BIO-CULTURAL COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS AS A
COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE TO THE CBD
PART I / CHAPTER 2
We want to continue to graze our animals in forests, gauchar
to grazing rights as the most pressing issue threatening
and oran in a way that sustains the natural plant and animal
their way of life and consequently their indigenous breeds and
ecology of these areas, maintains our diverse breeds
TK, and thus their protocol sets out their rights under Indian law
and sustains our rich traditional knowledge.We commit to
to secure grazing areas. They also referenced
protecting the biological diversity of the region, our animal
the Declaration of Livestock Keepers’ Rights and called on
genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, by:
two international bodies and a national body to assist
them with their challenges. Specifically, they stated:
• Upholding our traditional roles as custodians of the forests
and as sustainers of the co-evolved forest ecosystem of
We call upon the National Biodiversity Authority to:
the region;
• Recognize our local breeds and associated traditional
• Protecting the forest against fires by regulating the
grass growth by grazing and by fighting forest fires
when they break out;
knowledge as set out in the Raika Biodiversity Register and
to include it in the People’s Biodiversity Register;
• Facilitate the setting up of Biodiversity Management
• Sustaining the predator population in the forest through
Committees under the local bodies (Panchayats or
the customary offering of some of our livestock as prey;
Municipalities) where we live and to support these
• Continuing to increase forest growth through the customary
Committees in ensuring the conservation and sustainable
manuring of the forest from the dung of our livestock;
use of our breed diversity and traditional knowledge;
• Ensuring strong tree growth by the customary pruning
• Strengthen in situ conservation of breeds of the Raika and
of the upper branches and twigs of trees by our camels;
include them in the BMC being initiated by the government;
• Grazing the fallen leaves on the forest floor thereby
• Advise the Central Government and coordinate the
keeping the termite population in check;
activities of the State Biodiversity Boards to protect the
• Combating illegal logging and poaching in the forest;
customary grazing rights of the Raika so as to safeguard
• Continuing our traditional rotational or seasonal grazing
our traditional lifestyles that ensure the conservation
that facilitates forest growth;
and sustainable use of our breed diversity, associated
• Eliminating invasive species in the forest; Promoting
traditional knowledge and the local ecosystem; and
and sustaining the breed diversity of our livestock; and
• Ensure that our prior informed consent (according to
• Preserving and practicing our traditional breeding and
customary law) is obtained before any decisions are taken
ethno-veterinary knowledge and innovations, and
that affect our traditional way of life or access is granted
sustainable management of forest resources relevant
to our breed diversity and associated traditional
to the protection of the co-evolved forest ecosystem
knowledge for research or for commercial purposes,
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of the region.
and further ensure that we receive a fair and equitable
share of the benefits arising from the utilization of our
3.10 Affirming Rights
breeds and traditional knowledge according to mutually
agreed terms.
Because of the breadth of the communities’ challenges
and corresponding ways in which they wanted to deal
We also call on the Secretariat of the UN Convention on
with their concerns, Natural Justice provided information
Biological Diversity, specifically under Article 8(j) of the
on a variety of domestic and international laws and
Convention, to recognize our contribution to the conservation
declarations that support their local needs. The crucial
and sustainable use of biological diversity. We also call on the
point is that because communities consistently argued that to
UN Food and Agriculture Organization to acknowledge
protect their TK, they required a broader approach than that
the importance of our animal genetic resources and to
proposed within the ABS regime, the rights they
recognize livestock keepers’ rights.
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invoked also deal with the broader context of their ways
of life. The Raika, for example, focused primarily on access
25. Supra note 4.
26. Ibid.
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