Report by Devendra Gauchan and Ronnie Vernooy, photos by Ronnie Vernooy
A one day national Genetic Resource Policy Initiative (GRPI) 2 inception workshop was jointly organized by the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) and Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) with the support of Bioversity International on 18 June, 2012 at NARI-Hall, NARC, Kathmandu, Nepal. The workshop was attended by 65 participants representing government, NGOs, INGOs, farmer organizations, and Bioversity International. Presentations covered the ITPGRFA and its relevance for Nepal, results and insights from the first phase of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative, the progress made to date by the phase 2 of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative, a synthesis of the first national workshop on Community Seed Banks (held in Pokhara June 14-15), an update on the Nepalese Access and Benefit Sharing and the Plant Variety Protection / Farmers’ Rights bills, and commentary on the ITPGRFA by two farmer delegates and by staff of two non-government organizations. Presentations were followed by Question & Answers. Several journalists covered the workshop. They interviewed Devendra Gauchan and Madan Bhatta (NARC), who organized and facilitated the event, about the ITPGRFA and the project activities in Nepal. 
Building on the results on the inception workshop, on June 19, the GRPI 2 National Project Management Committee met for one day to review the 5 core themes of the GRPI 2 project, discuss policy development and research activities and identify teams and leaders for each theme and sub-theme. Ronnie Vernooy (Bioversity International) presented the global overview of the GRPI 2 project and provided inputs on the implementation of core themes and sub-themes of the project.
