256 Fabien Girard and Manohisoa Rakotondrabe
for community PIC and ABS and connecting the BCP to the Nagoya Protocol.
The multiplication of scripts circulating in the preliminary documents, in addition to the configuration of modern brokering, allowed the boundary work to
be refocused on the Nagoya Protocol, which was more in tune, for that matter,
with the facilitator’s ethos and professional culture. An additional point stressed
by the facilitator was the presence in the area of endemic species used in traditional pharmacopoeia (SAGE & MAEP, 2016), resources that might be exploited
to attract bioprospectors and foster benefit sharing arrangements.
In summary, in Analavory, the boundary work remained torn between two
objectives and hung on two competing public scripts which never succeeded in
connecting with one another or embodying themselves in the daily life of the community, despite the fact that the BCP clearly hinges on the two fundamental categories of the international regime of biodiversity: the PGRFA on the one hand and
“genetic resources other than the Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) used for food and agriculture” (our emphasis) on the other hand.
32
Over one of our “group analyses” sessions, a lengthy discussion touched
on the term “ fototarazo”, the Malagasy translation of “genetic resources”. In the
limited space of this text, we cannot report the exchanges verbatim, but a few
extracts give an overview of the way the peasants remain outside the categories
of the international regime on biodiversity, while seemingly being able to navigate seamlessly through their inherent complexity.
MR R. (PEASANT): For an old man like me, I don’t know how to explain the
topic. When you talk to me about “ fototarazo”, it’s all Greek [French] to me.
[Laughter from the audience]. I call it “traditional crops”, I didn’t know it
had another name, “ fototarazo”!
[…]
MR T1. (DRAEP): I have a question. I’d like to know how far you have got [he is
addressing the members of the cooperative] with the other genetic resources,
because as of this morning, we’re still on the first type of resource [PGRFA],
while you said that there are two categories of resources?
MRS T. (PEASANT): We are currently in the process of adding in the BCP the
genetic resources of medicinal plants and genetic resources needed for environmental protection. This is one of our projects: reforestation.
MRS B. (PEASANT): Protecting these medicinal plants is essential; because of the
bush fires… if this continues, these plants will disappear in a few years. And
it is very difficult to find seeds of these plants, such as “talapetraka” for example […]. But nowadays, as there are more and more bushfires, then, in my
opinion, it is essential to collect these different resources […] if only to put
them in our gardens. And I say this, not only for the Fa.M.A. cooperative,
but for everyone… because we have to think about what will happen tomorrow, if all this continues… it will be sad for us Malagasy… especially since
these are real medicines, we don’t need to buy them from the pharmacy…
we grow them a little bit everywhere, here and there, and they become medicines for colds, coughs, etc.
for community PIC and ABS and connecting the BCP to the Nagoya Protocol.
The multiplication of scripts circulating in the preliminary documents, in addition to the configuration of modern brokering, allowed the boundary work to
be refocused on the Nagoya Protocol, which was more in tune, for that matter,
with the facilitator’s ethos and professional culture. An additional point stressed
by the facilitator was the presence in the area of endemic species used in traditional pharmacopoeia (SAGE & MAEP, 2016), resources that might be exploited
to attract bioprospectors and foster benefit sharing arrangements.
In summary, in Analavory, the boundary work remained torn between two
objectives and hung on two competing public scripts which never succeeded in
connecting with one another or embodying themselves in the daily life of the community, despite the fact that the BCP clearly hinges on the two fundamental categories of the international regime of biodiversity: the PGRFA on the one hand and
“genetic resources other than the Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) used for food and agriculture” (our emphasis) on the other hand.
32
Over one of our “group analyses” sessions, a lengthy discussion touched
on the term “ fototarazo”, the Malagasy translation of “genetic resources”. In the
limited space of this text, we cannot report the exchanges verbatim, but a few
extracts give an overview of the way the peasants remain outside the categories
of the international regime on biodiversity, while seemingly being able to navigate seamlessly through their inherent complexity.
MR R. (PEASANT): For an old man like me, I don’t know how to explain the
topic. When you talk to me about “ fototarazo”, it’s all Greek [French] to me.
[Laughter from the audience]. I call it “traditional crops”, I didn’t know it
had another name, “ fototarazo”!
[…]
MR T1. (DRAEP): I have a question. I’d like to know how far you have got [he is
addressing the members of the cooperative] with the other genetic resources,
because as of this morning, we’re still on the first type of resource [PGRFA],
while you said that there are two categories of resources?
MRS T. (PEASANT): We are currently in the process of adding in the BCP the
genetic resources of medicinal plants and genetic resources needed for environmental protection. This is one of our projects: reforestation.
MRS B. (PEASANT): Protecting these medicinal plants is essential; because of the
bush fires… if this continues, these plants will disappear in a few years. And
it is very difficult to find seeds of these plants, such as “talapetraka” for example […]. But nowadays, as there are more and more bushfires, then, in my
opinion, it is essential to collect these different resources […] if only to put
them in our gardens. And I say this, not only for the Fa.M.A. cooperative,
but for everyone… because we have to think about what will happen tomorrow, if all this continues… it will be sad for us Malagasy… especially since
these are real medicines, we don’t need to buy them from the pharmacy…
we grow them a little bit everywhere, here and there, and they become medicines for colds, coughs, etc.