APPENDIX II: OUR RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
We the Raika in this Raika Biocultural Community Protocol identify the following principles and rights
based on international law:
Principle 1:
The Raika are creators of breeds and custodians of their animal genetic resources for food and
agriculture.
Over the course of history, the Raika have managed and bred livestock, selected and used them, thus
shaping them so they are well-adapted to our environment and its extremes. Keeping these breeds is a
vital part of our culture and livelihoods. Yet these breeds and our livelihoods are under risk through loss
of access to our traditional grazing lands. This has endangered our food security and our way of life. As
recognised in the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources and the Interlaken Declaration on
Animal Genetic Resources, livestock keeping communities are thus the creators and custodians of the
breeds that they maintain. We have therefore earned certain custodianship rights over these breeds,
including the right to decide how others use the genetic resources embodied in our breeds.
Principle 1 is supported by:
Point 9 of the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources recognizes “that the genetic
resources of animal species most critical to food security, sustainable livelihoods and human well-being
are the result of both natural selection, and directed selection by smallholders, farmers, pastoralists and
breeders, throughout the world, over generations”.
Point 12 of the Interlaken Declaration on Animal Genetic Resources recognizes “the enormous
contribution that the local and indigenous communities and farmers, pastoralists and animal breeders of
all regions of the world have made, and will continue to make for the sustainable use, development and
conservation of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture”.
Part I Point 10 of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources: “all animal genetic resources
for food and agriculture are the result of human intervention: they have been consciously selected and
improved by pastoralists and farmers since the origins of agriculture, and have co-evolved with
economies, cultures, knowledge systems and societies. Unlike most wild biodiversity, domestic animal
resources require continuous active human management, sensitive to their unique nature”.
Principle 2:
The Raika and the sustainable use of traditional breeds are dependent on the conservation of our
ecosystem.
Our traditional breeds are developed through the interaction between our livestock, the Raika
pastoralists and our natural environment. This natural environment is conserved, inter alia, through
traditional practices of the Raika, and traditional breeds lose their specific characteristics once removed
from this ecosystem. The Raika therefore have a right to access our natural environment, so as to ensure
the sustainable use and conservation of our breeds and the environment.
Principle 2 is supported by:
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