One way in which agricultural biodiversity can help people live better lives is if they can market some unique product to boost their income. Difficulties arise, however, if someone else, seeing a thriving market, steps in and sells something similar but not quite the same. That’s one reason why certificates of origin are a big deal. Champagne has to come from the Champagne region of France; sparkling white wines made elsewhere using identical methods may be delicious, but they aren’t champagne.
Kathryn, over at Blogging Biodiversity, is following progress at the first meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s ‘Group of Technical Experts on an Internationally Recognized Certificate of Origin/Source/Legal Provenance,’ which is taking place in Peru. She explains why this matters and what the options are better than I could, and I’ll be using her insights to following progress.
Ok, looking back on this a year on, I’m confused. It now seems to me that “Certificates of Origin” and “Denomination of Origin” are not the same thing, as I always kinda assumed, and as this post seems to suggest. The Certificate is a document that says the genetic resources you just got access to were obtained by the book from the legal owner. Getting a Denomination says that your agricultural product is made in a particular way, from particular raw materials, in a particular place. Not quite the same thing. Comments, anyone?