Roles of Plant Variety Protection Fund on Plant Genetic Conservation in Thailand

Abstract

The conservation and utilization of plant varieties have been carried out since 1864 after Thailand became a member of World Trade Organization: WTO under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: TRIPs. According to this Agreement, each member  is obligated to issuean act to protect a variety of plant in terms of intellectual property rights. As a result, Thai senate enacted the Plant Variety Protection Act 1999 to be enforced since November, 1999. It comprises 8 categories and 69 articles.

The objectives of this Plant  Act are to promote the improvement of plant breeds and development of new plant breeds. Such activities are expected to promote agricultural development by encouraging and providing incentives in terms of intellectual property rights for plant breeds according to the laws. The Act is also intended to promote the preservation, development and use of local wild plant breed sunique to particular locations or generally found in different regions and to encourage the community to engage in preservation and sustainable use of the plants.