As discussed earlier, for this purpose FAa established the 'Commission on Plant Genetic Resources (CPGR)' *. Both these bodies functioned effectively during 1980's. Since 1983, FAa's CPGR has also made major effort for establishing a 'Global System for the Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture', the CPGR itself and IUPGR being its major pillars. In thisGlobal System, following three elements can be distinguished: (i) Regulation (consisting of code of conduct for PGR collection and transfer) ; (ii) Network systems (consisting' of World Information and Early Warning System on PGRs, a network of ex-situ gene banks and a. network of in-situ and on farm conservation' areas); (iii) The Global Plan of Action (GPA) on PGRs involving preparation of a report on the 'State of the World's PGRs' and establishment of an 'International Fund' for implementation of the concept of Farmers' Rights. The Global Plan' of Action was discussed at the fourth ITC held in Leipzig (June 17-23, 1996), where the rights of the farmers could not be recognized in a formal resolution.

The first Cop (CoP-I) was held at the Behamas in November, 1994, the second (CoP­II) was held in Indonesia in November, 1995 and the third (CoP - III) at Buenos Aires, in the later part of 1996. The 6th Conference of the Parties to the CBD (CoP-VI) was held in the Hague, Netherlands during April 8-21, 2002. One may recognize that FAO deals with PGRs for food and agriculture, which is only a subset of complete biological diversity addressed to by UNEP in its CBD, the issues being followed up by its CoPs. However, both the Global Plan of Action (GPA) of FAO, and CBD of UNEP focus on in-situ conservation and sustainable use of PGRs, so that it will save lot of energy and effort, if both these fora join hands and prepare a unified mechanism to deal with the problem.