Research On The Legal Protection Of Agricultural Genetic Resources In China

Agricultural genetic resources,also known as plant germplasm resources,are the genetic materials and genetic information transmitted by the parents of plant organisms related to agriculture to their offspring,which have the intangible characteristics of genetic information and the tangibility of their own material carriers.The rational protection and utilization of agricultural genetic resources is the basic condition for maintaining national food security,which is conducive to promoting stable economic development and building a solid national security barrier.At present,China has established a legal protection system for agricultural genetic resources with the Constitution as the program,relevant laws and regulations as the guideline,and local policies and regulations as the supplement.However,there are still two major problems: unclear ownership of rights and interests,and lack of operability of existing legal rules,which make agricultural genetic resources unable to be well protected and unable to give full play to their important value.The legal controversy over the scope of rights and interests mainly focuses on the three rights models of property rights,intellectual property rights and specialized rights of agricultural genetic resources,but compared with the focus of property rights on the protection of tangible things and the protection of creative and intellectual achievements by intellectual property rights,the rights to agricultural genetic resources with the relevant rights of farmers who have contributed to the protection of agricultural genetic resources as the main content can achieve more effective stopping unreasonable use,preventing the destruction of biodiversity,and respecting the rights of agricultural genetic resource owners.Conservation objectives to promote the sustainable development of agricultural genetic resources.Its right structure is mainly based on rural communities or farmers’ professional cooperatives as the main body,taking the genetic material and genetic information of agricultural plants as the object,and based on their contributions to the protection and transmission of genetic material and genetic information of agricultural plants,a series of relevant rights arising in accordance with the law,including informed consent and benefit-sharing,as the main content.The low operability of existing legal rules is mainly reflected in the lack of rules for resource identification and protection management,imperfect rules for risk early warning and emergency response,and unclear rules on access and benefit-sharing.On the basis of following the precautionary principle and the principle of benefit-sharing and benefit balance,combined with the advanced experience of representative countries such as the United States and India,the Ministry of Ecology and Environment should take the lead in formulating unified resource assessment and grading standards in conjunction with agriculture,forestry,and other relevant departments,standardize the adjustment of grades,and refine the hierarchical management and application rules of agricultural genetic resources.Second,establish a risk assessment system and improve early warning and emergency response mechanisms.Different levels of early warning are issued according to different regions,different species resources,different degrees of harm,etc.After the early warning,through information sharing and coordination between various departments,emergency response plans can be quickly formulated,technical training and first aid measures will be taken.Third,optimize specific rules on access and benefit-sharing.Judging whether,what and how resources can be used,based on criteria for assessing the value of agricultural genetic resources.On this basis,improve the specific procedures for resource utilization of the trinity of prior informed consent,information disclosure and benefit-sharing contracts.In addition,attention should be paid to strict review of special reasons involving cutting-edge biotechnology research and development,state,trade secrets or personal privacy,major agricultural food crops and other circumstances approved by the State Council,and strengthen and implement legal responsibility.