The UNIFI unit of the LUMEN project met on April 14 to discuss research, rights, local practices, and ecological approaches to seed regulation in Sub-Saharan African countries.
Published on 20 April 2025 | Reports
On April 14, 2025, in Room D4 2.41 at the Social Sciences Campus of the University of Florence, a new meeting of the LUMEN project was held as part of the mutual learning activities. The round table, titled “The Rules of the Seeds in Africa”, brought together members of the Florence unit to discuss recent research developments and begin planning the next steps, including the project’s final conference, scheduled to take place in Bologna on October 10–11, 2025.
Veronica Federico opened the session by presenting the organizational plan for the final event, outlining the thematic areas and potential speakers currently being contacted, with the aim of highlighting the results of the collective research and fostering a multidisciplinary dialogue.
The discussion then focused on the progress of the individual research strands. Alessandro Francescangeli presented a comparative analysis of seed legislation in Sub-Saharan African states, opening with a reflection on the relationship between the ecosystem approach and the protection of small farmers’ rights. He emphasized the importance of starting from an analysis of the international legal framework, including relevant global and continental treaties. He then delved into a review of these treaties, followed by an examination of national legislation in selected states. For future research steps, he proposed several specific case studies based on the uniqueness of national legislation or existing literature (for example, in agro-ecological contexts). Regarding the model law, he raised the issue of compliance—or lack thereof—with international treaties.
Riccardo Arietti initiated a reflection on "non-colonized" customary law related to seeds, placing emphasis on local knowledge and community-based regulation. His contribution sparked a lively discussion on the importance of "unconventional" legal sources (outside the Western positivist tradition) and the inclusion of local products in legal analysis, as highlighted by Veronica Federico and Maria Stella Rognoni.
Rachele Cecchi presented the case of South African Rooibos, noting significant conflict—including in court—between local communities and multinational companies over the cultivation and use of the plant, particularly regarding traditional cultivation practices and the appropriation of indigenous know-how by third parties. She also discussed potential challenges of the bio-cultural approach (used in legal proceedings) and its interaction with the ecosystem approach. This led to a short discussion on the possibility of extending the analysis to other plant species, with attention to decision-making procedures and practical governance dynamics—“who has the power to do what”—as emphasized by Silvia Sassi.
Mariachiara Boldrini provided an in-depth overview of African environmental philosophy, exploring the meaning of nature in Africa, the positioning of African environmental ethics within debates on anthropocentrism and deep ecology, the origins and contemporary thinkers of African environmental ethics, the issue of intergenerational justice and transmission to future generations, the evolution of this ethical framework, and its intersections with the topic of seeds. She also presented relevant literature and current research findings on the topic.
Lastly, Alessandro Latterini presented the methodology and preliminary results of a quantitative analysis—conducted with Anna Pettini—based on Afrobarometer data, concerning public perceptions of climate change among citizens in Ghana.
The meeting concluded with an update on the collective publication project, with a plan to reconvene for further discussion on how to develop and organize the materials collected.
The next meeting will take place on May 8, 2025.