Biocultural community
protocols and Livestock
Keepers’ Rights
L
IVESTOCK KEEPERS’ RIGHTS
are a concept that dates back to the Forum on Food Sovereignty in 2002 (Köhler-Rollefson et al., 2008). The term is an allusion to the “Farmers’ Rights” enshrined in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food
and Agriculture. (source FAO, 2001) Initially an effort to achieve formal recognition for
livestock keepers around the world as creators and custodians of animal genetic resources,
the concept has since been fleshed out at a series of consultations with livestock keepers
and has come to include a bundle of rights that includes rights to grazing, water, markets,
training and capacity building, and participation in research design and policy-making, as
well as rights to the genetic resources of their animals (Köhler-Rollefson et al., in press).
It was recognized that curbed access to pasture resources, as well as the stigma often attached to traditional lifestyles based on mobile herding was one of the main drivers for the
unraveling of pastoralist systems and the breeds on which they depend.
Young Raika camel herder in Rajasthan, India (photo by Ilse Köhler-Rollefson)
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