[en] Abstract
Based on the concept of vivir bien, Bolivia has developed laws resisting modification and commodification of genetic resources. It has played an important role in international forums in promotion of these ideas and has been contributing to international law-making for farmers’ rights. From the perspective of farmers’ rights to seeds, this article examines Bolivia’s Plant Variety Protection (PVP) legislation and the cultivation of genetically modified soybean, the crop most frequently protected under PVP. This article argues that, while Bolivia has laws discouraging the modification and commodification of seeds and has been internationally resisting the same in favour of farmers’ rights, domestically the soybean farmers cannot exercise their minimally recognized rights of saving seeds under the PVP law. This article shows that mere exception to save seeds is not adequate to retain farmers’ ownership over the seeds, particularly in industrial farming. Therefore, the seed suppliers can exercise more rights than granted by law, ultimately securing the repeated purchase of seeds even from the smallholders. Besides, this article shows how the agro-industrial sector has influenced the government and has successfully accommodated their interest in the broader political objectives of food sovereignty and farmers’ rights. This article ultimately proposes that enabling smallholders soybean farmers to exercise their legally recognized right to save and repeatedly use their own seeds could be one of the means to protect them from the agricultural exclusion currently happening in the soybean sector in Bolivia.
E Gudynas, ‘Buen Vivir: Today's Tomorrow' (2011) 54 Development 441.
PV Calzadilla and LJ Kotzé, ‘Living in Harmony with Nature? A Critical Appraisal of the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia' (2018) 7 Transnatl Environ Law 397, 403;
AE Beling and others, ‘Buen Vivir (Good Living): A “Glocal” Genealogy of a Latin American Utopia for the World' (2021) 48 Lat Am Perspect 17.
The USFX facilitated to carry out the field study from May to July 202. The information letters were dispatched by the university to the concerned stakeholders and verbal consent was taken during the interviews as certified by Centro de Studios de Posgrado E Investigación (0516).
Verbal consent to publish was taken during the interview.
D Harvey, The New Imperialism (United States, OUP 2003) 145-52.
D Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (United States, OUP 2007) 160.
Harvey (n 5) 147-48.
K Peschard, ‘Biological Dispossession: An Ethnography of Resistance to Transgenic Seeds Among Small Farmers in Southern Brazil' (Doctor of Philosophy, McGill University 2009) 27.
BH Kohl and LC Farthing, Impasse in Bolivia: Neoliberal Hegemony and Popular Resistance (London and New York, Zed Books 2006) 83.
FV Belmonte, ‘Right to Justice and Diversity of the Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia' in H Devere et al. (eds), Peacebuilding and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Experiences and Strategies for the 21st Century (Switzerland, Springer 2017), 77-85;
A Schilling-Vacaflor, ‘Bolivia's New Constitution: Towards Participatory Democracy and Political Pluralism?' (2011) Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 3.
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R Lalander, ‘Ethnic Rights and the Dilemma of Extractive Development in Plurinational Bolivia' (2017) 21 Intl J Hum Rts 464.
art 8, Constitution of Bolivia 2009, art 8.
Plurinational State of Bolivia, Living-Well in Balance and Harmony with Mother Earth: A Proposal for Establishing a New Global Relationship between Human Beings and Mother Earth (2014) 21.
LC Farthing and BH Kohl, Evo's Bolivia (United States of America, University of Texas Press 2014) 99-100.
E Gudynas, ‘Development Alternatives in Bolivia: The Impulse, the Resistance, and the Restoration' (2013) 46 NACLA Rep Am 22;
P Villavicencio Calzadilla and LJ Kotzé, ‘Living in Harmony with Nature? A Critical Appraisal of the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia' (2018) 7 Transnatl Environ Law 397, 404;
LC Farthing and BH Kohl, Evo's Bolivia (University of Texas Press 2014);
MI Dolhare and S Rojas-Lizana, ‘Applying the Principles of Vivir Bien to a Court Resolution in Bolivia: Language, Discourse, and Land Law' [2022] Critical Discourse Studies 1.
Both laws emerged from a single negotiation process between the Bolivian government and the indigenous organizations of the Unity pact. The Unity Pact (Pacto de Unidad) was a coalition of the largest indigenous and peasant organizations in Bolivia formed in 2004 with the objective of ensuring their full participation in the constitutional drafting process and in the future governance of the country. The Unity Pact also assumed the mandate of formulating a draft law on Mother Earth (Unity Pact Draft Law). The Unity Pact Draft Law maintained a strong ecocentric orientation. But the Unity Pact Draft Law was not adopted, and the legislative process eventually resulted in the adoption of two laws currently in force. The government is criticized for proceeding with the diluted version from the Unity Pact Draft Law and excluding the Unity pact in the process (see Villavicencio Calzadilla and Kotzé (n 15)).
