TITLE: Indonesia Advances on Farmers' Rights AUTHOR: Ignatius Wijayanto and Riza Tjahjadi PUBLICATION: submitted as info note to BIO-IPR DATE: December 1998 SOURCE: via PAN-Indonesia, contact details below INDONESIA ADVANCES ON FARMERS RIGHTS By Ignatius Wijayanto and Riza Tjahjadi December 1998 On 14-15 November 1998, a regional (provincial level) workshop on Farmers' Rights was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It was organised by the World Food Day Farmers' and Fishers' Movement of Indonesia, in cooperation with Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Indonesia. The workshop was the fourth in a series which commenced in June 1997. The consultation series is striving to build a constituency in Indonesia to work towards the strongest possible implementation of Farmers' Rights understood in a broad sense. Farmers' Rights covers the rights of farmers and other communities to conserve, develop, use, control and benefit from not only local biodiversity but rural peoples' knowledge systems and technologies. The rights are inherent to the local people but have never been formalised in Indonesian law beyond a few concessions on cultivation practices. Farmers' Rights are under tremendous pressure now from development programmes, growing commercial interest in biodiversity, and policies to trade and privatise Indonesia's genetic resources and related technologies. The first three meetings held in different parts of the country grounded the popular understanding of Farmers' Rights, as an action agenda, among farmers and NGOs. The fourth meeting, held last month, aimed at levelling-off on the situation in Indonesia with the intellectual community (university students, academe, government experts) and creating a common agenda. The Yogyakarta session was attended by 35 people, including relevant scientists and administrators such as the Chairman of the Biosafety Working Group of the Ministry of Environment and some of the country's most reputed rural sociologists and biodiversity experts. For two days, the participants discussed: -- where farmers stand in relation to the push for genetic engineering in health and agriculture contrasted with efforts to conserve biodiversity; -- the implications of the World Trade Organisation's TRIPS Agreement; -- ideas on how to strengthen the voice of farmers in official policy-making (such as parliamentary representation in the post-Suharto era); -- how the academe and government can help translate Farmers' Rights into legislation; and many other issues. Given the broad range of people, an action agenda was not finalised at this sitting. However, a working set of principles was agreed upon as a basis for further planning and building. The World Food Day Farmers' and Fishers' Movement has taken on a secretariat role of a new and informal Network on Farmers' Rights. This will keep information and ideas flowing. AGREED WORKING PRINCIPLES OF THE INDONESIA NETWORK ON FARMERS' RIGHTS (adopted in Yogyakarta, 15 November 1998) 1. Participants endorse the principles of 'No Patents on Life - No Patents on Rice and Food Staples' 2. The application of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) to food and agriculture should be re-examined by decision-makers and experts in the context of a wide public discussion throughout the country. 3. The knowledge and innovations of farming and local communities should be protected under a concrete legal framework. 4. Farmers' Rights over the genetic resources of food and agriculture also need to be protected within a legal framework. 5. Seed exchange and cultivation technologies for sustainable agriculture should be protected under a legal framework. 6. Decision-makers, the academe, NGOs and farmers should enhance the basis for Farmers' Rights by developing grassroots research and information centers on conservation and development of traditional technologies at local level. 7. Decision-makers and farmer groups have to work urgently to set up appropriate legal and other systems for sharing the benefits from the utilisation of biodiversity and local knowledge. 8. Stringent guidelines are needed before Indonesia introduces, releases and/or utilises genetically modified organisms (GMOs) developed in the context of modern biotechnology. Negative impacts on rural communities, including socio-economic and cultural distortions, must be averted through these guidelines as well. For further information, please contact: - For the local (provincial) linkages - Secretariat of Network on Farmers' Rights Mr Ignatius Wijayanto d/a Lembaga Studi Realino Jl. STM Pembangunan Gejayan Mrican Yogyakarta Tel/Fax: (62-274) 56 57 51 - For international linkages - Mr Riza Tjahjadi PAN Indonesia Jl. Persada Raya No 1 Palbatu, Menteng Dalam Jakarta 12870 Tel/Fax: (62-21) 829 65 45 Email: biotani(at)rad.net.id