17 November 2025 | Kota Kinabalu
Seeds are life. They carry our history, our culture, and our future. In Sabah, seeds are not merely agricultural inputs — they are living memory. Traditional rice varieties such as Parai Adan, Parai Tadong, and Parai Aragang, along with countless indigenous herbs and local crops, have been preserved through generations of shared knowledge, stewardship, and collective responsibility. This heritage is now under threat of biopiracy.
The proposed move to amend Malaysia’s Protection of New Plant Varieties (PNPV) Act 2004 in order to align it with the UPOV 1991 (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) regime risks surrendering control of Sabah’s seeds — and therefore Sabah’s food supply — to corporate interests. If these amendments go through, the long-standing rights of Indigenous communities and small farmers to save, share, exchange, and sell seeds will be severely restricted and they can be sued for sharing and selling farm-saved seeds. Once seed control is lost, food control is lost. And when food is controlled, people are controlled. This is not just a technical legal change; it is a direct threat to our food sovereignty and our cultural identity.
Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS) and Partners of Community Organizations (PACOS Trust) are sounding the alarm. UPOV 1991 is designed to protect commercial breeders and seed corporations, not the communities who have protected biodiversity for generations. It disrupts traditional seed exchange systems that are vital for survival, especially in rural Sabah and Sarawak where farmers depend on seed sharing to maintain agrobiodiversity, respond to climate shifts, and recover from shortages. Under UPOV rules, farmers may only reuse certain seeds of protected varieties on their own land and are prohibited from sharing seeds of protected varieties with neighbouring villages. This fundamentally contradicts Indigenous communal practices and threatens the resilience of rural communities.
Even more alarming is the proposed removal of key provisions under Section 12 of the current PNPV Act. Section 12 requires disclosure of method of development, source of genetic material/parental lines, prior written consent of local community/Indigenous Peoples for traditional varieties, compliance with access to resources law, and compliance with law regulating GMOs. Removing these protections opens the door to biopiracy — enabling corporations to take seeds from Indigenous communities, develop new varieties, register them under the Plant Breeder’s Right, and then sell them back to the very communities who nurtured them. This legalizes theft of Indigenous heritage and directly undermines the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000, which exists to protect community rights and Sabah’s genetic resources.
Sabah’s agricultural identity is rooted in diversity, community sharing, and local seed autonomy. The UPOV 1991 model replaces this with dependency on commercial seed systems, monoculture production, and increased vulnerability to market and climate shocks. We refuse to allow Sabah’s future to be shaped by foreign seed corporations and commercial pressure at the expense of Indigenous and local farmers who are the true custodians of our land.
JOAS and PACOS Trust call upon all Sabah political parties and candidates to publicly reject the proposed alignment of the PNPV Act with UPOV 1991, to defend the safeguards in Section 12, which are critical for ensuring compliance with the Sabah Biodiversity Enactment 2000, and to guarantee the continued rights of Indigenous communities and small farmers to save, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds. This is a matter of sovereignty and survival, not partisanship.
Every household in Sabah depends on food. If seed control is lost, food prices rise, diversity declines, and cultural food systems disappear. This is a people’s issue, and we must act now. We call on the public to stand with us, speak up, and defend our right to feed ourselves. We will be launching a petition under the campaign banner #StopUPOV to build collective resistance and public awareness.
Our seeds are not for sale. Our heritage is not for sale. Our right to food, identity, and sovereignty is not negotiable.
This statement has been endorsed by:
1. Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA)
2. Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC)
3. SAVE Rivers
4. Forever Sabah
5. Borneo Comrade
6. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)
7. NTFP-EP
8. Kokoriu
9. Forum Kedaulatan Makanan Malaysia (FKMM)
10. Pace A Voi
11. Kivatu Nature Farm (KNF)
12. Community Garden Nampasan
13. Urban Farmer
14. Komuniti Tamu Sangadau - Amiribarahim Bin Mattassan
15. North Borneo Herb Growers Association Sabah
16. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM)
17. Moyog Innovation House (MIH)
18. Pertubuhan Persaudaraan Pesawah Malaysia (PeSAWAH)
19. DumoWongi