Law 300, art 2 Scope and Application: The present Law has scope in all sectors of the central level of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and of the autonomous territorial entities in the framework of the competences assigned in the Political Constitution of the State, the Law No 031 Framework of Autonomies and Decentralisation ‘Andrés Ibáñez' and the Law N 071 on the Rights of Mother Earth; the Framework character of the law implies that it is superior to other laws and the laws involving the subject matters of the Mother Earth must correspond with and are subject to the Framework law Lalander (n 12) 472. It is constituted as a Framework Law and of preferential application for the development of specific laws, policies, norms, strategies, plans, programmes and projects.
art 7(2) of the law 071: To the diversity of life: The right to the preservation of the differentiation and variety of the beings that make up Mother Earth, without being genetically altered or artificially modified in their structure in such a way as to threaten their existence, functioning and future potential.
Constitution of Bolivia 2009, art 409.
art 24(7) of the law 300: Develop actions to protect the genetic heritage of agrobiodiversity, prohibiting the introduction, production, use, release into the environment and commercialization of GM seeds in the territory of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, of which Bolivia is the centre of origin or diversity, and of those that threaten the genetic heritage, biodiversity, the health of life systems and human health.
art 24(8) law 300 Develop actions to promote the gradual elimination of cultivation of GM organisms authorized in the country to be determined in a specific rule.
(art 8(3), Law 071); the law provides that the exercise of individual rights is limited by the exercise of collective rights in the living systems of Mother Earth, and any conflict of rights must be resolved in ways that do not irreversibly affect the functionality of living systems (art 6, Proviso, Law 071).
art 4(2) of law 300; art 5 (8) defines Environmental functions. It is the result of the interactions between the species of flora and fauna of the ecosystems, the dynamics of the ecosystems themselves, the space or physical (or abiotic) environment and solar energy. The following are the examples of environmental functions … pollination (provision of pollinators for reproduction of plant populations and seed dispersal), … biological control (regulation of population dynamics, pest and disease control) …; similarly (art 2(5) law 071): The law also states that the life system and the process they sustain cannot be commodified, nor can form part of anybody's private property, enlisting non-commodification as one of the binding principles.
art 13(5) law 300; similarly, the constitution (art 314) prohibits private monopolies and oligopolies, as well as any other form of association or public or private legal agreement by Bolivian or foreign persons, who attempt to control and have exclusivity over production and commercialization of goods and services.
art 23(3), Law 300.
Constitution of Bolivia 2009, art 407(1).
Constitution of Bolivia 2009, art 405
See art 405 (1), (5); similarly, the Constitution stipulates the objectives, among others, ‘To establish the creation of a seed bank and centres of genetic research' (art 407 (9)).
arts 380 to 383 have provisions on biodiversity. There are provisions relating to environment, natural resources and biodiversity, access and benefit sharing in arts 342; 343, 345(2); arts 349, 353, 354.
art 30(11).
E Holt-Giménez and A Shattuck, ‘Food Crises, Food Regimes and Food Movements: Rumblings of Reform or Tides of Transformation?' (2011) 38 J Peasant Stud 109, 128.
M Geddes, ‘The Old Is Dying but the New Is Struggling to Be Born: Hegemonic Contestation in Bolivia' (2014) 8 Crit Policy Stud 165.
A García Linera, ‘Indianismo and Marxism: The Mismatch of Two Revolutionary Rationales (Translated by Richard Fidler)' (2008) Available at https://links.org. au/indianismo-and-marxism-mismatch-two-revolutionary-rationales (accessed 2 April (2023);
A Rodiles, ‘Is There a “Populist” International Law (in Latin America)?' in Janne E Nijman and Wouter G Werner (eds), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, vol 49 (The Hague, Springer 2019).
Lalander (n 12) 456.
P O'Connell, ‘On Reconciling Irreconcilables: Neo-Liberal Globalisation and Human Rights' (2007) 7 Hum Rights Law Rev 483.
P O'Connell, ‘On Reconciling Irreconcilables: Neo-Liberal Globalisation and Human Rights' (2007) 7 Hum Rights Law Rev 494.
