§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the present and future legal status of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources; whether the United Kingdom is represented on its governing body; in what ways they hope to see the IBPGR developing its research and field operations and whether they will state their policy in respect of IBPGR, with particular reference to the interests and wellbeing of developing countries.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Glenarthur)The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) is an autonomous international agricultural research centre established under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an organisation sponsored by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the United Nations Development Programme. The IBPGR is based in Rome and located within the FAO, which provides office accommodation and administrative facilities at cost.
The IBPGR is run by a director-general who answers to a board of trustees. Board members serve in a personal or professional capacity. National governments as such are not represented, but there is almost always a United Kingdom national on the board. The current director-general is a British national.
Her Majesty's Government consider the conservation of plant genetic resources to be a matter of the highest priority and regard the protection of developing countries' interests in matters of genetic resource collection, preservation and evaluation as a crucial element in efforts to bring about sustainable increases in agricultural production in developing countries. We provide around 10 per cent. of the IBPGR's core budget and consider that the IBPGR discharges its responsibilities effectively and that its future plans, including research, constitute an appropriate response to known needs.
We encourage close collaboration between the IBPGR and the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources. A proposal to move the IBPGR to a new location in Copenhagen is under discussion. While such a move would be unlikely to alter the IBPGR's legal status as an international organisation, we are monitoring developments closely to ensure that effective collaboration with the FAO continues.