15th Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum, Scandicci (23–25 May 2026)
This is the final report of the 15th Let’s Liberate Diversity! Forum and the associated “72 Hours of Biodiversity” festival held in Scandicci, Italy in May 2026. The report summarises the Forum programme, participants and outcomes across nine thematic workshops, field visits and public activities. It documents participation (117 Forum attendees from 34 countries; the festival activities engaged an estimated 6,000 people), workshop themes and key messages. Major topics covered include EU seed law reform and its likely outcomes, New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) and deregulation, patents and plant variety protection, seed system governance and farmers’ rights, municipal food policies and Living Labs, on-farm agrobiodiversity and participatory breeding, regional experiences from the Balkans, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, and efforts to build agroecological seed networks. The report highlights practical initiatives (e.g. LiveSeeding, COUSIN, community seed work, participatory evaluations), the Seed Knowledge Hub repository, and follow-up actions urged around policy engagement and cross-regional collaboration. The document also lists organisers, supporters and participants and notes the next Forum edition planned for Norway in June 2027.
Key topics: EU seed law, NGTs, patents, agrobiodiversity, community seed banks, participatory breeding, farmers’ rights, municipal food policies, LLD Forum, LLD2026