See UNGA, International Mother Earth Day, 22 April 2009, UN Doc GA Res 63/278 (1 May 2009).
UNGA, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2009 Harmony with Nature, A Res 64/196, 12 February 2010; see the official website of Harmony with Nature at available at http://www.harmonywithnatureun.org/ (accessed 8 November 2022).
UNGA, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2020 Harmony with Nature. A/RES/75/220 30 December 2020;
See art 255(I)(4),(7),(8); similarly, art 255(II)(3): Defense and promotion of human, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights … (4) Respect for the rights of native indigenous rural people.
WTO, ‘Minutes of Meeting (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/M/57. 16 September 2008' (2008), para 35.
Including plants and animals and parts thereof, gene sequences, microorganisms as well as all processes including biological, microbiological and non-biological processes for the production of life forms and parts thereof see para 30.
WTO, ‘Communication from Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/545. 26 February 2010' (2010),
WTO, ‘Communication from Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/545. 26 February 2010' (2010) 18.
WTO, ‘Communication from Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/545. 26 February 2010' (2010) 23.
WTO, ‘Communication from Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/545. 26 February 2010' (2010) 27.
WTO, ‘Communication from the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/554. 28 March 2011' (2011).
WTO, ‘Communication from the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/554. 28 March 2011' (2011), 6.
WTO, ‘Communication from the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/554. 28 March 2011' (2011), 26.
WTO, ‘Communication from the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/W/554. 28 March 2011' (2011),27.
J Plahe, N Kukreja, and S Ponnamperuma, ‘Review of article 27.3(b) and the Patenting of Life Forms: Hitting a BRIC Wall in the WTO?' (2021) 26 Int Negot 289.
WTO, ‘Minutes of Meeting (Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) IP/C/M/89/Add.1. 13 September 2018' (2018), para 90.
Plahe and others (n 50) 291.
Plahe and others (n 50) 313.
MN Pacheco Rodriguez and LF Rosales Lozada, ‘The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas: One Step Forward in the Promotion of Human Rights for the Most Vulnerable' (2020) 123 Int Soc Sci J 123, 3-10.
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MN Pacheco Rodriguez and LF Rosales Lozada, ‘The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas: One Step Forward in the Promotion of Human Rights for the Most Vulnerable' (2020) 123 Int Soc Sci J 123, 28-29.
P Claeys and M Edelman, ‘The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas' (2020) 47 J Peasant Stud 1, 29.
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B Rajagopal, ‘Counter-Hegemonic International Law: Rethinking Human Rights and Development as a Third World Strategy' (2006) 27 Third World Q 767, 781.
María Natalia Pacheco Rodríguez quoted in Claeys and Edelman (n 57) 35.
UNGA, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UN Doc GA Res 61/295, 13 September 2007; See United Nations General Assembly, ‘Third Committee Approves Draft Resolution on Right to Development;
Votes to Defer Action Concerning Declaration on Indigenous Peoples' GA/SHC/3878 28 November 2006, Available at https:// www.un.org/press/en/2006/gashc3878.doc.htm (accessed 10 October 2023)
Law 3760.
A Heitz, ‘The History of Plant Variety Protection' in UPOV (ed), The First Twenty-Five Years of the International Convention for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Geneva, UPOV 1987) 54.
A Alexandra and A Walsh, ‘Exclusion, Commodification and Plant Variety Rights Legislation' (1997) 14 Agric Human Values 313, 317-18.
Accession through the law no 1968 of 24 March 1999.
The regulation was issued as Ministerial Resolution No 040 of 2 April 2001.
Mentioned in the regulation on protection of plant varieties 2001, art 1.
G Nemogá, ‘Indigenous Agrobiodiversity and Governance' in Karl S Zimmerer and Stef De Haan (eds), Agrobiodiversity: Integrating Knowledge for a Sustainable Future (Massachusetts, The MIT Press 2019) 258;
UPOV, Introduction to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 2004) 18, para 86.
UPOV, Introduction to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 2004) 18, 258.
UPOV, Introduction to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 2004) 18, para 86.
art 32 of the Regulation on protection of plant varieties specifies the ownership of the PVP rights confers right to prevent others from carrying out (i) Production, reproduction, multiplication or propagation; (ii) Conditioning for reproduction, multiplication or propagation purposes; (iii) Offer for sale; (iv) Sale or any other act which involves the introduction into the market of the reproduction, propagation or multiplication material for commercial purposes; (v) Export; (vi) Import; (vii) Possession for any of the purposes mentioned above; (viii) Commercial use of ornamental and fruit plants or parts thereof as multiplication material; (ix) The performance of abovementioned acts in relation to the harvested material.
