open source” models of intellectual property to seed.
- organic breeding programmes;
- research into financing models for organic breeding programmes;
- standards and regulation research and advocacy;
- promotion of knowledge sharing.
European Coordination Let’s Liberate Diversity! (EC-LLD) is the first social movement about agrobiodiversity and access to seed in the European Union. It was born in 2005 during a European level meeting organised by Reseau Semences Paysannes in France. In 2012 EC-LLD was registered in Belgium as association.
EC-LLD meets the need of national agrobiodiversity stakeholders to join forces. Over the years, the association has organised the Let’s Liberate Diversity! (LLD) Fora across Europe as well as practical field visits, so called Let’s Cultivate Diversity! dealing with different seed-related issues. Seminars and conferences have brought together farmers and researchers, specialists and hobbyists to engage with such topics as national and EU seed laws, seed policy and seed exchange, raising public awareness in the process.
The Global Coalition of Open Source Seed Initiatives (GOSSI) brings together farmers and organisations, seed savers, breeders and activists that want to ensure free and permanent access to seed. GOSS envisions a world where seed is freely accessible to be used, multiplicated and bred by all who wish to. Therefore, their mission is to support breeder networks, seed companies and farmers breeders in their effort to breed, make available and share seed without intellectual property restriction. GOSSI operates on the following principles:
- ”Anyone may freely use open source seed – that is, grow it, save it, propagate it, develop it further, and use it for breeding.”
- ”Recipients of open source seed may not privatize the seed or its progeny through exclusive intellectual property rights or other use restrictions.”
- ”Recipients of open source seed must assign the same rights and obligations to subsequent recipients.”
- ”The breeder of open source seed shall be recognized through attribution of credit.”
- ”Benefits shall be shared all along the seed value chain.”
