Who Shall Own the Genes of Farmed Fish?

In Hagen, I.J. and T.S. Halvorsen (eds), Global Privatization and Its Impact. Hauppauge (USA), Nova Science Publishers, 2009, pp. 103-113.

Breeding companies need some form of legal or biological protection measures to assure revenues from genetic improvement and investment in genetic material. Fish farmers and fish breeders need access to genetic resources for food production and further development and sustainable use of fish genetic material. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the international and domestic legal processes and the needs of fish breeders in the aquaculture sector. For this we will review:

  1. The rationale for ensuring access to and for using legal measures for protection of breeding materials in aquaculture
  2. Norwegian case on Norwegian salmon breeding and farming, where three dimensions that may affect choices of protection and the scope for access to fish genetic resources are considered: Awareness among fish breeders of international regulations of genetic resources; evolving structures within the aquaculture sector; technological developments and biological features presenting options and barriers
  3. he options available for protection of aquaculture genetic resources in both developed and developing countries.