Regulation on protection of plant varieties, arts 33, 34;
while UPOV 1978, which Bolivia is party to, does not have provision on EDV. The concept of EDV was introduced by UPOV 1991, and incorporated in the Decision 345 of the Andean Community of Nations (art 24). art 3 of PVP law extends the coverage to all plant genus and species.
art 37. Extension. (I) A new reproduction, multiplication or propagation of the protected variety; (II) Export of the material of the protected variety, allowing the variety to be reproduced, to a country which does not grant protection for the varieties of the plant species to which the exported variety belongs, apart from where said material is intended for human or animal consumption, or industry. (III) The purchase, sale or use of grain, or any other harvested product, for sowing purposes shall be regarded as acts performed with reproduction or multiplication material under art 24 of Decision No 345 of the Andean Community of Nations (formerly JUNAC).
See art 40; under art 41, the regulation grants provisional protection during the period from the filing of the application to the grant of the Ownership Title. An action for damages may only be taken once the Ownership Title has been granted, but may cover the damage caused by the respondent after the filing date.
According to the National Register of Varieties and Protected Varieties 2023, 48 out of total 54 currently protected varieites are registered by the Santa Cruz department of INIAF. The remaining six registrations were done in Beni and La Paz department of INIAF. Besides, all of the soybean varieties have been exclusively registered in the Santa Cruz department See INIAF, Registro Nactional De Variedades Y De Variedades Protegidas (INIAF 2023) 52-53.
The total number includs six varieties with provisional protection, of which four are soybean varieties.
Registration Control Officer, INIAF Santa Cruz, interviewed on 7 July 2021 at INIAF Santa Cruz Office, Bolivia.
Registration Control Officer, INIAF Santa Cruz, interviewed on 7 July 2021 at INIAF Santa Cruz Office, Bolivia.
IBCE, Impacto Socioeconómico y Medioambiental en Bolivia a Partir de la Soya y Maíz Genéticamente Mejorados (2016) 6.
A Bessa and K Veiga, ‘El Orden Jurídico y Las Dinámicas Socioeconómicas de Las Semillas En Sistemas Alimentares de Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Bolivia' (2020) Working Paper No 9, 59;
M Villca Lopez and others, ‘Validación de dos variedades de soya (Glycine max (L) Merril) en la comunidad de Chane 1: Campaña de invierno 2013' (2014) Universidad, Ciencia y Sociedad 35.
M Høiby and JZ Hopp, ‘Bolivia: Emerging and Traditional Elites and the Governance of the Soy Sector' in Benedicte Bull and Mariel Aguilar-Støen (eds), Environmental Politics in Latin America (1st edn, Oxon and New York, Routledge 2015) 60.
Acción por la Biodiversidad, Atlas del Agronegocio Transgénico en el Cono Sur: Monocultivos, Resistencias y Propuestas de los Pueblos (Acción por la Biodiversidad 2020) 15.
INIAF 2015 cited in Acción por la Biodiversidad (n 77) 73.
Director of Eastern Region, Tierra Foundation Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at Office of Tierra Foundation, Satna Cruz, Bolivia.
B McKay, ‘The Politics of Control: New Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Bolivia's Soy Complex' (Doctoral Degree Thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam 2017) 134.
Manager, FUNDACRUZ, interviewed on 7 July 2021 at FUNDACRUZ office, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
INIAF (n 79) 52-53.
Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at FUNDACRUZ office, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
FUNDACRUZ charges 280BS per ton of seed produced. ‘For example, if the seed grower registered 50 hectares with INIAF, we estimate an average of how much seed he will produce on that land. If it were 50 hectares, he could harvest about 60 tons, we would multiply in that case 60x280BS, which would make a total of 16,800BS. Of this estimated amount we charge 50% as a guarantee, which would be 8400 BS, which is what they pay us as a guarantee …. Once the seed grower already has his harvest, let's say he harvested 70 tons of seed, then in that case if we multiply 70x280bs, that would be a total of 19 600 Bolivianos. Of that amount, he has already left us 8400BSas a guarantee, so he only has to pay the difference, that is, the remaining amount, which would be 11 200 bolivianos.' Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at FUNDACRUZ office, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Director, ANAPO Interviewed on 06 July at Asociación Nacional de Productores de Oleaginosas y Trigo (National Association of Oilseed and Wheat Producers (ANAPO), Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Registration Control Officer, INIAF Santa Cruz, interviewed on 7 July 2021 at INIAF Santa Cruz Office, Bolivia.
