PART I / CHAPTER 2
BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS AS A
COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE TO THE CBD
While the knowledge we have is widespread throughout our
are undermining their abilities to preserve and maintain their
community, we assert that as creators of this body of
TK as well as their plant and animal genetic resources. The Raika,
knowledge, we have a right to be consulted before it
for example, face exclusion from common grazing areas which
is used by any outsiders.
is making their way of life increasingly untenable. They state:
Elders make all the decisions in our communities. Decisions
Despite this incredible genetic diversity and associated
are made at the village level, clan level and district level
traditional knowledge that we have developed, we remain
depending on the scale of the issue or the types of resources
mainly landless people and are highly dependent on our
involved. For example, decisions about areas to be used
customary grazing rights over forest and communal lands.
for grazing are taken by elders of the villages that share the
Traditionally we have grazed our animals in Rajasthan’s forests
grazing areas. This means that decisions relating to a
and in the gauchar and oran over the monsoon (July-
common resource such as the Red Maasai would be taken
September). Our exclusion from the forests and shrinkage of
by elders from the different clans across the region.
gauchar and oran severely threaten our entire existence and
the co-evolved ecological system of these biodiversity-rich
According to this principle of customary law, we must first
areas that have been developed through generations of
be consulted before any activities that will impact us,
complex interplay between livestock, livestock keepers and
such as research undertaken on our breeds, new breeding
the local ecosystem.
programs, use of our lands, and access to and use of our
traditional knowledge.
With the sale of our livestock goes our traditional knowledge.
As our herds diminish, so does the transmission of breeding
Any newcomer to our areas must first establish a meeting
techniques, medicinal practices and ecological understanding
with the local elders to explain what and who they intend to
of the areas we used to graze on. The potential loss of
engage with and to answer any questions put to them.
the important animal genetic resources that we have
The committee of the respective group ranch will either take
developed in co-evolution with the Rajasthani ecosystem
a decision, or if it is about a common resource, may seek
is significant for a world that is suffering from climate
wider counsel from other elders.
change and food shortages.
We should be involved in any decisions about research
Our future: the continuing exclusion from areas for grazing
that involves our breeds and/or traditional knowledge.
raises serious doubts about the viability of our way of life.
Any consent to research will be taken at the appropriate
With it will disappear our livestock, our culture and the
community level and will consider what tangible benefits
virtuous relationship between our herds and the Rajasthani
the community will receive from the research. Reference
landscapes we have sustained. We require grazing rights
will be made to the Environmental Management and
and a corresponding increase in the market for our products
Co-ordination (Conservation of Biological Resources,
to continue to sustain our livelihoods and keep our unique
Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing)
breeds, including the camel.
22
Regulations (2006) as well as to the emerging principles in
the incumbent international regime on access and
21
The Samburu see climate change as their most serious
benefit sharing.
threat, gravely affecting available pasture. They state:
3.8
Like everyone in Kenya, we are suffering greatly from the
Challenges
reoccurring droughts that are debilitating the country.
In the context of Article 8(j), each of the communities is concerned
about a number of factors that threaten their ways of life and
As pastoralists living in close dependence with the
environment, we are highly sensitive to climatic variation
and have a clear picture of the effects of climate change.
21. Supra note 2.
22. Supra note 4.
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