Plants are the subject of protection under different fields of law such as intellectual property laws, environmental laws, and agricultural laws. This book clarifies and illustrates the challenges for the sustainability of plants that emanate not only from plant intellectual property systems but also from the very systems that are designed to enhance the sustainability of plants. By means of case studies, the book illustrates how access to plants and benefit-sharing from the utilization of plants is designed to work, and examines the implications of international and European IP laws on access and on the benefit-sharing aspects of international environmental and agricultural laws. In further identifying the challenges, the book explains the differences between the European and African approach to the protection of new varieties of plants and points out the implications of these differences for the sustainability of plants. Furthermore, the book examines whether the ongoing international proposals in this area address the challenges that are inherent in efforts to enhance the sustainability of plants.