Farmer 001, interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia.
Interviewed on 6 July 2021 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
This figure was also corroborated by Director of ANAPO. He said, ‘We had 70% of certified seed in Bolivia that respected the use of intellectual property and there are 30% that were contraband or white bags; but for the most part it [intellectual property] is respected'. Interviewed on 6 July 2021 at ANAPO office, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Interviewed on 6 July 2021 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Biotechnologist, IGEM Bolivia, interviewed on 25 June 2021, online.
Interviewed on 6 July 2021 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Bessa and Veiga (n 84) 59.
Farmer 002, interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia.
Shared by President of CAPPO, interviewed on 6 July 2021 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Plant breeder, Gabriel Rene Moreno University, interviewed on 05 July at Gabriel Rene Moreno University, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Interviewed on 6 July 2021 at ANAPO, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Farmer 001, interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia.
Facebook page of Asosemillas, published on 3 December 2021, Available at https:// www.facebook.com/productoresdesemillas/posts/415487056889306 (accessed 10 February 2023).
President, CAPPO, interviewed on 6 July 2021 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
McKay (n 91) 135.
Bessa and Veiga (n 84).
McKay (n 91) 136.
JM Canelas Schutt, ‘Contract Farming in Bolivia: An Overview of Law and Practice' (2012) 17.
G Catacora-Vargas, ‘Soya in Bolivia: Dependency and the Production of Oleaginous Crops' in Javiera Rulli (ed), United Soy Republics: Realities about Soya Production in South America (Asuncion, GRR 2007).
Researcher, Bolivia Catholic University, interviewed on 21 September 2022 in New Delhi, India.
Director of Eastern Region, Tierra Foundation Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at Office of Tierra Foundation, Satna Cruz, Bolivia; Canelas Schutt (n 117) 17.
Researcher, Bolivia Catholic University, interviewed on 21 September 2022 in New Delhi, India.
Director of Eastern Region, Tierra Foundation Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at Office of Tierra Foundation, Satna Cruz, Bolivia.
See Sample contract in Canelas Schutt (n 117).
Catacora-Vargas (n 118).
Environmental biotechnologist, IGEM Bolivia, Interviewed on 25 June 2021 (Online).
Director of Eastern Region, Tierra Foundation Interviewed on 7 July 2021 at Office of Tierra Foundation, Satna Cruz, Bolivia.
E Castañón Ballivián, ‘Discurso Empresarial vs. Realidad Campesina: La Ecología Política de La Producción de Soya en Santa Cruz, Bolivia' (2015) 2 Cuestión Agraria 65, 78.
Interview, Farmer 003 Interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 80.
McKay (n 91) 135.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 80.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 83.
Farmer 001, 002 interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia; this was also stated by Environmental biotechnologist of IGEM Bolivia and CAPPO's president.
Farmer 001, 002, Interviewed on 8 July 2021 in Cuatro Cañada, Bolivia.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128); McKay (n 91).
M Høiby and JZ Hopp, ‘Bolivia: Emerging and Traditional Elites and the Governance of the Soy Sector' in Benedicte Bull and Mariel Aguilar-Støen (eds), Environmental Politics in Latin America (1st edn, Oxon and New York, Routledge 2015) 60-61.
M Smale and others, ‘A Case of Resistance: Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans in Bolivia' (2012) 15 AgBioForum 191.
The law on the community agricultural and livestock production revolution enacted in 2011 aims to achieve food sovereignty in terms of safety and quality for the vivir bien (living well) of the Bolivians (art 3, Law 144). It seeks to prioritize organic production in harmony and balance with the mother earth (art 2, Law 144). The law also recognizes indigenous native peasant communities as ‘Community Economic Organisation' (art 5(2), Law 144). More laws supporting organic production and agricultural insurance were adopted. Acción por la Biodiversidad (n 77) 111.
E Dargent and M Urteaga, ‘The Power of the Seed: Timing, Quick Structural Change, and Genetically Modified Crop Regulations in the Andes' (2019) 51 Comp Politics 539, 552.
art 15(2) Law 144; art 24(7) Law 300.
art 15(2) Law 144; art 24(7) Law 553.
