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ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB
How Multilateral Cooperation Delivers for Food Security and Biodiversity
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Nearly two decades of data show how the Multilateral System operates as a living mechanism supporting research, breeding, and global collaboration.
Seven million crop accessions have been transferred since 2007 to turn diversity into solutions for food security and biodiversity”.
Multilateral cooperation delivers when it is built around use, continuity, and shared systems – not just negotiations.
By Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
Every day, plant genetic resources cross borders quietly, exchanged among genebanks, researchers, breeders, and farmers working to strengthen food security and keep food systems resilient in a changing climate. Few people notice these movements, yet they underpin some of the world’s most important responses to hunger, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
In a world of growing uncertainty, marked by climate change, geopolitical fragmentation, and increasing pressure on natural resources, the need for international cooperation on food and agriculture remains essential. We depend on plant genetic resources for the crops that feed humanity, and no country is self-sufficient in the diversity needed to sustain its agriculture. All countries are interdependent. The real question is how that cooperation can deliver lasting, practical results.
Too often, multilateralism is judged by the outcomes of meetings. Yet its real test lies elsewhere. Effective multilateralism is measured not only by what is negotiated, but by what continues to function afterwards: the systems, institutions, and relationships that endure, adapt, and deliver results over time.
Nearly two decades of operational experience now provide a rare opportunity to assess what functioning multilateral cooperation looks like in practice. The recent publication, ‘A comprehensive analysis of the operations of the Multilateral System – Insights and key figures 2025,’ released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN’s (FAO) Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), offers such a perspective. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience, it shows how this multilateral mechanism has facilitated the access to plant genetic resources for research, plant breeding, and training.
From access and exchange to impact
Today, approximately 2.6 million plant genetic resources for food and agriculture are available through the International Treaty’s Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing, more than double the level in 2013, while nearly 7 million accessions have been exchanged worldwide since 2007.
This growth has been driven by many factors, including the expansion of membership (soon to be 156 Contracting Parties with the membership of Ukraine), contributions from partners such as the CGIAR Centers and other institutions, and improvements in information systems that have made access and use more efficient. These figures represent more than growth. They reflect a living system through which genetic diversity moves across borders to address shared challenges that no country can solve alone.
Behind these figures are improved crop varieties, enhanced breeding programmes, and greater capacity to respond to drought, flooding, emerging pests, and diseases. These are not isolated successes. They are the result of a system that makes genetic diversity accessible and usable at scale.
More than 110,000 Standard Material Transfer Agreements underpin this system, providing the legal architecture and operational basis that makes this cooperation possible. Their standardized nature reduces transaction costs, builds trust, and enables exchanges at a scale that would otherwise be impossible.
These agreements make it possible, for example, for a for a research institution in Asia to obtain crop diversity originating in Peru or Bolivia (e.g., Andean potatoes), and for genebanks in these countries to gain access to rice varieties from the Philippines or Indonesia. In doing so, they sustain trusted cooperation and services to users based in 190 countries. Each standard agreement represents a connection between countries, regions, institutions, knowledge systems, and ultimately between conservation and use.
This is where multilateral cooperation proves its value: translating these connections into resilient and productive food systems, while contributing to global goals such as SDG 15 (life on land) and SDG 2 (zero hunger)
A system sustained over time and by people
The strength of the Multilateral System, much like the other tools developed under the International Treaty, lies in its ability to function and operate continuously beyond meetings, negotiations, and cycles. It supports continuous flows of resources, knowledge, and innovation.
In practice, this means that crop diversity is not only conserved but actively used. By enabling access to plant genetic resources, the system allows farmers and researchers to respond to climate stress, disease outbreaks, and changing growing conditions. The active use of crop diversity strengthens resilience, supports adaptation, and contributes directly to food security
Globally, around 5.8 million accessions are conserved in genebank collections, with nearly half accessible through the Multilateral System. This represents one of humanity’s most important strategic reserves for future food security and building resilience.
Critically, this diversity is being used. Around 95% of exchanged materials are major food crops such as wheat, rice, and maize, which form the backbone of global diets. These resources also feed directly into breeding programmes that shape what farmers grow and what people eat.
But the Multilateral System does not run on seeds or data alone, and multilateral systems do not run themselves. They depend on people. Genebank managers, researchers, breeders, farmers, and policymakers ensure that resources continue to circulate and deliver value. Their work sustains cooperation between formal decisions, thus turning legal agreements and texts into action.
The recent publication brings these dimensions into focus. It goes beyond aggregating numbers to capture the impacts behind them, highlighting how the system supports research, strengthens capacity, and enables collaboration on the ground, while showcasing the individuals and institutions that make it work.
From global commitments to real-world impact
The Multilateral System is no longer just a technical mechanism. It is part of a broader global architecture connecting food security, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
Its relevance is particularly clear in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). These instruments perform different but complementary functions and are, therefore, mutually supportive. The CBD establishes broad international objectives and principles. The International Treaty and its Multilateral System provide an operational mechanism through which shared principles can be implemented in the specific context of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
The challenge ahead is not simply to preserve what has been achieved, but to expand and strengthen it. As pressures on food systems intensify, international cooperation will need more mechanisms that translate shared commitments into practical action, generate tangible benefits, and support those who conserve and develop biological diversity on the ground.
Resilient systems are not those that attempt to predict every challenge. They are those that enable continuous use, support collaboration, and adapt over time. They connect commitments to outcomes, as the Multilateral System demonstrates through concrete solutions and partnerships.
In an era marked by uncertainty when food systems are under increasing strain, resilience will depend not only on the commitments governments make, but on the systems they build together. The Multilateral System of the Plant Treaty demonstrates that when cooperation is designed to endure, it can transform shared resources into shared solutions.
SDGs
Issues
- Agriculture & Food Security,
Global Partnerships
- Policy & Institutional Coherence
Actors
- Multilateral Environmental Agreement Body,
- UN Programme, Agency or Fund
ON SOURCE: SDG KNOWLEDGE HUB