The Republic of the Marshall Islands has ratified an international treaty which enables the country to access a global gene pool of more than 1.6 million plants that belong to the most important food crops.
The Pacific Island nation has become the 132nd Contracting Party to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture through support from the treaty Secretariat, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).
Intended to promote food security, the treaty supports international cooperation and open exchange of genetic resources, and enables the fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of these resources.
“By becoming a Contracting Party, the Marshall Islands will be in a better position to access more diverse and resilient germplasm to adapt to climate change and to fight plant diseases,” the Secretary of the Governing Body of the International Treaty, Shakeel Bhatti, said.
The most-important commercial crops in the Marshall Islands are coconuts, tomatoes, melons, and breadfruit. Other crops include pandanus, banana, taro, arrowroot, pawpaw, sweet potato and limes.
The Chief of Agriculture and Quarantine in the Ministry of Resources and Development, Henry Capelle, said the Marshall Islands had limited crop diversity but could now submit proposals to the Benefit-sharing Fund of the Treaty, participate in technology transfer and capacity building initiatives and be represented on the treaty’s Governing Body.
The collections of germplasm maintained by the genebank of the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees was placed in the Multilateral System of the Treaty at its Third Session of the Governing Body in Tunis in June 2009.
“Marshall Islands was hit by a severe drought last year and we are grateful to SPC for providing drought- and salinity-tolerant crops to restore food security in affected communities,” Mr Capelle said. “Being part of this treaty means we will have access to new resilient varieties and other wider options available to us.”
The other regional members of this treaty are the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Samoa, Palau and Australia.
In 2012, the leaders of the Pacific region endorsed a recommendation to support Pacific Island countries and territories that had not yet ratified the Treaty to do so.
Since then, the treaty Secretariat and SPC have collaborated to raise awareness of the advantages of ratifying the Treaty and trained government officials in the region through workshops and technical meetings.
Tonga has recently signed and is awaiting official confirmation by the FAO Treaty Secretariat.
Government representatives from the Marshall Islands and Tonga attended a Treaty meeting at the SPC Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees in Suva, in December 2013, supported by the SPC EU Increasing Agricultural Commodity Trade (IACT) project, the FAO Treaty Secretariat and SPC.
For more information, contact Valerie S. Tuia Genetic Resources Coordinator, Valeriet@spc.int;
Rebecca Lorennij, Permanent Secretary, Marshall Islands Ministry of Resources and Development;
Mr Francisco Lopez, Communication Officer, FAO Treaty Secretariat, Tel: +39 06 570 53441 Email: francisco.lopez@fao.org;
or SPC LRD helpdesk lrdhelpdesk@spc.int.