ANAPO, Memoria Anual 2022 (2022) 34.
Acción por la Biodiversidad (n 77) 106,
L Soliz Tito, Cumbre Agropecuaria ‘Sembrando Bolivia': Resultados, Ecos y Primeros Pasos Hacia su Implementación (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado, CIPCA) 2015.
L Soliz Tito, Cumbre Agropecuaria ‘Sembrando Bolivia': Resultados, Ecos y Primeros Pasos Hacia su Implementación (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado, CIPCA) 35.
L Soliz Tito, Cumbre Agropecuaria ‘Sembrando Bolivia': Resultados, Ecos y Primeros Pasos Hacia su Implementación (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado, CIPCA) 45-48.
Supreme Decree 3874.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128).
Dargent and Urteaga (n 140) 554.
J Cockburn, ‘Bolivia's Food Sovereignty & Agrobiodiversity: Undermining the Local to Strengthen the State?' in Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialogue, International Conference, Yale University, Sept 14-15, 2013 (Conference paper 59, 2013) 15.
B Gustafson, ‘Continuity and Change in Bolivian Land Politics and Policy' in Soledad Valdivia Rivera (ed), Bolivia at the Crossroads (Oxon and New York, Routledge 2021) 90.
Soliz Tito (n 145) 15-17.
ANAPO (n 143) 31.
Geddes (n 33).
Castañón Ballivián (n 128, 83.
Gustafson (n 152) 90.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128).
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 83.
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 80;
Castañón Ballivián (n 128) 83.
Høiby and Hopp (n 137) 54-62.
Høiby and Hopp (n 137) 54.
The court ruled that treating plants and seeds as proprietary goods threatened farmers' food sovereignty and vivir bien rights. The court ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to carry out perennial inspections to prevent the cultivation of GM crops and to conduct training for farmers and concerned officials on the constitutional ban on GM seeds. See Federation of Agricultural Centres and Campesino Organisations of the Coast vs Ministry of Agriculture 2019, case nn 12283201802414 (Criminal Judicial Unit of Quevedo, Province of Los Ríos); also see the decision on the case by the Multi-competent Chamber of the Provincial Court of Justice of Los Rios, case oo: 12 283 201 802 414, Second Instance.
In 2022, the constitutional court of Ecuador declared the art 56 of the Organic law on Agrobiodiversity, Seeds and Promotion of Agriculture which sought the entry of GM seeds for research as unconstitutional. The court examined whether the permission for the entry of transgenic crops and seeds, outlined in art 56 of the Organic Law on Biodiversity, Seeds and Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture, adhered to the constitutional procedure and, as a result, is valid under the Constitution. The permission for the entry of transgenic seeds and crops ‘to be used for research purposes', as indicated in the text of the contested art 56 of the law, was introduced by government. The court explained that although the art 401 of the Ecuadorian Constitution provides an exception that allows entry of GMO when there is a ‘national interest', and is duly justified, the permission contained in art 56 of the law is unconstitutional, as it did not follow the proper procedure that should have been observed in the process of law-making. See Sentencia No 22-17-IN.
DJ Jefferson, Towards an Ecological Intellectual Property: Reconfiguring Relationships between People and Plants in Ecuador (1st edn, Oxon and New York, Routledge 2020) 187.
Dargent and Urteaga (n 150) 554.
C Hacquet, J Hermesse, and PM Stassart, ‘The “lock-in” of the seed system and issues arising from its reappropriation' (2018) 202 Études rurales 8.
Environmental biotechnologist, IGEM Bolivia, interviewed on 25 June 2021 (Online); Gustafson (n 152) 87.
Gonzalo Colque in Fundación Tierra, ‘Qué Hay Detrás de Los Transgénicos?: Tenencia de La Tierra, Agronegocio y Rendimientos Foro Virtual 04 de Junio de 2020' (2020) 24.
ANAPO (n 143) 32.
F Hofmann, M Otto, and W Wosniok, ‘Maize Pollen Deposition in Relation to Distance from the Nearest Pollen Source under Common Cultivation - Results of 10 Years of Monitoring (2001 to 2010)' (2014) 26 Environ Sci Eur 24.
‘Despite the fact that Bolivia is considered a centre of native maize, GM maize is already in our country. Although there is no legal authorisation, it has been cultivated in Bolivia since at least 2015. The seed comes from neighbouring countries, mainly Argentina. Now, pressure is growing for its legalisation.' Fundación Tierra (n 154) 24.
