산림식물 품종보호제도 현황과 전망

Prospect and Status of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) of Forest-sector in Korea

The plant variety protection system (PVP), which started in 1968 to protect the rights of breeders, was first launched in Korea in 1998 with 27 species, including rice and barley. In 2008, the forest sector started the PVP system, which was later than the agricultural sector, and included 15 species of chestnut, oak mushroom, etc. It was then extended to all plants species in 2012. The new plant variety protection system protects the rights of the breeder for a new variety when it has novelty, denomination, distinctness, uniformity, and stability. In the past decade, a total of 424 new varieties of forest plant applications have been filed, and 193 new varieties have been registered. The number of applications of new varieties has increased every year, with 18 new varieties applied in the early stages of the forest sector’s PVP system, and 20~30 new varieties are registered each year. In the early stages of the operation of the PVP system, the central and local governments mainly took the applications (82 applications), but recently, due to consulting, promotion of the PVP system and support of breeders, applications to the private sector, such as individual breeders and the seed industry have increased (107 applications). The National Forest Seed Variety Center (NFSV) publishes Test Guidelines (292 books) and DUS test manuals (7 books), and conducts the “PVP system information session” every year of the PVP system settlement. NFSV will continue to implement policies for protecting the rights of breeders and the development of the bio-industry sector. These efforts provide a new provision against the Nagoya Protocol Paradigm with the promotion of the forest bio-industry.