A number of international conventions, agreements and guidelines affect the way that genetic resources and related information can be accessed, pooled, managed and used. The CGIAR is committed to operating in conformity with all such international instruments.

This booklet – and earlier editions – contain agreements that the Centres have made with international bodies, and CGIAR system-wide policies, guidelines, and related legal instruments that the Centres have adopted related to genetic resources, biotechnology and intellectual property. It is developed primarily for use by the Centres, to facilitate awareness of and compliance with the included policies and instruments.

Version III

Version III (August 2010) has been updated to include policy instruments and guidelines related to the management of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) under the framework of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).  The ITPGRFA came into force (in 2004) and the eleven CGIAR Centres hosting international crop and forage collections have signed agreements with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA (in 2006), placing those collections under the overarching international framework of the ITPGRFA.  This edition also includes "Guiding Principles for the Development of the CGIAR Centres’ Policies to Address the Possibility of Unintentional Presence of Transgenes in ex situ Collections" (2005) which are independent of the ITPGRFA.

Version II

This edition was produced in July 2003 (Version II), the core of which consisted of the 1994 FAO CGIAR In Trust Agreements, and policies, guidelines, material transfer agreements that the Centres adopted pursuant to those agreements (prior to the ITPGRFA coming into force).